Technical ability

Sheffield Promo

I have improved my technical abilities throughout the intro module. Some examples of this below are from the Sheffield project and the practising up towards it. I have also improved my knowledge and confidence with both DSLRs and video cameras.

Compositional Shots

Rule of thirds – Horizon line

Here is an example one of my compositional shots whilst practising the rule of thirds.

Thomas A. Bailey – “The two-thirds rule, which can be changed only by constitutional amendment, will no doubt continue for a long time to come. like monogamy, it is not completely satisfactory, but, like monogamy, it has won general if somewhat grudging acquiescence.” It does follow the rule of one-third ground 2 thirds sky or building. It also follows the rule of the bottom horizon line which I placed the ground section on. As well as following these rules having placed the building within the four focus points it makes the building the focus. However, I do still need to practise on the rule of thirds in order to make further improvements. which is important to further improve upon the rule of thirds because the more effective it is used the more appealing and eye-catching it is to the audience.

Foregrounding is a shallow depth of field.

Foregrounding – Here is an example of how I use foregrounding in conjunction with the rule of thirds. In this shot, there is one-third of foreground contrasted to two-thirds of the shot. This adds some more interest to the shot making it more appealing. Although I could further improve this shot next time if I were to have one single duck on the colliding line instead of the two which could confuse the audience/viewers. doing this is useful as in a film if the cinematography is great it’s one of the things ticked off the list such as good sound meaning you have the audiences attention snow all you have to do is create good content whether it be a factual or fictional piece with a good narrative structure.

My footage

During filming at the Hillsborough part, I experimented with the above techniques taught/discussed in class. Throughout this process, I experimented using the rule of thirds and the horizon line.

This went well although I do still need more practice. as one of the shots where the ducks as in the lake because of a few ducks not being above the horizon line, it made the shot a little confusing and there was no main focus. Therefore it should have been a shot where all of the ducks were above the horizon line. I also could improve by experimenting a little more with symmetry. Edith Wharton says – “The desire for symmetry, for balance, for rhythm in form as well as in sound, is one of the most inveterate of human instincts”. Doing this is important because it makes shots more likely to not just grab the attention of the audience but also be approved by them make my projects more likely to be watched. Quotebook as person example

Editing and montage (date) says “Quoted”

Interviews

Here is an example of me practising and further improving upon my technical abilities.

Whilst doing the interviews there were three technical roles which I did which were as follows: the director, the Camera operator and the audio recordist.  during these roles, I improved my technical abilities. an example of this is when I did my shot which was a close up of one of the interviewees as shown below.

In this shot, it is correct as the person is more too the left not in the centre which is more appealing to the audience. as well as this there is a correct amount of headroom as well. Although I could have lined up the colliding lines better with the eyes of the subject which would have made the shot that more professional next time I do a shot like this I will make sure that the subjects eyeline is correct. As well as filming this shot audio was recorded separately which required audio syncing which I did in final cut. I did this by using a capper board set which helped final cut to sync the audio up. I did this because the audio from the boom mic produced a more clear voice with a lot less background noise.

Exposure effects

I have further improved upon my technical abilities by experimenting with the camera settings on a 60d camera. an example of this is shown below. 

In this shot, I improved upon my technical abilities with the settings of having a long exposure. doing so whilst someone uses a light and moves it about in a certain amount of time 20 to 30 seconds which creates light trails/ a light painting. this is useful as it can be used to create a certain mood/feeling in a shot as well as used in a time lapse in order to show the passage of time but with light trails creating more interest.

I have further improved upon my technical abilities by experimenting with the camera settings on a 60d camera. a further example of this is shown below.

To create this effect the shutter speed was at a high shutter speed with the other settings iso and aperture high in order to compensate for the darkness. this should create a frozen motion with the objects in the air as the focus. however in this shot, only one of the pens in the shot is partially in focus but it could have been better. In order to further improve upon this, I plan on next time manually focusing more on the pens and taking my time to make it look more professional.

Dexter

I have further improved upon my technical ability specifically on my editing ability. The idea was to produce one-minute peace with unrelated footage and use it to express to the audience the feeling of a certain emotion. I chose anger and after screening it that was what the audience felt so it went well. although if I do this again I could improve by either taking the time to film it instead of using found footage or make sure all the aspect ratios are the same.

Poker

I have further improved upon my technical ability specifically on my editing ability. An example of this is as shown below.

Whilst doing this edit I have improved my technical editing ability. I improved upon editing by using the theory of cutting on action. this has improved my ability in the editing of continuity editing.

Sports project

Before I began editing I imported all of the footage and then organized it into different folders. I did this because it not only makes the editing process easier it also makes it faster and more effective. this helped me to focus on developing my technical skills meaning I didn’t have to think about where I could find a certain clip.

In this shot which I filmed of the people going into the entrance at the Hillsborough stadium, it was a little unsaturated and dark. So I colour corrected it by upping the highlights and lowering the darks a little in order to make it pop more and be more appealing to the audience. This went well although next time I need to double check the exposure beforehand whilst at the location. I alternated the settings whilst watching the histogram in order to try and even them out the histogram isn’t as even as I would like it to be as when I did even it out it looked almost cartoony which was not an appropriate effect for the clip in the Sheffield sports project.

