Lighting Basics
Soft Lighting - This is when the light source is large in comparison to the subject, making the subject very well lit, much more natural looking. I.e. a person being the subject and the sun being the light source.
Hard Lighting - This is when the light source is much smaller than the subject, giving a harsh shadowed effect. I.e. candle light or torch lighting a person would give this effect.
Low Key Lighting - This kind of lighting has a high contrast between light and dark. It only uses a 1 point light source, unlike normal lighting which would usually consist of 3 point lighting (as in light come from three points around the subject.)
Studio Lighting Techniques - Portrait Lighting
There are 3 main kinds of portrait lighting;
Rembrandt - This technique comes from the work of painter, Rembrandt. In his paintings he always lit his subjects faces with a small triangle of light beneath the eye on the shadow side of the face.
To achieve this form (and all other forms) of lighting, we must consider the angle the light is positioned, the height of the light and the degree angle the light is pointed with regard to its subject.
The subject must be placed in front of the camera, but faced at about a 20 degree angle away it, with the main light source at around 45degrees from the camera onto the subject. During our test, we always tried out using the reflector, at about 45degrees again, but the opposite side of the camera to the main light source.
Butterfly - This technique is very much a classical Hollywood technique. Used often in the 1950s for film stars. This lighting highlights above and below the eyes, while the eyes stay in shadow. Again, we must consider the 3 points mentioned previously. For this particular technique, the subject is again, placed in front of the camera, this time looking directly into it. The light source is then placed behind the camera, at around 2-3ft above the subject with a 70-80degree angle towards the ground.
Edge - This technique is quite a cinematic technique and is often used to create sinister/dramatic effects. The subject is placed, similarly to the Rembrandt technique, in front of the camera but facing around 2odregrees off centre. The light source this time, should be placed at a 90degree angle from camera and eye level with the subject.
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Aperture/ISO/Shutter Speed Tutorial
Aperture/ISO/Shutter Speed
When altering the aperture on the camera settings, you are indicating how wide the lens iris opens, allowing you to control the amount of light that gets in. Aperture is measured in f-stop numbers (i.e f/2 or f/22 as you can see in the below diagram). The smaller the lens opening, the higher the f-stop and the higher the f-stop the less light, therefore more of the image will be in focus and vice versa.
When we alter the aperture we also must consider whether we should change the ISO or shutter speed to ensure the image is at its best quality. The shutter speed again dictates how much light can get into the camera, we may want to up the shutter speed, if we are using a low f-stop number to balance the exposure of the image.
We may also want to alter the ISO number, this determines the sensitivity of the image sensor (in traditional film photography, this was the sensitivity of the film) to light. So when shooting in low light but without the use of a flash, we could use a higher ISO number. '100' being considered the 'normal' ISO number, this low ISO number will give your images a crisp professional looking finish. The affect of upping the ISO number is that we get grain or 'noise' in images. (e.g. see example image below)
Jack blackandwhite from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
After shooting I chose to to edit this footage, changing it to high contrast black and white, making it reflective of the majority of the nouvelle vague films. The link to the New Wave for these particular pieces of footage are expanded in the previous post.
MVI 0487 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
Experiment With ISO
ISO from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
This piece of footage was shot in a dark room with very little light for the camera to sense, therefore I upped the ISO number to increase the light sensitivity. The ISO was set to its highest for this particular piece, at 12800, with 100 being the lowest you can see how high the ISO needed to be in order to maximise the little amount of light I had to work with. This high setting is what causes the grain or noise in the image (you can see how it compares to the example image towards the start of this post). Although in this case the grain was an intended effect to add atmosphere to the image, this isn't always the case, in most instances the lower ISO number you can use the better as you will achieve a much more crisps finish to your final image.
Due to the high ISO, I had to alter the the other settings accordingly. I used a relatively slow shutter speed at 1/50 and an f/4 aperture setting, both of these again allow a good amount of light into the camera where little is available.
This is a piece of footage that was shot in order to show the effects of the ISO setting and therefore does not reflect the criteria outlined in the brief. It does bear some similarities to the New Wave, i.e. low budget and non-professional actor, however, the similarities are somewhat limited and would not be included in a final edit of the footage.
Experiment With Shutter Speed
When filming the tracking shots from the inside of a moving car, the first attempt (as you can see below) came out very blurred. This is an example of how shutter speed works. The blurred piece of footage had a shutter sped that was too slow for the nature of the footage that was being taken. Due to the fairly quick movement of the car, the camera was not able to capture the images fast enough. In this particular piece of footage the shutter speed was set at 1/50. After realising that this was too slow for this type of shit, the settings were altered and the shot was tested again.
