There are probably few people reading this article who doesn't know what a GoPro is. These small, inexpensive HD video cameras are popping up everywhere. They are great for athletes wanting to get some close-up action footage of their moves, and specialize in first-person point-of-view camera angles. But they certainly have some drawbacks.
GoPro cameras, along with their competitors offerings, are pretty much a fully-automatic camera. They have a fixed-focus lens, auto-gain and auto-exposure—there's very little you can actually control outside of frame size and frame rate. So, for difficult shooting conditions or where you want to get a very specific, controlled look, the GoPro can be difficult to use. Its extra-wide shooting angle also introduces some warping of the image around the edges of the frame. So, the GoPro isn't going to replace your main video camera for your church video production work.
However, it definitely has some uses, and can do things that no other camera can. So, let's explore some of these.
Cheap is Freedom
First, one big advantage of the GoPro is that it's cheap. Is your church sending a missions team on a disaster relief trip, such as those that occurred after Hurricane Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti? How comfortable are you hauling around your Canon C100 or 5D Mark III while you also participate in the work on the trip? A $200-$400 GoPro can definitely get you good documentary footage of the trip for sending video updates to your congregation, and combined with a lower-cost external audio recorder and/or external mic makes for a compact package that will get you decent video at a price point where you'll be less concerned about your gear and more focused on the mission.
You need to be aware that every time the lighting changes, the camera adjusts its exposure and white balance, so pick your locations for interview-type shots carefully and try to get a consistent lighting level for the shoot. Clouds casting random shadows across your subject may give you a bit of a headache in post production.
Another great use for the GoPro that you wouldn't likely want to try with your higher-end cameras is travel shots. GoPro makes a great little suction-cup mount that you can stick on your car hood or windshield and get awesome shots of arriving at your ministry destination, or even just b-roll of the countryside as you're driving. You're not going to catch me suction-cupping my Canon C100 to my car hood and taking off down the highway at 70 miles per hour!
First Person POV
Another great use for the GoPro is for some first-person point-of-view B-roll. Want to do a promo video for your church's website on your children's ministry program? How about strapping a GoPro on a few of the kids currently in the program one Sunday (with the parent's permission, of course)? The chest-strap mount or head-band mount would work well for this, and get you some unique footage that you can't get any other way.
Slooooooowwwww Mooooooooo
Many video cameras don't have the ability to overcrank (shoot at a higher frame rate than you intend on using in your project to get slow motion effects), especially at full HD resolution. The GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition, however, lets you shoot 1080p footage at 60 fps; 720p footage at 120 fps; and 480p footage at a blistering 240 fps. Strap the GoPro onto one of the kids at your Upwards Soccer program shooting 120 fps and it's almost guaranteed that you'll get some pretty awesome looking b-roll when played back at 30 fps.
I placed my GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition next to my hummingbird feeder shooting 240fps, and the view of the hummingbirds when played back at 24 fps (1/10 speed) was amazing.
Unusual Angles
The tiny size of the GoPro enables you to place it almost unnoticed to capture angles that otherwise would be disruptive to get. And with its HDMI output jack, you could run the signal into your video switcher and use it for interesting IMAG shots.
At a concert I captured recently for The Raleigh Ringers bell ringing ensemble, I placed my GoPro on a microphone stand directly in front of the treble section capturing footage at 1080p 60fps. It got some great shots, and the ability to get some slow motion to use in future promo videos for the group was really nice. We were able to show the sometimes Twister-like maneuvers the treble section needs to perform to pull off some pieces. As we had three other camera angles from traditional video cameras, the option of cutting to the GoPro at opportune times when editing the concert was pretty cool.
Is your worship leader a guitarist? You could mount a GoPro to the person's mic stand to catch some guitar action, or close-ups of their face as they sing. Similarly for the drummer, or keyboard player's hands. Lots of options here, including mounting the camera to the instrument itself.
Just keep in mind that the GoPro picks its own white balance and exposure settings, so getting it to blend in well with your regular IMAG cameras is unlikely. But for an occasional cut-away to a unique shot, it could be pretty nice.
If your church does a lot of live drama during your services and also does IMAG, you could use a GoPro to get some unusual angles there as well. Let's say your drama sketch has a character opening a present. Place the present on a table, and put a GoPro in the bottom of the box pointing up. When the actor opens the box, you can cut to that shot as the flaps open to show the expression on her face. Or maybe someone goes and looks into a mailbox. You get the idea….
And, you can use the GoPro as a poor-man's jib camera. Using the microphone mount and the right-angle mount, I've attached it to the end of my audio boom pole and used it to get sweeping shots of a scene, or even simply a camera angle from a high vertical position. The GoPro is as light as a shotgun microphone (if not lighter), and with the Wi-Fi connection to your iPhone as a viewfinder, setting up some interesting shots is pretty easy—and inexpensive.
Mounts
The GoPro has a huge variety of mounts available, from head, to hats, to chest, to mic stands, tripods, suction cups, etc…. At this point, if there's a place you want to put your GoPro, there's a way to do it. However, you could easily spend as much on mounts and other accessories as you will on the camera.
Cautions
While there are definitely a lot of ways to use a GoPro, there are also some things to be aware of. One we've already touched on: the footage will look different in color tones, exposure, etc. Expect to spend a lot of time color grading if you want it to closely match footage from other cameras.
Also, there's no view finder, at all. Really. The viewfinder is your smart phone or tablet, connecting to the GoPro via WiFi and running the GoPro app. The viewfinder in the app, however, runs about a second behind the actual camera. And turning WiFi on in the camera definitely impacts battery life.
And speaking of battery life, it's not fantastic. Don't get me wrong, for the size of the camera, it's not bad – about one hour with WiFi turned on. You'll either need more batteries, or run a power cord and pick up a power adapter (I often use my iPhone USB power adapter) to keep it connected to a power source so the battery doesn't drain.
My Only Camera?
So, can you go out and spend $500 on a GoPro and some accessories and that's all you'll need to shoot all your video? I'd say no. If you can use a high-quality video camera like a Canon C100, you should – it'll always get nicer footage. But for special situations or special shots, a GoPro is an awesome tool for your toolbox, and well worth exploring.
