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I'm shooting a short film and there is a scene I'd like to film where a guy is biking and the camera follows him through his bike ride. All I have to film on is a Sony a3000 camera, I don't own anything fancy. How can I film this scene without buying any expensive equipment?

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Well, its a bit of a generic question. Almost like asking how to take a movie like shot using your camera.

The answer is equally generic.

  1. Lighting, to prevent blowout or shadows take the shot when its cloudy, or near sunrise or sunset. (Unless you wanted a grunge harsh hot feel and maybe over exposed is the effect you are after, so take it at noon).

  2. Make sure the light is behind you so you capture the image flush.

  3. Make sure you take shots in scenes. A closeup of peddling (running alongside with a macro lens can work). Take a closeup shot. Take a shot that first places them in the scene (unless you are adding mystery and sometimes you place that scene at the end).

  4. Tell a story, have an element in the foreground like a thumbs up to hitch a ride, out of focus is the rider coming up, then comes into focus the thumb is blurred. Then cut reaction shot, or maybe maybe headphones not seeing shot. etc, I mean just go with the story, and tell the story with your shots.

  5. I guess I could also go with settings, I am a big fan of large apertures (low f stops) like f2.0 - f4.0. And high shutter speed 1/125th or higher to minimize blur on fast moving objects, again depending how you want the end result to look, all these rules can be broken. Large apertures (low f stops) tends to create a bokeh effect (out of focus the background if focus is on subject) making it obvious to the audience what is the focus of the story.

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    High shutter speed will reduce the film-like quality of the footage, especially if your goal is to shoot 180 degrees. Most films shift to 90 to capture action without blur.
    – Crowder
    Feb 16, 2015 at 14:47
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    Yup, that is true. It would look more like a gopro shot then. Again it depends on the style of all the other shots. If he is just using off the shelf items I suspect its going to look a lot like go pro footage anyways. There was no indication of previous settings of the other shots.
    – eLouai
    Feb 16, 2015 at 17:20
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Wow broad question, do you have anything to narrow it down, only want wide, closeup, POV (from front or back), moving with the actor etc.

what is the context of the film or story does it need the shots (Storyboard)

If it was me, using a wheelchair could produce some nice shots from behind, if it is on a road/street you could film out the back of a cars boot or pickup (consult H&S first), We did some shots like this of a car behind us and someone running behind a car being chased

could go really simple and just have the rider scoot across the screen (left to right / right to left) without panning and static on a tripod, or the rider could ride up to you ans pass you as you follow through (handheld or tripod)

{EDIT} beg, borrow some go-pros and mount them in all places to get some action shots

SOOOO many options depending on what you want out of it in the end, good to have a storyboard of basic visuals first then work off those

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