This piece of footage (below) is again an example of filming from within a moving car. This time with the shutter speed at a much quicker setting, 1/500, meaning that the frame capture rate per second was much higher. Making the image much less blurred as the camera was able to capture more images within the same amount of time.
The pieces of footage, reflect the New Wave due to the low budget that is used. Not only this, but it is a direct technique of the new wave directors to make the most of filming upon or within something that is already creating movement. Godard does this multiple time in Breathless, two of which we have experimented. The first is in a previous post and was the camera upon an escalator (please click here to see it) and the second are these pieces of footage. By using a car to generate movement for the camera, we were experimenting with technique directly from Godard, this kind of creativity with camera movement was part of the reseaon the new wave directors became so well known and considered 'innovative'. By working with and trying out there techniques we are able to adapt them and come up with similar techniques of our own and still maintain the link that out original brief states we should do.
When altering the aperture on the camera settings, you are indicating how wide the lens iris opens, allowing you to control the amount of light that gets in. Aperture is measured in f-stop numbers (i.e f/2 or f/22 as you can see in the below diagram). The smaller the lens opening, the higher the f-stop and the higher the f-stop the less light, therefore more of the image will be in focus and vice versa.
When we alter the aperture we also must consider whether we should change the ISO or shutter speed to ensure the image is at its best quality. The shutter speed again dictates how much light can get into the camera, we may want to up the shutter speed, if we are using a low f-stop number to balance the exposure of the image.
We may also want to alter the ISO number, this determines the sensitivity of the image sensor (in traditional film photography, this was the sensitivity of the film) to light. So when shooting in low light but without the use of a flash, we could use a higher ISO number. '100' being considered the 'normal' ISO number, this low ISO number will give your images a crisp professional looking finish. The affect of upping the ISO number is that we get grain or 'noise' in images. (e.g. see example image below)
Experiment With Aperture
To try out the aperture/ISO/Shutter speed settings on our cameras, we experimented with them on one of our location shoots. The clip below, is one of the pieces shot with varied camera tech settings. As you can see, here, there is a shallow depth of field meaning we used a high f/stop number on the aperture setting, this allows less light into the camera, so we had to up the ISO so that the light sensitivity is increased, though this isn't too high otherwise the image would have suffered a grainy appearance. The shutter speed here would be relatively slow, as the camera remains still there is less risk of blurring and allows more light into the camera compensating for the small aperture.
The composition of this particular piece is fairly good, we maintain the rule of thirds as the subject remains central throughout the shot and his eye level is about at the cross over point of the grid that can be put onto the LCD camera screen to help position shots within the frame.
Jack blackandwhite from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
After shooting I chose to to edit this footage, changing it to high contrast black and white, making it reflective of the majority of the nouvelle vague films. The link to the New Wave for these particular pieces of footage are expanded in the previous post.
MVI 0487 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
Experiment With ISO
ISO from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
This piece of footage was shot in a dark room with very little light for the camera to sense, therefore I upped the ISO number to increase the light sensitivity. The ISO was set to its highest for this particular piece, at 12800, with 100 being the lowest you can see how high the ISO needed to be in order to maximise the little amount of light I had to work with. This high setting is what causes the grain or noise in the image (you can see how it compares to the example image towards the start of this post). Although in this case the grain was an intended effect to add atmosphere to the image, this isn't always the case, in most instances the lower ISO number you can use the better as you will achieve a much more crisps finish to your final image.
Due to the high ISO, I had to alter the the other settings accordingly. I used a relatively slow shutter speed at 1/50 and an f/4 aperture setting, both of these again allow a good amount of light into the camera where little is available.
This is a piece of footage that was shot in order to show the effects of the ISO setting and therefore does not reflect the criteria outlined in the brief. It does bear some similarities to the New Wave, i.e. low budget and non-professional actor, however, the similarities are somewhat limited and would not be included in a final edit of the footage.
Experiment With Shutter Speed
When filming the tracking shots from the inside of a moving car, the first attempt (as you can see below) came out very blurred. This is an example of how shutter speed works. The blurred piece of footage had a shutter sped that was too slow for the nature of the footage that was being taken. Due to the fairly quick movement of the car, the camera was not able to capture the images fast enough. In this particular piece of footage the shutter speed was set at 1/50. After realising that this was too slow for this type of shit, the settings were altered and the shot was tested again.
