On the Set

In this exercise we were organised into small groups of 4 to assure everyone had a chance to practice their skills. The learning objective was for everyone in the class to achieve a firm understanding of how to set up the Canon cameras provided, adjust the particular features on the cameras, subject specific language frequently used in the film industry and editing.

Once acquiring the battery from the charger and SD card given to me by the teacher it meant that I was ready to set up the camera. On the bottom of the camera is a small hatch which houses the battery. Once placing the battery in the designated housing, making sure the battery was the right way around and correctly in, I then close the hatch to ensure the battery doesn’t fall our when filming. As the camera needs somewhere to store all the photos and video footage, I then proceed to put in the SD card. To do this I located the hatch on the side of the camera which houses the SD card. Once I opened the hatch and placed the SD card in the housing slot correctly, I can then close the hatch. After both of these tasks are complete, I can then move onto the attachment and setting up of the Manfrotto tripods provided by my teacher. To attach the tripod to the camera I press down on the button located on the tripod to lift up one of the attachments barriers. Once this barrier is lifted, I can then fit the camera to the tripod, I do this by fitting in the camera attachment to the tripod. The camera attachment and tripod attachment are both complimentary to each other meaning they fit into one another. When filming it is of vital importance the camera angle is level with the ground. In coordination with the bubble located on the top of the tripod I extend and shorten the legs until the bubble is level with the circle.

Now the camera and tripod are both fully set up. Advancing to the next stage of the exercise I now begin to do particular adjustments to the Camera. White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in the photo. Proper camera white balance has to take into account the "colour temperature" of a light source, which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of white light. You adjust it by selecting the ‘WB’ on the camera, it will then come up with little pictures representing difference colour tones that are used in different lights which will give a more realistic effect. 180-degree rule. We learned about the 180 degree rule. The 180-degree rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another. When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle. On set We then learnt the terminology used in the film industry on set. The director shouts 'Standby' before filming to ensure that everyone is ready and when they are, they reply 'Standing by.' When the director shouts ‘rolling’, everyone on set must be quiet, then he /she shouts ‘action’ which tell the actors to start. After the shoot, the director has said the last ‘cut’, he / she will say ‘strike the kit’ which is the film crew's cue to pack away, put the batteries on charge and ensure that the footage is uploaded

To edit videos, I will use Final Cut Pro X on my laptop. When editing pictures, I will use both Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop.

This is an example of my photoshop work. The task I had to do in this photoshopped image was to advertise the Design Museum