Little Brother

New Wave Film

Design Brief

For the New Wave task I am taking inspiration from the American New Wave of the 1960's, particularly Easy Rider. This will be done by the use of experimental camera work and by filming on various locations such as Birmingham, Manchester and Bedworth. Throughout filming on these locations I will ensure I visit both busy and not so busy parts of each town/city in order to capture a range of footage. These will include the hustle and bustle of a busy Manchester environment, to the dead and abandoned suburban areas of Bedworth. I will use a mixture of high and low key lighting with colour changing between black, white and greys then to blue green and pink, this will help to link in to the inspired overall psychedelia featured throughout Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider.

A technique I am going to use is something called a 'Time Lapse' I will do this by placing a camera in a specific place in each environment and then leaving it for a specific amount of time. When it comes to editing the film I will be able to speed up the footage and watch all footage recorded in a short clip of 10-20 seconds. I am also considering filming a 10 second video of our actor standing still in the same spot that the time lapse is happening, then I shall edit the 2 images so that they overlap each other. Camera techniques that I am interested in including in the production of my new wave film is using a higher shutter speed whilst recording to give the image a 'crystal clear' and also rather jarred effect. I also plan to film at night whilst driving in a car, I shall use an f.2 sense in order to ensure that the inside of the car is in focus but the outside is blurred and out of focus. By doing this it will ensure that everything outside just looks like colours and everything is distorted, this helps to link in with my idea of being influenced by the Trippy and psychedelic idea of the American New Wave.

Health and Safety

Despite the majority of filming taking place on the college site, there are various subjects that mean extra safety precautions must be made:

- When filming in a classroom we must ensure that there are not any items that can be tripped over, for example ensure that things such as wires and students bags are moved out the way of where we are filming.

-When using different pieces of equipment we must ensure that they are secure, this mainly refers to tripods. When using a tripod ensure that it is set up efficiently so that it does not fall over as it could hurt someone. Also make sure that when placing a camera on the tripod that it is secure and will not fall off, as this could result in damaging the camera.

-Whilst in the photography studio, as it is a rather confined space, we must ensure that wires are kept out of the way and are taped down to the floor. By doing this it minimalises the threat of tripping over the wire and injuring the subject. Also when dealing with studio lights they must be switched off at the wall and left to cool down before being handled by anyone as the bulbs become very hot and could burn someone.

- We also have to be aware of the dangers of different locations where we film. For example when filming outside of college on the road for example there are cars about. Also by filming outside we need to ensure that we are extra careful with equipment as if dropped it will most likely break. Also we have to ensure whilst filming we keep an eye on equipment as in busy places such as a town centre there may be thieves.

Aperture Experiment

F8 Wide lense


F8 Standard Lense


Experimenting in F.2


Experimenting in F16

Throughout this experiment I was experimenting with aperture and a range of different camera lenses. By doing this I was able to discover and learn about aperture. My strengths throughout this experiment were ensuring a range of lenses were used in order to effectively test the change in aperture when each lens was put onto the camera. By doing this it helps my overall knowledge of camera work as I now know how to adjust the aperture in order to have an effect on an image.

 A weakness however in this experiment is that in some of the footage shot, specifically when shooting at F.2 the image was over exposed, meaning that parts of the image seemed white and overall too bright. Some of the technical challenges that I faced was struggling to get to grips with different lenses, I struggled with focusing the image and it took me some time to focus the shot. Some shots were also overly exposed which can be seen in the clip "experimenting in F.2".

 Overall all of the above footage was filmed in order to further my understanding of Aperture, which I feel has been a success as I know feel more confident in what Aperture is and what it does to an image when altered. In order to improve my videos I would ensure that I deal with the exposure better so that videos are not overly exposed and perhaps use a tripod in all videos rather than in just a few as my camera work in 2 videos out of the 4 is rather shaky, with a tripod it would be steadied.

Shutter Speed Experiment

Both videos are effective as they clearly show the difference between a shot with High shutter speed in comparison to a shot with low shutter speed. My strengths were experimenting whilst filming these examples, as I used a spinning chair to highlight the difference in shutter speed, I felt this was a clever and different way of showing what shutter speed is. A weakness within these 2 videos would be the fact that I am spinning at different speeds in both videos, meaning that the comparison between the videos may not be completely accurate.

 A specific technical challenge I faced during this experiment was that the images at first were over exposed due to the fact that I was shooting by windows which were allowing a large amount of light into the room. I overcame this issue however by lowering the ISO and adjusting the Aperture. I have made 2 videos highlighting the difference between a video filmed with a high shutter speed and a video filmed with low shutter speed. I have made these videos in order to help show my understanding of what effect changing the shutter speed has on moving image. I would improve my video by ensuring a film in a different location so the lighting isn't so much of an issue. I would also make sure that I spin on my chair at the same speed so the 2 video's are more accurate.

