 Have you ever been on a shoot that you had absolutely no control over? Maybe you only had an hour at a location or you were documenting a once in a lifetime event? This is the intense life of running gun filmmaking and to this day it's still a mystery to me how it's not considered an extreme sport. Hey it's Herman here with Artlist and I want to share three tips I wish I knew when I started running gun filmmaking or as I like to call it the art of only having one shot. It's a style of filmmaking that requires you to always be on the move and be ready for the next shot. You have limited resources like time, crew, and preparation. Film school may have prepared me for a life on a fixed set with a cam-op, a boom operator, and this nice lady behind crafties but after graduating I was hit with the reality of having to do it all myself. This is because I was working in genres outside of narrative films like interviews, live performances, and event recaps. Moments that didn't allow for retakes or intense setups. Even when shooting narratives I had limited time on locations and with actors. But these three tips made shooting in these scenarios so much more fluid and although you can't control what happens in the moment you can be as prepared as possible before going in. The first tip is to use zoom lenses over prime lenses because coverage is king in running gun moments. Whether you're using a cinema camera, DSLR, or even your phone having the option to zoom in and out guarantees you never miss a moment. Now imagine filming at a music event and you see a couple dancing and having fun so you want to capture the joyful expressions on their faces. If you're on a fixed wide lens you'd have to get up all on their face as this uninvited third dance partner. If you're on a telephoto maybe you're too close so you back up rudely bumping into a child holding an ice cream and just ruining their day. By the time you try switching lenses you turn around to discover that the couple is already gone. Now don't get me wrong prime lenses have advantages like being sharper or having wider apertures but for quickly capturing raw moments it can feel like bringing heels to 100 meter dash. Now I've personally missed so many moments before just because I didn't have the right focal length so I highly recommend getting something at a comfy range like 28 to 75 millimeters. There are zoom lenses with a larger range like 24 to 105 millimeters but be aware of the f-stop on them because they could be a variable aperture lens. Basically what that means is your exposure will shift the more that you zoom in and I personally find watching paint dry way more enjoyable than fixing variable exposure in post. Even the zoom on your phone can be enough for the job and there are phone cameras out now that zoom in so crisp I'd swear it was shot with a space telescope. Now the second tip is to use monopods for more stable shots. After graduating from a school where everyone and their mom threw the camera on a tripod I was appalled when I was introduced to the monopod. I thought someone tragically broke a tripod on set and all that was left was a single leg but soon I learned that one leg was all I needed. Not not these guys I still need these for running gun. A monopod is a collapsible one-legged version of the tripod built for on-the-go scenarios. I used to only shoot handheld because lugging around a tripod felt like I was being shackled to a ball and chain but my client would ask if I was filming on a jackhammer with how shaky my footage was. So a monopod has been my secret weapon for years to prevent shaky footage while being easy to move around. There are models now with a base that you can lock off for static shots but my favorite thing to do is slowly push in the camera to add a little bit of movement. Even if you're filming on your phone you can attach a mini tripod to a selfie stick to make your very own monopod for more stable shots. So I highly recommend trying them out over tripods because I found it to be way more efficient and versatile. Just look how you can double it as a baseball bat. I'm kidding please treat your equipment with respect. Now while we're talking about efficiency I used to have a lot of trouble finding good music for the videos I made. Whether you're into running gun or creating super intricate videos in a studio music is the backbone to setting the tone of your videos and Artlist has been my go-to solution because of how efficient their filtering system is. Just like how we need good music we also need to pay attention to good audio which brings me to the third and final tip I have which is to use lav microphones if you're filming a subject that will move around a lot. A lav mic is a tiny microphone that's easy to hide when you're recording dialogue. They're usually attached to your subject's shirt, collar, and sometimes straight on their chest if you're like me and you want to give someone a free wax. They are traditionally used when you're filming a wider scene and you don't want to play hide and seek with your boom operator so you tuck the lav mic on your actor or hide it somewhere close. Check out the blog post from Artlist if you want to learn more about different types of microphones by clicking the little pop up in the corner. I used to film a lot of street magic which involved a performer walking around and showing magic tricks to random people. A lav mic was the best way to capture audio in this situation because it allows you to be mobile and not free people out with a dead cat in their face. There are even wireless lav mics that you can attach to your phone which is such a convenient way to capture your subject's voice in high quality. This works great if you're doing interviews or your subject is walking and talking and you don't want to miss a single word they say. Now you can plug the receiver directly to your video camera but I recommend having a shotgun mic on your camera and a separate audio recorder like an H4N for your lav system. That way you have two audio sources in case anything goes wrong like the lav mic is rubbing against the subject's shirt or someone screaming unexpectedly. Happens way more than you think. There you have it. Three quick tips that have made my experience so much more smooth in running gun situations whether it's sport events concerts or someone performing magic tricks. I hope these tips will help you always be ready so that you never miss a precious moment again. Even the phone in your pocket can be used to capture moments in high quality now truly making it the ultimate running gun tool of today. Let us know in the comments any other tips that have helped you in running gun situations so that it can help others as well. If you want more videos like this then make sure to subscribe to the Artless channel if you haven't done so already. Otherwise thank you all for watching and I'll see you all in the next one.