BORING VS CREATIVE B-Roll Videos with DJI POCKET 3 | 10 Easy Hacks

If you are new to filming with the Pocket 3 and wondering how to improve your videos, trust me, you're not alone. As a beginner, it can be disappointing when you watch the footage you have captured because it doesn't live up to the expectations you had in your head. Believe me, I have been there, but don't worry, I am here to help. Today, I want to share with you 10 super easy hacks that will transform your Pocket 3 b-roll from dull to dynamic and help you level up your finished sequences. Now, we are keeping it simple as all you will need is the Pocket 3 itself, a tripod such as the one that comes with the Creator Bundle, and a selfie stick. Or, you can actually get a 2-in-1 combined tripod and selfie stick like I have here. And I will show examples of how a beginner might approach each shot versus how a more experienced person would. So, let's first take a look at what we will be creating and then jump right in. Let's quickly start with taking a look at the Pocket 3 settings, as making sure these are set right will help make sure you get the highest quality footage possible. But there are also a few settings that you can change to help make sure your footage is smooth as butter. Today, we will be filming with the standard video mode. While there are other creative options like slow motion, timelapse, and hyperlapse, we'll keep it simple and stick to the basics with the standard video mode. First, you want to make sure your resolution is set to 4K, which you can do by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. And this makes sure we get the highest quality video possible. I also recommend setting your frame rate to 30fps, as that is the minimum frame rate platforms like Instagram recommend to make sure it plays back smoothly on their platforms. Going back and swiping from right to left on the screen, and then tapping the pro icon to reveal all the options, I recommend tapping into exposure and lowering the exposure compensation value on the left to negative 0.3. And this will tell the Pocket 3 to expose ever so slightly darker and help prevent bright areas of your image from being overexposed, blown out and showing completely white. Another important setting is to go into the image adjustment options and lower the sharpness to negative 1. By default, the Pocket 3 footage is very sharp and has a digital look. But by lowering the sharpness slightly, this helps make the footage look much more natural. Now, one of the most important settings within the main menu, which you can access by swiping down on the screen, that will help make your footage much smoother is the rotational speed. And you can access this by clicking the icon of a person. This setting allows you to adjust how quickly the gimbal reacts to your movements. And by lowering this to slow, it allows the gimbal to numb out some of the jitters or sharp movements you might make when recording to help get buttery smooth footage. Now, I am fully aware as a beginner, it can be very hard to remember all the settings that you should use to get the most from the Pocket 3, especially when you are out on location. So to help with that, I have created a set of cheat sheets that you can either print out or download to your smartphone so that you can always have them with you and never forget the best settings to use. If you would like to find out more about these or pick them up, I will put a link in the description down below. Okay, the first easy hack I have to share with you is to do with one of the most common complaints I see from beginners when watching back their footage. And that is there is a bobbing or up and down motion ruining the smoothness of the clip. Now, this happens because the Pocket 3 gimbal only stabilises in three directions, tilt, pan and roll. It does not stabilise the up and down motion or the Z axis, as it's called. Therefore, it's down to you as the operator to stabilise this motion by how you walk and how you hold the camera. So if we take a look at how a beginner might capture this scene, you can see I am just walking forwards, not paying attention to how much my arm is moving up and down. And you can see in the recorded footage, this translates to that bobbing, bouncing motion, which doesn't look very good. So a more pro way to go about this is to use something called the ninja walk. Sounds and admittedly looks a little bit funny, but the results are worth it. First, you want to bend your knees a little bit and keep them bent and then start walking while taking short steps, walking heel to toe. An easy way to visualise this motion is to imagine you are carrying a very full cup of a hot drink in your hand while trying not to spill any of it. This is how you should be walking when operating the Pocket 3. I also like to use both hands when holding the Pocket 3 as it's so small to help make sure I am keeping it as stable as possible. And now if we put the clip we captured as a beginner side by side with the clip we captured using the ninja walk, the footage looks much, much smoother. And here's a top tip. Always make sure to review the footage you have just captured with the Pocket 3. Something you don't want to do is capture a clip, call it done and move on to the next location. As you might come home and realise there's a lot of your clips actually weren't that good or are unusable. Instead, after you have captured a clip, you want to play it back to make sure you're happy with it. And if you aren't, well, you're still on location so you can simply capture it again and make sure it's perfect. Moving on to the next hack, capturing a scene from different heights. As a beginner, you might default to filming everything from eye level, especially with the Pocket 3 since it's natural to hold it out in front of you while watching the screen. However, since this is the perspective everyone is used to and the angle we see everything at