Lighting

Reflectors



Rembrandt



Butterfly



3 point lighting set up

For this experiment I had to use a range of lighting set ups including '3 point lighting set up', 'The Butterfly', 'The Rembrandt', and we also used 'reflectors'. Using reflectors was a key strength of mine as it was easy to do, it showed that you can light up the object without using a direct light source. The rembrandt was also a strength as I was able to create a perfect shadow of a triangle to the right of the subjects nose, which was the aim of the task. The three point lighting set up also went very well as the set up was correct and by doing so it lit the subject in a well lit and texturised manner.

However a weakness of mine was creating 'the butterfly' as it was much harder to create. Although the set up was correct, the 'the butterfly' you're supposed to be able to see is not evident. All footage was filmed in order to help further my understanding of lighting techniques and set up, which I feel was a success as I am know more confident in the way I use lighting to shoot film with. In order to improve my video's I would focus on improving the butterfly and make the shadow on the subject's face much more prominent.

Health and Safety- Here as we were filming in the photography studio we had to ensure that all wires were out of the way and or taped onto the floor to ensure that nobody tripped over and injured themselves. We also ensured that all lights were cool before using them to avoid burning to skin and when we had finished using the studio we turned all forms of lighting off. Also as the studio is quite a small area we ensured that all belongings such as coats and bags were moved out of the way and put onto a table to ensure nobody tripped over them.

Lighting - Shadows

Creating Shadows in an experimental set up.



Reflecting light



Using low key lighting 



Using high key lighting


My video's were very effective in using light in an experimental set up. My strengths in this task were definitely the creating of shadows in the video's as I used lighting very well in videos 1 and 3 to create shadows in different ways, in video 1 I was able to create and move shadows on the wall and in video 3 I was able to create a shadow across the face of the lego character, giving it a mysterious noire feel. My video's area of weakness is that some of them are more like pictures as toy's have been used for footage rather than people. This therefore means that the videos can seem quite boring as there isn't much going on in them.

The main technical challenge which I faced was with lighting. I struggled to get the lighting correct for sometime as videos at first were either over exposed or under exposed. I overcame this by constantly changing my lighting set up, whether that was drawing or opening blinds to allow more or less light into the room or using LED lights to adjust lighting. 

I have made a range of video's using lego characters in order to experiment with lighting and create shadow effects in an experimental set up. By doing this it has helped to further my understanding of lighting and how it can be altered. To improve my videos I would use people rather than toys to make them more interesting and to allow more movement.

Audio Recordings

Audio on the inbuilt camera.



Audio recored on the Zoom H1, recorded on the camera.



Audio recored by the Boom Microphone, plugged into the recorder, plugged into the camera.


This experiment was conducted within the photography studio due to that being the correct environment to help record sound. This experiment was carried out to highlight the difference in each microphones recording quality. By recording sound using the audio recorder on the camera itself, the 'Zoom H1 microphone' and on the 'Boom Microphone' I was able to discover which microphone is best for recording audio and which microphone has the least background noise (The Boom Microphone). Recording audio on the inbuilt camera is the worst for recording sound as it picks up a lot of background noise and is of poor quality. This was a successful experiment as it helped to further my knowledge of audio recording using microphones.

Focusing

Here is an example of me using the pull focus, it effectively demonstrates what a pull focus technique is. I was able to change the focus from the bottle to the glue stick smoothly in order to create an effective pull focus. However an area of weakness would be that my camera work was a bit shaky as a did not have a tripod to steady the camera. Technical challenges I faced included not being able to do the pull focus at first, this was due to the camera being on the 'Auto Focus' setting. I had to change the camera to manual focus to be able to focus the camera myself. I made this video in order to demonstrate what a 'pull focus' is. I would improve this video by making the video longer than 7 seconds, and also by using a tripod in order to ensure that the footage is not shaky.

ISO

When using the camera set on 3600 ISO it was very difficult for the subject on video to become visible even with the use of LED lights. This could of been due to the lack of lighting in the area in which we shot the video's. If I were to do this task again I would ensure that I filmed in a more well lit area to ensure that by changing the ISO and Aperture it had more of an impact on the overall picture.

When using the camera set on 1600 the issue remained the same but the subject was even less visible on camera, the same amount of LED lighting was used but the image only got darker by reducing the ISO. To improve I would again shoot in an area that has better lighting to help the subject become more visible.

Tutorial Video

For this task I was asked to create a video explaining different camera shots by using my own filmed examples and a range of cinematic examples. The video contains 10 examples of shot types and 10 examples of shot types within cinematic examples alongside brief written summary's explaining exactly what each shot type is and why it is used. This tutorial video was made for an audience of AS media students, and I feel that it effectively demonstrates different shot types and explains them well.

