Chris Haye is probably the most renowned sim racer when it comes to cinematography. If you’re looking to get into sim racing videomaking, he’s the guy to listen to.
Haye makes brilliant use of replay systems found native in all titles like Assetto Corsa. An interesting quirk of his experience is his previous use of an RC plane controller to control free cams. Since he has graduated to a more common Xbox One style controller.
“When it comes to firing up a sim and shooting some footage, the golden rule is to learn and work within the limitations of that sim and play to it’s strengths,” says Haye.
Lots of this undoubtedly comes down to some form of trial and error, especially with each sim having it’s own methods.
“When I’m driving a car for a cinematic sequence, I’m thinking about how it will look in the final shot. Not the actual racing. When I’m recording footage, I’m thinking about how it will look in the final edit. How will the shot flow to the next? Do I have a good mixture of tight, mid and wide shots. How do I establish a scene and do I have a good shot to end on?”
It’s always been clear that Chris Haye puts in a lot of effort to his videos, but it’s only once you get given these kind of Behind the Scenes looks, you fully appreciate the methods behind it.