In last weeks lessons we began to use video cameras at our first attempt of filming. First of all we learnt how to set up the tripod. The tripod comes in handy to capture steady footage and creating effective panning shots without the camera moving all about the place. However handheld shots are useful to create an action or panic effect of whatever scene your filming. By unlocking the legs and extending them to the right height before locking them in place again we were then ready to face the video camera. We slid the camera onto the top of the tripod and this is when the bubbling came to use.
Bubbling is kind of like a spirit level, it helps you set up the camera straight so your footage isn't wonky. You place one hand ontop of the camera, still loose and the other hand below the surface of the tripod where there is a wheel you tighten and loosen in order to fix the camera in the right place. Once you've moved the camera around to get the bubble in the centre of the green circle you tighten the wheel to fix the camera into place.
Now onto the technical side of filming. Firstly the time code, located in the top right hand corner of the camera screen. The time code shows how long you've recorded for in hours, minutes, seconds and frames ( 24 frames being the heighest).
White balancing is used to capture the correct colours of the scene. This is done by zooming in and focusing the camera onto a white object then your press the white balance button on the side of the camera before zooming out again.
The aperture and shutter speed on a video camera are two very important components. Both control the exposure of the filiming. Aperture is the amount of light let into the lense and the shutter speed is how fast the frames are being captured. Focussing is also one of the key components to filming. Focussing allows you to adjust the lense so that the image your capturing is sharp and therefore good quality footage.
Once we learnt how everything worked it was time to put our knowledge to the test by actually using the video camera. In our first task we were told to film various camera shot types such as over the shoulder, close ups, wide shots and point of view shots. Many of the shots used are explained in their name how to film them, however you do have the slightly more complicated shots such as cutaway shots (A shot of something other than the current action) which take a bit more time to learn.
Filimg does also have its rules. To start off there is the rule of thrids; where the screen is cut up into 9 and the focal points are the four making the square in the centre. The lines and focal points are the hot spots of the screen and that is where we should place our points of interest when filming. When composing a shot you should try not to have a lot of free space in the background but you should also not have too much as to take away the attention from the point of itnerest. A close up of someone shouldn't cut their head off the screen but leave a small gap above their head and the movement that will take part in the scene should be thought out before filming so that you know exactly where the camera will film.
Continuity editing is basically the putting together of the shots. The shots have to be put together in order to make sense to the audience and everything in the series of shots has to be the same. For example you can't have someone being filmed in a red jacket one scene and then move onto the next shot with a jacket-less actor. The audience didn't see the actor take off the jacket so it doesn't make sense and therefore it is bad continuity.
The 180 degree rule was one that caught out some when filimg last week. The rule is that in your scene you plan where your 180 degree line is you want to film on. Once you've metophorically drawn the line you cannot cross to the other side when filming. If you do the fottage doesn't make sense seeing as the actor was just seen on the left but now all of a sudden she's on the right.
A mistake that we made during filming the first time was to place the actor in the centre of the screen, but if you remember the rule of thirds the hot spots aren't in the centre of the screen but slightly to the left or right. So in order to make the scene look more visually appealing you must place the point of interest slightly off centre.
A use of industry terminology whilst filming was also new to the majority of the class. This 'film language' is used by the director and the camera man. First of all the director will say loudly 'Stand by' in order to get the rooms attention and ready everyone into position for the take. The camera man will then say 'standing by' when s/he is ready to film. The director then says 'roll film' or 'turn over' to the camera man so that they know they should start filming. A few seconds of film is then run as the camera gets up to speed - this is often referred to as 'lead in'. Once done the Camera operator will respond 'turning over' or 'rolling' to indicate they are up to speed. 'Action!' is then called by the director to initiate the start of the screen. Generally before announcing 'cut' the director will let the scene roll on a few seconds after it's finished. This is called 'lead out'.
Using video cameras and still cameras have their similarities and differences. The exposure for example (shutter speed and aperture) are similar on both cameras. The whole concept of filming a whole scene instead of capturing one image is the main difference. In order to explain a whole scene in one image you would have to cram a lot into one photograph, whereas filming is technically a series of thousands of photographs played after one another to show the scene.
Because I am both a photography and media student I can't choose sides on whether i prefer video or still cameras. Both are used for different jobs but have an equally interesting and creative outcome.
