Reading and Writing: 

This week I continued my reading in The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video book. This week’s first chapter was on camera basics. Since I’m just starting out, it’s best to know how this piece of equipment works. The book showed some illustrations, showing the camera lens and how a camera lens directs the pattern of light onto sensitive surfaces. With still film cameras, chemicals react differently to amounts of color and light, creating an image of the light pattern. The camera’s lens then turns the light pattern upside down as it passes through, because it’s convex. In digital cameras, the lens focuses light patterns onto an image sensor, or pixels, which change accordingly to the intensity of light hitting them. With video cameras, the image formed by all pixels taken together is electronically collected and then when viewed on the TV the process is reversed. To us the viewer, we process the separate images as continuous movement.

Knowing how to adjust a camera’s exposure is also something that is important to know while filming. Exposure is the amount of light that comes through the lens. As someone who doesn’t use a camera on a daily basis, it’s easy for me to understand this term by thinking about opposites. If you’re in a dark room, you would need more exposure/more light let in to your camera. Whereas if you were outside in broad daylight, you would use less exposure/less light. Some issues you may come across are letting too much light in. If you do this, all your colors may go dark. But this can be avoided by changing the lighting or scenery.

Also note that the lenses of a camera can give you very different shots. While our eyes can focus on things closer and far away, camera lens can’t do both. Every camera has one lens that is the “normal” lens. This will take shots with the same perspective as the human eye. But there are two other lens that give very different angles. One is the wide angle. This will give you more space around your shot and is good for when you can’t move the camera back. The subjects are smaller in the frame, and it exaggerates depth, distance, and movement. The third type of lens is the telephoto lens. This will give you a tighter shot, where the subject is larger in the frame. It compresses depth and puts elements closer together. Pretty much the opposite of the wide-angle lens. 

Knowing your depth of field when shooting can also help you create better footage. This is the area in front of your camera where everything looks sharp and in focus. To increase your depth of field, you will need to decrease your focal length. So usually, these shots are filmed with a wide-angle lens. Your depth of field also increases when you lower your aperture because it restricts the light rays.

I also read about composition. While I consider myself to be knowledgeable in this when its related to graphic design, relating it to photography or film, is a bit out of my comfort zone. Of course, knowing the rule of thirds is a great way to start when analyzing compositions. If you don’t know, it’s when you divide the frame into thirds horizontally and vertically. Then place your elements or focal point on one of these lines, rather than in the center of the frame. This helps create a more interesting photo.

My next chapter on camera moves showed me ways to create more balanced shots. Surprisingly, one way to do this is to leave space in front of a person speaking or in front of a car moving. This is also described as head room. Of course, distributing mass evenly in the frame is just as important. Sometimes something small in the background can easily balance out the large image in the foreground. So be aware of camera angles and what is filling the space. Know that if your shooting down, the subject will seem inferior and less important. When shooting up, the subject will seem larger and most important. Angles can really change a perspective and what your audience perceives.

You can also make your images more interesting by using natural framing. This tip can help you block out unwanted elements from outer edges and create a more compelling piece. But you always want to make sure your viewer’s eye is being drawn to the main subject. You can do this with leading lines, where a fence can draw your eye to a farmer working in the field, for example. Just watch out for other leading lines you create by accident. Sometimes a busy background can cause our eyes to wander.

Knowing which camera move to do and when will help you create a more impactful video. It may seem obvious, but zooming in creates attention to whatever we are zooming in on. Zooming out, will give us more information on where we are. When moving the camera, always start out with the uncomfortable position and move to an easier position as you pan the camera. This will help you pan slower and be able to hold the pose at the end. If you move too much, just know that this will limit your editing later.

I ended with reading about montages and how they are a series of related shots that are condensed in time. A montage video will usually set a mood or summarize information. A good one will have very different shots one after the other and be distinct enough to tell a whole story.

Since I am starting a montage project this week I started by reading this article that helped me create a checklist: Video Production Planning Checklist: 15 Keys to Success.

This article explained that the first step is defining your goals. What am I trying to achieve with this video? It may help to think about the audience and who will be watching the finished piece. What are their values and preferences? Then, develop your overall message and how you will deliver this to the viewers. It may be limited by your budget or the hosting channel. So these are all something to consider when shooting.

Storyboarding your video concept is also a must. Sketching out the sequence of events will help you understand the details and how you will go from one scene to another, telling the story. Your storyboard should have enough context within the sketch but also include a brief description with notes of the location and characters. If you want to read more about learning how to storyboard, check out Creately’s article on how to use storyboards to make better video. 

Creately’s article helped me see the importance of documenting specifics like length of video and the order of the sequences. Once you’re able to create a storyboard, it will be easier for you and your team to all get on the same page, and tweak things if necessary. Combining imagery with descriptions will help reduce errors when it comes time to film.