In this shot, I also used a wide aperture to create an effect where the focus is on one subject which is further away and the closer other subjects are to the camera the more blurred they are. I used a wider aperture because I think that it makes the focus be more on the person in focus to the audience. however, I should have had a shot just following on person to the inside of the door instead of just standing there which the next time I do something like this I will make sure to do in order to further improve.

In these shots, I Filmed two players on the ice. in the first shot which went reasonably well due to the focus being on the two players and being compositionally correct. although I did not use it in the edit because it was a little too slow paced. in the second shot which I also chose not to use in my edit which was because I had the shutter speed set to low and so when following the players, they were blurry in the shot. Even though I did not use the shot I do feel it is still a good compositional shot as it has two-thirds of action and one lower third of a blurred black. From doing this I have further improved my knowledge on the importance of using the right camera settings as it can greatly affect the shot either in a positive or negative way.

Whilst editing together the footage for the Sheffield sports project I decided to chose to the three shots above. I chose these shots to go one after enough because they follow the rules of montage. Where an action or object which is the same can be used as a traction to another shot. I also used these shots following the match on action technique used to almost make the cut invisible. I achieved this by Cutting just as the states almost stop the football just being kicked into the air followed by the football hitting the goal. This went well.

In the following shots above I used a panning motion from the gate with information to the Sheffield Wednesday ground with things going on. I did this because the extra motion followed by action in the shot not only is more appealing to the audience but it also is an effect I used as an almost introduction to the place.I also used a narrow aperture as I wanted as much as possible in the shot to be in focus because whats happening should be clear to the audience people arriving and a lot of them hinting at the popularity of Sheffield. I then edited the shot to a cross transition to the time-lapse. I did by doing this it in a way is a reversal of time showing people arriving which could give the audience the idea that there are already a lot of people there but a lot more are coming. this gives the audience the idea that Sheffield is popular and therefore enforces the whole idea of the video. By cutting to the people still walking in the same direction I am following the 180-degree rule. Which I did because I feel that the somewhat jump from a plan to the left may be a little disorienting but by having another following shot of the people going in the same direction may help the audience to reorient themselves.

Multi-cam project – Graduation

I have improved my technical abilities throughout the intro module. Some examples of this below are from the multi-cam project and the practising up towards it.

Music Client

Whilst working with the music client talk about the live editing and settings system. I learnt a new skill of which I had never really known much about which is live editing. This is the process of using a wired stationary version of the atem a fold up live editing system. Using a live editing system means if your client wants to leave with a finished project it makes that possible.

Music Department recording

Whilst filming the music department performances I further improved my technical skills.

An example of this is whilst setting up the tripod shot for each band I altered the Iso and gain settings in order to achieve the best possible look even though I was filming in low light conditions. Gustavo Mercado says – “The size of a medium long shot is ideal to showcase a character’s body language, some facial expression and the surroundings simultaneously.” As shown above, the shots are reasonably well exposed and are well composed with some foregrounding. Although if I were to further improve this shot I would have liked to have been able to get in front of the heads as I couldn’t quite get the entire band in the first shot.

Sheffield college Graduation

Whilst filming the graduation I further improved my technical skills. An example of me improving is when I was setting up the camera and tripod for the steady muli-cam shot of the students getting their papers and shaking hands. As shown below. This shot is in focus, properly exposed and reasonably well composed as by having the cameras subject a little more to the left than centred makes it a little more natural for the views eyes than if it was straight in the middle.

In the shot above I recorded is well composed, exposed and in focus.

A further example of my technical improvement is whilst walking around filming the parents and students arriving I had to alter settings quickly. whilst doing this I improved upon my knowledge of the cameras by having to quickly alter the focus and exposure before the people walked out of shot. Although I do still need to further improve upon my knowledge of the cameras as I couldn’t seem to get a good shot outside as it was way too overexposed, until later on after the shoot I found out about there being build in ND filters. A Video camera was used because of the fact that if a DSLR was used walking around like would need to be for the arrivals it would have produced extremely shaky footage as well as there been the benefit of the zoom on the video camera making getting shots of people a little easier, this is because it meant that you could get a shot without having to either move a lot forward after a shot or the other way around having to move back in order to get everyone in a shot.

Whilst editing the ceremony even though it took a bit of time to get the videos synced to each other as they weren’t all turned on at the same time, in the long run, using Multi-cam was the best idea as it made editing both efficient and fast. whilst editing using Multi-cam found it to go a lot easier than when editing the Sheffield sports project as it was just like a live editing system all I had to do was click on either cam 1, 2 or 3 and repeat the process depending on when I thought the shot should be changed. this improved upon my knowledge of knowing when a shot should be changed as I showed the students arriving at every different course and then switched between the wide and medium shot of the students going to shake hands and get their paper.  As well as this whilst filming the Sheffield graduation multi-cam as a group we all made sure that all the cameras were on the right side. it was important to do this as decreed by the 180-degree rule for continuity editing.