all day long, lowering the camera closer to the ground for a low angle shot can make sure your footage looks more creative and unique. Just take a look at this wide clip I captured at eye level. While it looks okay, it's certainly nothing special. Now check out this second shot where I positioned the Pocket 3 much closer to the ground. This lower angle provides a completely different perspective, adding more depth to the scene and creating a more three dimensional image. And as a top tip, don't forget you can tilt the Pocket 3 forwards and this will allow you to bring the camera on top of it even lower towards the ground or the object you are filming over. Using this hack can make sure that you get a wider variety of shots at a location rather than all your footage being wide clips captured at eye level. Now, as a beginner, you might be so concerned with how you are framing your clips that you forget to move. You simply centre your subject, hit record and then just stand there. And this results in clips that are not very dynamic and essentially look more like a photo rather than a video. Instead, consider moving your arm and even your body to introduce motion to your clips. Firstly, I have switched the Pocket 3 into tilt locked mode, which will keep the horizon level. And then I have lowered the camera close to the ground. And after hitting record, I smoothly raise it upwards to simulate a crane shot. This not only adds more movement to your clip, making it much more interesting to watch, but it also adds a subtle parallax effect where foreground and background elements are moving at different speeds to add depth to your scene. Let's take this up a notch. If you have a selfie stick, you can extend the range of motion beyond what your arm alone can achieve. Simply attach the selfie stick to the Pocket 3 and extend it out. This then allows you to start even closer to the ground and then raise the camera higher in the air after hitting record, achieving an even more convincing crane shot. Comparing the original beginner clip with no movement to this one with dynamic motion side by side, you can clearly see how much more creative and captivating the shot with movement is. Now, just quickly, if you're getting value from this video, please let me know by giving me a thumbs up and clicking that like button down below. And if you love all things Pocket 3, but also action cameras, drones, gimbals and more, and want to learn about the best settings to get up and running quickly and tips and tricks to help you get more cinematic videos and better looking images with your gear, then please consider clicking that subscribe button down below. And when you're down there, be sure to check the notification bell so that you will be alerted when my new videos are released. It would be greatly appreciated. Sticking with the theme of movement, something that is very important to do is be deliberate with your camera movements. And this tip is arguably the one that will improve your footage the most with the least effort. So what I see most beginners do is hit record and start moving the camera in all directions, capturing anything they see that looks interesting from the ground to the subject they want to capture, then maybe to the sky and back again. It can all look a bit of a jumbled mess. So to avoid that, you want to stick to one movement around one subject at one constant speed. And by having the camera move in only one direction will make your videos seem much more professional and easier to watch. So let's take a look at how a beginner might capture this scene. After hitting record, they try to capture everything they see by moving the camera around in random directions and at different speeds. Moving over to look at how a pro might do it. And now they are going to start by picking a single subject to focus on for this one clip. In this case, it's this little abandoned building. Next, they're going to pick a single movement for this clip, such as a push in or out, an orbit around it, or in this case, a slide from left to right. Next, they're going to hit record and move at a nice, smooth, constant speed. And you want to avoid speeding up and slowing down, as again, this will make your video seem less professional. Again, if we put these two clips side by side, you can see just how much deference being deliberate with your camera movements can make. So when you are out recording with the Pocket 3, always remember one movement around one subject at one constant speed for each clip. Now, something that's easy to do when capturing locations with the Pocket 3 is to forget to capture yourself in them. And this can make your videos seem lifeless and empty, especially if you are capturing more remote locations that you're exploring solo. Also, by capturing a few clips with yourself in them, it can help with the storytelling element of your finished sequences. Now, you might already be doing this if you are creating a vlog, but you want to capture a wider variety of clips other than you simply talking to the camera. In this first clip, for example, I'm just walking around with the Pocket 3 facing away from me, capturing a beautiful waterfall. And while this looks okay, it lacks a personal touch. Now, let's look at the second shot. Here, I've rotated the Pocket 3 gimbal to face me, which you can do by triple tapping the joystick, and then holding the Pocket 3 at arm's length. I capture both myself and my reactions as I explore the location. And this creates a much more engaging and unique clip, making your sequences feel more varied and creative. Let's now take a look at another example. Here is beginner me capturing a shot of this viewpoint and bench. Now, remember the previous hacks we mentioned. What is missing here? First, there is no movement. It's a static clip. As we mentioned earlier, motion can make it much more interesting to watch. Second, it also feels a bit lifeless, which we can fix by adding ourselves to that scene. So, flipping over to how someone with more experience might capture this location. First, we set the Pocket 3 up on a tripod and activate the active track feature by double tapping over ourselves on the screen to have the camera's gimbal follow us. This powerful feature lets you capture really creative and unique clips, even when filming solo. Once we start recording, I'll walk from the right side of the bench and simply take a seat, creating a much more engaging and dynamic clip. Another really easy way to add depth to your footage is by adding something called foreground elements. Including elements in the frame between the camera and the subject can make your footage more intriguing by adding depth and interest compared to the standard wide shot. Take this clip here, for example. A fairly boring clip of myself looking around this beautiful location. So, let's now see how someone more experienced might approach capturing this scene. Firstly, I'm looking around the area to see if I can find something to use as a foreground element. Anything can be used, such as branches, a wall, or in this case, there is this hole through the side of this abandoned building. Perfect. Again, we are going to pop the Pocket 3 on the tripod and point the camera looking through the hole in the brick. Now, I'm going to walk around to the other side and something that is very important to do before you hit record is make sure that you set focus to your subject, in this case myself, and not the foreground element. To do this, you simply tap on your subject on the Pocket 3 screen. Or in this example, because I am filming solo, I can actually use the Memo app to remotely set the focus to myself. And then I simply just hit record and again capture a clip of me looking around this location. By placing these two clips side by side, you can clearly see the difference. Adding foreground elements makes the shot significantly more interesting and visually engaging. Now, one of the ways you can add massive production value to your finished sequences is by using sound effects. As a beginner, you might simply add some music to your clips, but by using quality sound effects as well, you can engage your audiences much more. As an example, here's a sequence without any sound effects and in a second video with them added. As you can see, the video with sound effects not only appears more professional, but draws you in more and can help make you feel like you're actually there at these locations when watching the footage back. Now there are two ways to get sound effects to use in your projects. Firstly, you could capture the ambient audio when you're out capturing videos on location. So if, for example, you're at this waterfall location, you could simply hold a microphone close to the waterfall and capture the sound off the water. But this takes additional time when on location. And also, if you have no experience capturing sound effects, then the quality might not turn out as good as you expected. The easier way and the method I use is to use a sound effects platform such as Epidemic Sound. They have a massive library of sound effects which are royalty free, so you are safe to use them on videos posted to your social media platforms. It's also super easy to search for the perfect sound effect on their platforms. So, for example, I can type waterfall into their search bar and get access to hundreds of matching clips that are all super high quality. So if you would like to start adding sound effects to your clips, which I highly recommend you do, but don't want to have the hassle of heading out to location to capture that audio, then why not give a platform like Epidemic Sound a try? And if you would like to try Epidemic Sound, I will put a link in the description down below where you can get a free trial and experiment with using their massive library of sound effects on your own projects. Now, something that will really take away from the quality of your footage is exposure shifts while you are recording. Take a look at this clip beginner me is capturing. With the Pocket 3 gimbal in follow mode, I am starting with it facing towards the ground and then slowly rising it towards the horizon to reveal the subject, making sure to do the movement nice and smooth. This looks pretty good, but you might have noticed as the camera raised towards the horizon, there was a very obvious exposure shift and this can be jarring to your viewer. So how do we prevent that exposure shift from happening? Currently, there's only two ways we can do this with the Pocket 3. The first is by switching the Pocket 3 into manual exposure mode and setting the shutter speed and ISO accordingly. And this then prevents the exposure from changing as you move the camera around. Or you can lock the exposure in automatic mode using the DJI Mimo app. With the DJI Mimo app open on your smartphone, point the Pocket 3 towards your subject and then press and hold over the top of that focal point until you see a small yellow padlock icon appear in the screen. Now you can lower the Pocket 3 to point towards the ground, hit record, and as you raise it towards the horizon, you won't see that jarring exposure shift and this looks much more professional. Okay, now we have captured all the clips we need, it's time to edit them together into a finished sequence. Let's start by watching the beginner sequence and then see how much more professional and importantly creative the experienced edit looks. So there you have it, 10 super easy hacks that will transform your b-roll from dull to dynamic. And hopefully these tips will help you create more unique, interesting, and creative videos with your Pocket 3. Now, if you want to learn even more about this little camera, then here is a video going over 100 tips, tricks, and hidden features that I highly recommend checking out by clicking up here or by using the link in the description down below.