This piece of footage (below) is again an example of filming from within a moving car. This time with the shutter speed at a much quicker setting, 1/500, meaning that the frame capture rate per second was much higher. Making the image much less blurred as the camera was able to capture more images within the same amount of time.
The pieces of footage, reflect the New Wave due to the low budget that is used. Not only this, but it is a direct technique of the new wave directors to make the most of filming upon or within something that is already creating movement. Godard does this multiple time in Breathless, two of which we have experimented. The first is in a previous post and was the camera upon an escalator (please click here to see it) and the second are these pieces of footage. By using a car to generate movement for the camera, we were experimenting with technique directly from Godard, this kind of creativity with camera movement was part of the reseaon the new wave directors became so well known and considered 'innovative'. By working with and trying out there techniques we are able to adapt them and come up with similar techniques of our own and still maintain the link that out original brief states we should do.
Monday, 1 October 2012
Reflector Footage
Use of Reflector
For this locations health and safety please click link.
As we had not yet experimented with any lighting techniques, on this shoot we decided to take out the reflector to see what kind of shots we could, how much difference it made etc. We headed back to Five Street Park where we did one of our earlier location shoots, as we thought it was a fairly good location.
The majority of reflectors, including the one we were using here, have one silver side and one gold side. Each side gives a slightly different effect. The silver, enhances the light creating a brighter shine upon the subject and the gold side defuses the light given a more even, matt finish.
We first attempted with the silver side of the reflector, with proved to have very little effect due to the overcast weather conditions. As we only had natural lighting to work with, this was not enough effect. we then flipped over the reflector to use the golden side and this turned out to have a much more prominent effect, leaving our footage looking much more professional.
As you can see from these two stills, the reflector brightens up the subject. Highlighting the hair and the face, giving the image a more pristine finish. On a less overcast day, this would be even more effective. In the clip below, the difference is even more clear to see.
We have used a wide aperture (f/2.8) for this footage to create a shallow depth of field, this brings the subject into focus, to avoid any kind of over exposure we ensured that the ISO was kept to a minimum (100). This focus and by using the reflector, the footage from this shoot have probably turned out the best of any shoot we have done. The end result has achieved a good professional finish, with some nice composition.
reflector - no reflector from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
I have included here a high contrast black and white edit of this same footage (above) to demonstrate how the reflector would have been a good low budget way of creating nice lighting in a new wave film. The reflector would have been used when making new wave films, due to its good effect, making useful for these low budget films. Making this link with the new wave in such a way means that we are sticking to the outline of brief. We are maintain a low budget and maiming use of things such as reflector to maximise what resources are available to us, such as natural lighting. The subject within the footage is a non-professional actor, again meeting the criteria of our brief by using techniques and conventions of the Nouvelle Vague.
reflrctor black and white from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
The piece of footage below, makes good use of the manual settings on the camera. We began by having the entire shot out of focus, and then having the subject walking directly towards the camera and coming into focus. We end up with a shallow depth of field, the subject, now in the foreground, in in complete focus, while the background of the shot has remained out of focus. This has a particularly good effect when edited into high contrast monochrome.
into focus bandw from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
For this locations health and safety please click link.
As we had not yet experimented with any lighting techniques, on this shoot we decided to take out the reflector to see what kind of shots we could, how much difference it made etc. We headed back to Five Street Park where we did one of our earlier location shoots, as we thought it was a fairly good location.
The majority of reflectors, including the one we were using here, have one silver side and one gold side. Each side gives a slightly different effect. The silver, enhances the light creating a brighter shine upon the subject and the gold side defuses the light given a more even, matt finish.
We first attempted with the silver side of the reflector, with proved to have very little effect due to the overcast weather conditions. As we only had natural lighting to work with, this was not enough effect. we then flipped over the reflector to use the golden side and this turned out to have a much more prominent effect, leaving our footage looking much more professional.
 |
| No Reflector |
 |
| Using Reflector |
As you can see from these two stills, the reflector brightens up the subject. Highlighting the hair and the face, giving the image a more pristine finish. On a less overcast day, this would be even more effective. In the clip below, the difference is even more clear to see.
