Filming for my music video

I wanted to get all of my filming done over one weekend because the two actors in the video were only available for that weekend as the next weekend they are available is too close to the deadline for me to edit the video in as much time as I feel comfortable, the last thing I want to do is rush my filming and miss out ideas and then rush editing.

Saturday 6th May- Filming session one:

My original idea was to film Saturday afternoon and get all of my filming done on that day, however unknown family plans happened which meant that I had to delay the filming to Saturday evening. This meant that when I started filming outside I had to adjust the aperture and ISO on my camera past the ideal settings that I would have had if it was earlier in the day. I had to set my ISO to auto after trying for a while to get the ISO to stay at the right one as every time I moved the camera the exposure kept changing so by putting it on auto I resolved that issue. This meant that some of my footage was grainy, I could have re done my grainy footage but the main idea of my music video was that it was a child filming himself trying to become the image of a pop star however he can't live up to that quality.

Sunday 7th May- Filming session two:

I had to continue filming on the Sunday due to the lack of time on Saturday. The biggest difference that is visible in the video is the lighting difference inside the house from the Saturday evening with the artificial light on to Sunday afternoon without the artificial light on. This means that some of my footage is more yellow looking, from the artificial light. I couldn't have fixed this by filming in the evening due to my actors having to go back to their mum's house. I could have filmed it on another date but it would have been too close to the deadline and more awkward to ask them both to wear the exact same clothing as they were before. I managed to fix the issue with the ISO that I was experiencing the night before and managed to get my ISO down to 100 when I was filming inside the house and the outside. Whilst filming inside my aperture was 4 and was perfectly exposed. Due to filming earlier in the day on the second filming session it was a lot brighter than before this meant that I had to put my aperture on the maximum it could go on my lens ,18, to ensure that my e
Another issue I have noticed while I have been editing is that there are some continuity errors. The main error is that the female actor changed how she had her hair. In the start of the video her hair is in a ponytail and it changes halfway through to a bun. At some points of the video it could be argued that she changed while her character was off screen however towards the end of the video it changes between shots. This happened due to me filming some of my exterior shots on the Saturday and the rest on the Sunday. If I had been aware of this issue during the filming I would have asked her to change her hair back to a ponytail and filmed again but I only noticed this error during editing. In my personal opinion the hair change is only noticeable to me because I knew we filmed on separate days. most of the exterior footage is made up of long shots, and due to this I don't think people who watch the video will notice this.

Footage used

Day One:
Although I struggled with the exposure on first shooting session I was still able to use most of my interior shots of the cars. I got my favourite shot on day one of filming, the champagne bottle. This is my favourite due to my experimentation with pulling focus.

Day Two:
I asked my client if they could attach a Go-Pro onto one of the cars and film when they next went out in it. The client then gave me the footage to include in my video. This footage is some of my favourite in the video.

Day Three: My third and final filming session was the best one because I got most of footage just from this session. I managed to get perfect exposure with an ISO of 100 and therefore I was able to get all of my exterior footage on this day.

Day 1 Filming analysis

                                                                         Equipment:
Canon DLSR
Tripod
Dolly
Camera Slider

This filming session didn't go as well as planned due to constant changes in the lighting. Due to these changes most of my footage was overexposed. I still managed to film the interior of two out of four of the cars, as two were at events. Going forward I am going to edit what I already have to see if I can fix/use what I have already filmed and then arrange another date to film the rest of the cars exteriors and interiors.

Another problem I had was that the camera slider I was using was to short to reach from the back of the car to the front seats, therefore I have had to adapt how I used the slider. I instead slid the camera from one side of the backseat to the other to show of the car's leather seats.

Four hour film challenge- The Door

New Wave film evaluation

For my new wave film I decided to experiment with my editing to reflect the New Wave techniques such as colour overlays and jump cuts. I have focused on the French New Wave for my work. I edited my footage on Premiere Pro as this enabled me to be able to edit quicker and it helped me edit my jump cuts in more detail. Using Premiere enabled me to experiment with different techniques. I decided to add a golden toned overlay to some of my footage. I filmed on location in Birmingham as filming on location is another convention of the New Wave. In Truffaut's 'The 400 Blows' they filmed on location around Paris. I only used natural lighting to maintain the sense of verisimilitude of the film as the French New Wave was about documentary style films that were personal to the director. I kept the ISO at 100 or as close to 100 as possible to ensure that my footage was not grainy or overexposed.