Something to avoid when creating a storyboard is being overly ambiguous. Be straight forward and add detail where you can so everyone can understand the story. The flow of the video should be consistent, so figuring out how much screen time each piece gets is important. Then be sure to keep your shots consistent and looking alike with lighting and angles. All this will help your story appeal to your audience.

After the storyboard, you can move on to writing the script. Setting the tone with any dialogue you feel is necessary. The length of your script will help inform the video’s overall length. So, make sure you have enough voice over.

Of course, ahead of time it’s important to scout the location, do walk throughs and double check any equipment you will be using. Its best to be prepared, rather than scrambling the day of. Creating a schedule is also one way to make sure you and your team stay on track. Keep a detailed itinerary and a list of shots. This will give you an idea of how long everything should take and help you stay on schedule. With these pre-production tips, you should be able to walk into film day knowing exactly what to shoot and how to execute it.

Research to Inform: 

Spotting proper visual composition in film can be tricky. But once you know and understand the rules, you’ll see that they are actually used a lot in movies and TV.

My first example involves using leading lines in the Titanic movie. Specifically, the clip where Jack and Kate are standing at the bow of the ship. Starting around the ten second mark in the scene, we get a few zoomed out shots of them on the bow. Around them are leading lines of the boat’s railing and the lines of the seating area inside the top deck. These objects help direct our eye to the two main characters. When we see the zoomed out shot from an above angle, around the 23 second mark, we also see the boat with plenty of space ahead of it in the frame, helping to keep the shot balanced by giving it head room. This scene not only uses multiple leading lines to keep our attention on the main subjects, but also creates depth with multiple perspectives.

In the movie Arrival, the opening scene uses natural framing. While the main character is speaking, we see a water view through the large living room window. As the camera pans down, we notice that beyond the window frame it’s completely dark, creating a border around the frame. This technique creates an ominous mood and makes us feel isolated from the outside world. While it invokes emotion from us right off the bat, it’s also great cinematography. This scene is powerful as the movie opens, with strong composition, it slowly gives us context to only what’s inside the room and what is directly outside, and how this relates to what the character is saying. Using natural framing here creates an intimate moment between character and viewer that can’t be ignored.

A great example of shallow depth of field is in the movie Oppenheimer. The scene is a group of men sitting at a round table, they are in a serious, heated discussion over a nuclear test that was done. The scene uses shallow depth to keep the men at the table in focus while also blurring out the foreground and background. As the scene cuts to different men speaking, the blurred parts change to keep the speaker in focus, confirming that they are most important and drawing our eye to them. Using this technique helps keep a serious and secretive tone to the entire scene, while eliminating distractions, and keeping me fixated on what each person has to say. The black-and-white color scheme makes the scene feel especially cinematic and visually striking.

Create: 

Before shooting my montage, I went through a shot list to practice my visual composition by taking some still photos. I went to my chosen location: Gallaher Mansion at Cranbury Park in Norwalk, Connecticut. I was able to walk around the grounds and practice composition, angles, depth of field, and more.

I was worried that I would have a difficult time taking the photos since I haven’t been behind a camera in a long time. But reading and studying up on the composition rules and what they meant, was helpful to do beforehand. Once I got on location, I was able to go through the checklist easily, because I knew what to look for.

One shot I had difficulty getting was perspective. I was able to take a typical straight on view, and a view looking up, but because my subject was a tree, I quickly realized I didn’t want to climb a tree to get a downward angle. So instead, I chose a more interesting perspective of looking at the subject through another, neighboring tree. I still felt this gave a unique perspective, just not the typical down angle.

My favorite shots have to be of the potted plant for the “basic shot framing” section. I loved how a wide shot can tell such a different story than an extreme close-up of the same subject. Seeing the photos between these two shots helped me realize when a wide shot is appropriate and when a close-up shot works better. 

Below is my composition shot list:

I also wrote a script and created a storyboard for this video. All before shooting it. This has helped me visualize the final project and get a feel for what kind of shots should go where. Filling out the pre-production document should help me move through the shot list pretty quickly next week.

I chose to shoot at Gallaher’s mansion at Cranbury Park because I have visited this park many times and have always been curious about the history of the mansion. This project has allowed me to look into the back story of it while also getting the chance to film a place I enjoy visiting and feel comfortable in.

Some challenges that may come up are not having enough footage to edit. I purposely put in more than enough shots into my storyboard because I don’t want to run out of video before I’m done talking. I also don’t want to have to go back on location to shoot a second time. I plan on all the shots being around 10 seconds long, which should give me about 3 minutes of total video. This is around the same amount of time it took me to read my script the other day, so I should be covered.

I am also concerned about showing the steep pitched roof. Obviously, it would be amazing to get an above shot with a drone but it’s just not feasible. So, I’m wondering how I can show this from the ground.

Shooting everything next week will certainly be a learning process for me, but I look forward to seeing all the pieces come together.

Below is the pre-production document: