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How to Film Overhead Top Down Shot Videos

Javier Mercedes shows the camera rigging options for shooting a stable overhead top-down video, a standard angle for tabletop product work.

Javier Mercedes · 8 min · Beginner · CIN · Cinematography · 2020

What you take away

Level your overhead rig with a bubble level before every shoot — a tilted top-down shot reads as sloppy immediately.

Watch it

Filed under

Famous long takes

Oscar winners for cinematography

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
The Aviator (2004)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Road to Perdition (2002)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Books on cinematography

Kit for this lesson

Aputure Light Dome III — The softbox most Bowens fixtures wear
Aputure Lantern 90 — Soft from every direction — ambience in one piece
DoPchoice Snapbag Octa — Opens like an umbrella — the rental standard softbox
Nanlite PavoSlim 60C — A thin RGB panel for tight rooms
Viltrox AF 56mm F1.2 LAB — The APS-C portrait prime that embarrassed the brands
Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG DN Art — The reportage prime

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