Lighting techniques

Lighting Techniques
LIGHTING TECHNIQUES from georgie wing on Vimeo.

Shot types

I have created this video to show and demonstrate some of the different types of shots that are used in film. These include:

Extreme Close Up- This is used to invade the characters personal space and to show us how a character is feeling. This can also be used to focus on something important e.g. someones feet as they are running away from something/one. 

 Low Angle- The low angle is commonly used to make the audience empathise with the character that is less dominant. The low angle shows someone looking down on something or someone and makes the audience feel helpless.

High angle- The high angle is used to show a character looking down on something or someone else but from their point of view. This makes the audience feel powerful and God like.

Health and Safety

Health and Safety 

The health and safety of the crew and public must be thought about before any filming can begin. If health and safety procedures were not taken care of and someone was hurt because of this the filming could be postponed or even cancelled. When filming out on location on of the most important aspects that can affect the health and safety of the crew and the public is the weather. The weather can leave the ground in an unexpected condition, if it had been raining someone could slip and injure themselves. Another important aspect of filming on location is ensuring that any equipment you have with you is always being looked after by another crew member and that is placed out of the publics way and therefore doesn't become a trip hazard.

When you have finished shooting in the studio ensure that all of the lights are switched off properly, at the plugs so that they don't overheat. If someone else is unaware that the lights have not been allowed to cool down they may burn themselves when moving the lights. The overheating may also damage the bulbs and therefore they may need to be replaced. When using a tripod it must be set up securely and safely to ensure that it doesn't fall and break any equipment or injure anyone. 

Camera and Lighting Set ups

A small documentary where portability is paramount:

When filming a documentary on location it's easier to make use of the natural lighting available. This means that you don't have to carry around lights which would hinder the portability of the documentary filming. However small LED lights can be used if the natural lighting isn't as good as is needed. Lightweight cameras will also be needed so that the cameraman can move around quicker and easier. 

Talking head style interview:

An important thing about talking head style interviews is to capture the person you are interviewing in the best way. Using box and umbrella lights allows you to use more adventurous lighting techniques. Though this style of lighting could cause overexposure and increase the difficulty of the shoot.

A night time shoot:
If you are doing your shoot outside, battery powered light is a necessity as there is nowhere to plug in any lights. You will need more than one light source so that there is more light during the shoot and this will also prevent compromising the ISO. The shoot will also be a lot safer if you have more than one light source as you can see any obstacles that there may be at the location of the shoot.

Testing Shutter Speed

Shutter speed test from georgie wing on Vimeo.

The shutter speed on the camera determines how long the camera shutter remains open and allows light to enter the image. The default shutter speed in most moving image is 1/50 because the shutter speed should usually be double the amount of what the frames per seconds are. The human eye is used to seeing either 24 fps or 25 fps.
When I lowered the shutter speed on my camera to 1/30 I also kept to 24fps. Lowering the shutter speed to 1/30 meant that motion blur occurred and blurred my frames due to the shutter being open for longer.
When I set my shutter speed to 1/100 my frames looked sharp and crisp due to my shutter speed being a lot faster and letting less light into my frames.

Testing ISO

 What are the effects of ISO to moving image?


ISO Test Afternoon from georgie wing on Vimeo.


ISO evening test- from georgie wing on Vimeo.

What effect does ISO 100 have?
I started my ISO test in the afternoon while it was still light outside. I did this to ensure that I could use an ISO of 100 and still have a perfectly exposed moving image. Using as close to ISO 100 as possible means that the image will be less sensitive to light and therefore will have less noise/grain in the image. Noise/grain ruins the effect of the image by interfering with how clean the image looks.

What effect does ISO 1600 have?

Using a higher ISO such as ISO 1600 means that the camera is much more sensitive to the light and therefore more light will enter the image. Using a higher ISO is perfect if you are filming at night with no other source of lighting. However it is better to have an additional light source because using a high ISO leaves grain on the footage/shot. The image below shows how different ISO's can effect the image shot.