Throughout this task I feel one of my strengths was ensuring that everything was organised, this included making sure all video footage was shot and ready to include my tutorial straight away. I also made sure everything was labeled and in the correct place. By doing these things and staying organised it I was able to put the tutorial together in a much more stress free way than if I was disorganised.

However the production of this task didn't come without its difficulties, as it was the first time I had ever used the software Premiere Pro. This meant that one of my main weaknesses was my lack of knowledge of how to use premiere pro, by having to learn how to use the many features of Premiere Pro it meant that the creation of my tutorial was a lot slower than what it would of been if I was an experienced user of the software. Another weakness was that there was some difficulty recording the shots, in particular the 'Zolly' which took more than 10 attempts just to get a fairly average version of it. I was able understand Premier Pro however and was able to complete and fully edit the tutorial, so my lack of knowledge of the software will not be an issue for future projects being created on that software.

Overall in order to improve my tutorial I would of used some different equipment in order to capture specific shot's better than I did, for example the use of a track in the tracking shot and the use of a Dolly to capture the 'Zolly' shot rather than using a chair! I would also of used a tripod used for video to help the fluidity of the motion in the Panning shot, as in the shot the motion is slightly wobbly rather than smooth. I would also include cinematic examples of a higher quality, the majority of  examples are of a decent quality but my 'establishing shot' and 'panning shot' cinematic examples are of a lesser quality than the rest of them.

ISO Experiment

ISO 100 - Over the shoulder/ISO 1600 - Pan Shot

As this was the first time I had experimented with the ISO and aperture on a camera it was difficult to know exactly what to do to alter the image when exposed to different lights. However although it was more first time I still feel I was able to shoot 2 rather effective video's which clearly show the experimentation of different ISO on the camera. I feel my strengths whilst recording this was that I ensure that the image recorded stayed in focus throughout the duration of the clip, this is a strength because if the shot was out of focus the video would not show the change in lighting and ISO as well. Another strength I would say was my ability to pick to particular shot types in order to film. 

My overall weakness was monitoring the light exposure of an image, it took me more than 2 attempts of filming to get the lighting and exposure right to make the subject within the video visible. Technical challenges I faced throughout this task were being able to alter settings on the camera itself, this was mainly due to the fact that this was the first time I had been introduced to things like exposure, ISO and Aperture. By continuously altering settings and shooting a few different video's I was eventually able to understand ISO in  an image, this can be seen in my final video's of ISO 100 and ISO 1600. These video's made purely to help my understanding of ISO, and by creating video's at different ISO's I was able to achieve this understanding. Overall to improve my video's I need to improve my knowledge of light exposure so I am able to control lighting more and therefore have a better picture on my video's.

Aperture - Shutter Speed - ISO

Aperture-

An Aperture was created in order to control the amount of light entering a camera, what was created was a hole smaller than the actual diameter of the lens. This helps to control the amount of light entering the camera the same way the iris in your eye controls the amount of light entering it. By controlling the amount of light entering the camera it therefore ensured that photographers were able to reduce the amount of light exposing the image, and therefore get a better picture.

Shutter Speed-

Shutter speed is how fast the camera takes an image, just how the aperture halves or doubles the amount of light entering the camera, the shutter speed has the same halving and doubling effect, depending on the length of the exposure. For example long shutter speed can be used to intentionally blur a moving image for artistic effect.

ISO- The ISO of an image controls how sensitive your image is to light. The ISO was measured in numbers, the lower the number the lower the sensitivity of the film and the finer the grain of the shots you are taking. Higher ISO are usually used in darker filming to get faster shutter speeds.

Induction Task

How and why lighting affects camera techniques for moving image?

In the book 'Motion Picture and Video Lighting'  there is a section which talks about the mood and tone of images and moving picture. It mentions that lighting and camera techniques are used for specifics, the example used in the book is that the lighting and camera techniques are used in fashion shows in order to make the model look incredible.

Lighting is also very important in order to add shape depth and dimension to a scene, it is important as to where the lighting is coming from as this helps to build the overall depth of the shot itself. This is shown in the book 'Motion Picture and Video Lighting' it say's "Lighting from the side or back reveals the shape of an object" followed by "This is important for the overall depth of the shot". Lighting is important as it can shape the mood of a scene, for example low key lighting can help to ensure the scene is mysterious or scary e.g. horror films often use low key lighting.

Separation ensure the subject stands out from its background a range of lighting techniques such as "backlight" and making the area behind the subject "significantly darker or brighter than the subject". These are all ways in which lighting has a significant effect on moving image.

Info comes from book 'Motion Picture and Video'