We have used a wide aperture (f/2.8) for this footage to create a shallow depth of field, this brings the subject into focus, to avoid any kind of over exposure we ensured that the ISO was kept to a minimum (100). This focus and by using the reflector, the footage from this shoot have probably turned out the best of any shoot we have done. The end result has achieved a good professional finish, with some nice composition.
reflector - no reflector from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
I have included here a high contrast black and white edit of this same footage (above) to demonstrate how the reflector would have been a good low budget way of creating nice lighting in a new wave film. The reflector would have been used when making new wave films, due to its good effect, making useful for these low budget films. Making this link with the new wave in such a way means that we are sticking to the outline of brief. We are maintain a low budget and maiming use of things such as reflector to maximise what resources are available to us, such as natural lighting. The subject within the footage is a non-professional actor, again meeting the criteria of our brief by using techniques and conventions of the Nouvelle Vague.
reflrctor black and white from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
The piece of footage below, makes good use of the manual settings on the camera. We began by having the entire shot out of focus, and then having the subject walking directly towards the camera and coming into focus. We end up with a shallow depth of field, the subject, now in the foreground, in in complete focus, while the background of the shot has remained out of focus. This has a particularly good effect when edited into high contrast monochrome.
into focus bandw from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
Queens Road Establishing Shots
Footage From Queens Road
For this locations health and safety please click link.
We choose Queens Road, a local street in the town centre, as a location as we felt it may give us the kind of style we are looking for for our film. When filming there, we took some simple tracking shots of our subject walking in front of some empty shops.
Queens Rd panning blackandwhite from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
Something that we can improve, when shooting footage like this again, would be the framing. This is something that is repeatedly coming up, so I feel on the next shoot we really needed to think about the composition of the shots. As you can see from the above clip and screen shot, the lines are not quite horizontal and sit on a slant, though only slight it appears throughout this footage and is noticeable. To solve this next time we must ensure that tripod is as straight as possible by looking at the balance measure on the side, therefore avoiding any similar issues again.
What is nice about this particular piece of footage is the way in which the camera just sits back and 'watches' as the subject passes through the shot, this is a filming method adopted by the new wave directors in order to represent the monotony of life. 'something' doesn't always have to happen. By using a long shot for this piece we can get this suggestion that the world is just going by, an average day.
The above footage uses a narrow aperture of f/22, maiming the focus across the entire frame, this is quite normal for such as shot. As usual, because of the movement within the frame, we did want a low shutter speed, so to balance out the light entering the lens we used a higher ISO (800), that way the light the did get through was sensed much more easily.
We also took some shots of the subject crossing the road at the traffic lights, when doing this we tried out one shot whereby the camera came out into the road too and didn't just watch as the subject crossed. We thought by experimenting with such a shot we may find a more interesting vantage point. You can see this test below.
MVI 3035 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
The above piece of footage, maintains the focus of the subject in the foreground, but allows the background to blur and go out of focus. This tells us the piece was shot with a fairly wide aperture, (f/4 or f/5.6) giving us this shallow depth of field. due to this aperture setting we kept the ISO at a 'normal' 100, so as not to have an over-exposed image.
The hand held camera work is very much a new wave technique, allowing the film to feel very naturalistic and unpolished, clearly far more representative of real life than the perfected smooth camera work of Hollywood movies.
For this locations health and safety please click link.
We choose Queens Road, a local street in the town centre, as a location as we felt it may give us the kind of style we are looking for for our film. When filming there, we took some simple tracking shots of our subject walking in front of some empty shops.
We decided upon this area as it will allow our film to comment on the contemporary problems such as economic crisis, particularly in towns such as this where several shops are closing down. In particular, small privately owned businesses. This concept of contemporary issues, is something that we can link in with the the new wave, as one of the 'conventions' that would define the new wave style is the idea of addressing contemporary issues. The footage below, also shows the location in high contrast monochrome, relating it further to the films of the new wave sticking to the out;one of our brief.
Queens Rd panning blackandwhite from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
Something that we can improve, when shooting footage like this again, would be the framing. This is something that is repeatedly coming up, so I feel on the next shoot we really needed to think about the composition of the shots. As you can see from the above clip and screen shot, the lines are not quite horizontal and sit on a slant, though only slight it appears throughout this footage and is noticeable. To solve this next time we must ensure that tripod is as straight as possible by looking at the balance measure on the side, therefore avoiding any similar issues again.
What is nice about this particular piece of footage is the way in which the camera just sits back and 'watches' as the subject passes through the shot, this is a filming method adopted by the new wave directors in order to represent the monotony of life. 'something' doesn't always have to happen. By using a long shot for this piece we can get this suggestion that the world is just going by, an average day.
