In the copying of the existing video of "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus I had a go at using a camera to film shots with a handheld camera. This gave me practice holding and moving the camera in a comfortable way that allowed the shot to stay steady. Also I learned how to track and pan using my body as a pivot, there were lots of different positions I could have used and practicing let me find the best one. As well as this I took part in directing the shots and conveying how the shot should look to the actors and camera person. This made me realise how much effort and time you need for just a single shot. Also the organisational skills you need as well as communication skills. I also took part as one of the actors in a couple of shots, this required a lot of concentration and patience while waiting for everyone to get into place and I learned be patient with people and concentrate. As well as this I did a bit of editing of clips together, we learned how to separate the different shots and takes by cutting them in Final Cut, the editing programme we used to edit the footage we caught.
We were also shown how to use a clapper board and shooting script to help monitor filming on set. This showed me that it is important to write down which take of each shot is good or bad and more importantly for what reasons.
I also learned the amount of communication needed on set to make sure everyone knows whats going on and is quite and everything runs smoothly. Having to coordinate the actors positions, the camera operators knowledge of the shot about to take place and then making the shot run smoothly with everyone at the same time. And actually physically asking each person or group of people if their ready to make sure then yelling action. Lastly I learned a lot about setting up the camera and also camera techniques. Simple things like mounting the camera to the tripod were really difficult until I found out how to do it. This made it very simple. Setting the white balance and exposure before recording is another key skilled learned simply by just playing around with the camera and instructions given to us. These changes really improved the look of the shot and gave a more professional look to the finished video which I can carry over to the filming of my music video. Composition and depth of field are also techniques used to make the shot flow better and look more polished. Depth of field was quite hard to grasp at first but after some time practicing it's getting easier and can mean some nice effects in a shot.
These are links to the copy of an existing video.
The call sheet is a list of everyone working on the film with a reference to contact details such as mobile or email address. This meant we were able to contact all co collaborators at any stage of the production. The call sheet should include the contact details of all the production crew, actors, equipment suppliers, costume and props supplies, location contacts and anyone involved in transport. I had everyones numbers saved in to my phone including Craig media Production technician and my tutors, Lisa and Dann. We did not have to pay for using the kit, but there were some rules we needed to abide by. You needed to give at least 48 hours notice of booking and could book for a maximum of two days. This is because equiptment at college is limited and in high demand. This also impacted on the return time as returning stuff late would clearly impact on students who had booked cameras to use after us. We also filled in a Risk Assessment form to cover our insurance policy against accidental damage. Here we would have identified any risks to the kit when filming and highlighted the precautions that you would take. For example when filming in a studio using the lighting equipment, we have identified that the leads and cables would need to be taped to the ground to stop people tripping over them when filming. I undertook several exercises to help gain some skills with the cameras. I took part on working. on the ‘Wheatus, Teenage Dirtbag’ project. The results of this exercise are linked above All cameras give you the option of using automatic settings. This is good if you are just taking snapshots or making amateur films. However when undertaking something such as a music video, we used the manual settings. This gave us control over the exposure and focus allowing us to shoot footage exactly as you had devised. We set the white balance so that in different lighting conditions, the camera knows what white is and can be calibrated so that colours are filmed consistently.We set it to indoor as we were studio based. If a shot is too dark or too light when you are setting it up, you can adjust the Shutter Speed and Aperture to let more or less light into the camera. You can also make exposure adjustments using the Video Gain setting. In order to adjust the focus you need to set the camera to Manual Focus. Auto Focus tends to shift the focal range as you are filming. Manual focus allows you to have control over the focal range.
A camera mounted to a tripod is easier to control when executing a Pan or Zoom. The tripod alleviated camera shake and enabled us to undertake precise filming. On set we had natural roles we fit in to. We all seemed to get on very well and direct equally. As well as this, because there was often 3 cameras we all got to opperate 1 camera. It worked really well as we all communicated well and listened to each other. We filmed in Widescreen (16:9 ratio) and in Standard (4:3 ratio) but in the editing stage we changed it all to widescreen, this was a mistake as it wasted time. The standard for digital editing is Final Cut Pro. For our projects, you have used Final Cut Express which is a different version but still very good. We started out the project using PAL. This is the European editing standard which means we opperate at a frame rate of 24 frames per second. In America, they used a standard called NTSC which plays at 29 fames per second. Digital editing is Non Linear. This means you can structure your sequence in any way you like, changing the order of the clips at will. We captured the footage to a computer. To do this we connected the camera to the Mac using a Firewire cable. We then played the footage back and at the same time, using Timecode, transferred it to the computer. First we did an Assembly Edit. A very rough version where we selected the best shots to use from all of the tapes and placed them roughly in order on the final cut timeline. The rough draft follows on from the assembly edit and is the version where we cut all of the clips together to create a smooth flow and to sync in with the song. The final cut was our very last sequence when we added any effects or graphics.
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