                            Image from: https://photobizblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/iso-comparison.jpg

Using ISO 100 outdoors in the afternoon meant that my image was going to be overexposed, as a result of this I decided to raise my aperture so that less light could enter the image.                                                                                                                I found using ISO 100 in the afternoon a lot easier than in the evening because I got a perfectly exposed  moving image just by raising my aperture whereas in the evening raising my aperture to its limit still meant that the moving image was still underexposed. I was using a standard lens so therefore I could only raise my aperture to 4.5, this resulted in my footage being underexposed. To fix this problem I would have had to use a different lens. However that would have resulted in me having to compromise with the shot I wanted. If I had decided to use a different lens such as a wide angle lens  then it would have effected my shot because the footage would have been wider and I would not have been able to pan to the other focal point of the footage which is what I wanted to do. Due to these challenges I found having to stick to the set ISO's of 100 and 1600 really difficult without having to compromise on either my exposure or my shot.

New Wave draft

Testing Aperture

Aperture test from georgie wing on Vimeo
 Aperture- The opening in the camera lens has the capability to block or admit light. The narrower the aperture, the less light enters the camera, thus creating dark images. The higher the aperture number the less light will be allowed onto the image.
I have experimented with different apertures to see how raising and lowering the number effects the overall quality of the footage captured. I also used different lenses as they have different levels of aperture and i wanted to see a good range. The depth of field depends on the aperture settings, the larger the aperture the less depth of field there will be.
The depth of field is the part of an image that the eye is usually drawn to, so that part is in focus but the parts that the eye isn't drawn to are out of focus.

Camera and Lighting basics

The director of photography is responsible for keeping the shooting of the film on time and within budget. They are also responsible for how the image looks and the story that is told in a single shot.

Exposure-The amount of light that gets into the image. Four factors regulate exposure.

1. Amount of light- The sun produces more light than any light bulb. If the camera produces an image that looks normal under bright sunlight it will - with the same settings- produce underexposed in a scene lit by a dim tungsten bulb.

2. Aperture- The opening in the camera lens has the capability to block or admit light. The narrower the aperture, the less light enters the camera, thus creating dark images.

3. Shutter Speed- The plate located between the lens and the camera recording

Pulling Focus

Pull Focus from georgie wing on Vimeo.

I wanted to practice the technique of pulling focus. The pull focus technique is where the main focus point of the frame is changed by pulling focus onto another part of the image. I created a short film to show this technique. I focused on making sure that my shots were neither under exposed or over exposed. I did this by looking at the light meter on the screen and trying to keep it as close to the centre of the meter as possible. I had the camera set on 24 frames per second as this is the usual frames per second that is used in moving image. My shutter speed was 1/50. I wanted my ISO to be as close to 100 as possible so that my footage was not grainy and was therefore higher quality. However due to it being an overcast day I raised my ISO to 400 however when I focused on a different part of the room it was underexposed so I raised my aperture. However it was still underexposed so I had to raise my ISO again but this time I set it at 800 and this resulted in the footage being perfectly exposed.

My footage that pulls focus between a coffee cup and a water bottle worked well and was perfectly exposed due to my focus on the light meter. If I were to do this task again I would use a tripod because two of my clips were shaky and therefore the pull focus effect wasnt as effective as it should have been due to the unsteadyness of the footage. The tripod would ensure that the camera wouldn't shake and therefore my pull focus would have been more effective. I included my last clip in the video because it yet again highlights that without a tripod the footage can be ruined. The pull focus also didn't work in the last clip because I was trying to focus on two things that were not far enough away from each other and therefore they were both in and out of focus at the same time.

Lighting

Lighting is one of the most important features of film as it helps evoke the emotion and meaning of a scene. For example horror films are famous for their use of low key lighting which adds to the suspense and mystery of the film. Low key lighting is the use of the darkness and night to portray evil and the fear of the unknown. High key lighting on the other hand evokes happiness and a positive atmosphere. A change from high key lighting to low key lighting shows a shift in the mood of a scene and easily tells the audience how the story is changing.

Hard Lighting:

Soft Lighting: 

Bibliography:

Brown, B. (2011b) Cinematography: Theory and practice, Second edition: Image making for Cinematographers and directors. 2nd edn. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Focal Press.

maintained (2010) Definition: Hard light. Available at: http://www.photokonnexion.com/4019-2/ (Accessed: 25 November 2016).

maintained (2010b) Soft light - definition: Photokonnexion.Com. Available at: http://www.photokonnexion.com/3977-2/ (Accessed: 25 November 2016).