The above footage uses a narrow aperture of f/22, maiming the focus across the entire frame, this is quite normal for such as shot. As usual, because of the movement within the frame, we did want a low shutter speed, so to balance out the light entering the lens we used a higher ISO (800), that way the light the did get through was sensed much more easily.
We also took some shots of the subject crossing the road at the traffic lights, when doing this we tried out one shot whereby the camera came out into the road too and didn't just watch as the subject crossed. We thought by experimenting with such a shot we may find a more interesting vantage point. You can see this test below.
MVI 3035 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
The above piece of footage, maintains the focus of the subject in the foreground, but allows the background to blur and go out of focus. This tells us the piece was shot with a fairly wide aperture, (f/4 or f/5.6) giving us this shallow depth of field. due to this aperture setting we kept the ISO at a 'normal' 100, so as not to have an over-exposed image.
The hand held camera work is very much a new wave technique, allowing the film to feel very naturalistic and unpolished, clearly far more representative of real life than the perfected smooth camera work of Hollywood movies.
Location Scout 4 Preparation
Location Scout 4: Queens Road/5 Street Park
Tuesday 25th September
As we did for the previous shoot, we split into 2 groups to attempt to get a good range of footage. The decision to film in these locations was based upon a review of our original brief. The park location was one visited previous and we felt this gave us the atmosphere and 'gritty' area that we require to adopt the style of the New Wave. Of course, for this shoot too, we were working with a low budget, this is something that we continually link us to the French New Wave movement.
The second location on this shoot, Queens Road, was selected again for it grittiness. As you will see from the footage (on a later post), there are several closed down shops on the one street, this questions the current stability of the economy and how this may effect contemporary society. This questioning and statements on contemporary issues was big feature of the New Wave Movement across all countries but the French in particular. Therefore using this location is perfect to fit in with our initial brief.
Equipment List:
Tripod - So we could get good, steady shots, particularly when filming along Queens Road.
2 SLR Cameras - 1 Canon 600D DSLR and 1 Canon 500D DSLR for multiple angles, and shot variety etc.
1 Lumix Camera - for stills to document the shoot.
Reflector - To experiment more with lighting.
When planning for this shoot we again compiled a list of things we would have liked to achieve. So for example, the use of the reflector was a must as we had not yet experiment with light in any way. Also, some more tracking shots on Queens Road (for location purposes - to a get an idea of the area) and close up shots, cut outs of the long/mid shots that we are taking.
Health and Safety
As one of the locations from todays shoot is right next a busy high street and road, therefore, considering possible health and safety issues is vital. Being cautious of the traffic and ensuring we are clearly seen is important and making sure the equipment is kept a safe distance from road to avoid accidents must be taken into account. Maintaining a sensible, professional atmosphere between the crew members is a must, avoiding any problems or arguments that could lead to issues.
As it is a busy high street, many people will be walking up and down, particularly as we will be timing mid-afternoon, this mean we must be very aware of ourselves and the equipment. no unnecessary equipment should be taken, this means we will be able to control the equipment more efficiently, avoiding damage/loss/theft. Another point to consider, would be how the members of the public feel about being on the camera as getting them in the background go shots will be unavoidable. We must ensure that they feel comfortable and if stated other we must take that into consideration. Should we enter a shop on the high street film, a permission form must be signed and dated before filming takes place, and on the possibility of this happening, after a form has been signed, an efficient risk assessment of the new location must be carried out and then filming can begin.
As the images below show, the second location we took to on this shoot was the park from an earlier shoot. This again means members of the public will be around, we must take this into consideration. Also, the condition of the ground, must be thought about, particularly as we had a subject sitting not the floor. A risk assessment of the area needs to be carried out, checking for any unsanitary or dangerous objects, if so a new area should be found as we had no way of safely removing the objects. We had to consider the stability of the tripod, to ensure a blanked imaged and avoid damage to equipment should the tripod be uneven and fall.
Tuesday 25th September
As we did for the previous shoot, we split into 2 groups to attempt to get a good range of footage. The decision to film in these locations was based upon a review of our original brief. The park location was one visited previous and we felt this gave us the atmosphere and 'gritty' area that we require to adopt the style of the New Wave. Of course, for this shoot too, we were working with a low budget, this is something that we continually link us to the French New Wave movement.
The second location on this shoot, Queens Road, was selected again for it grittiness. As you will see from the footage (on a later post), there are several closed down shops on the one street, this questions the current stability of the economy and how this may effect contemporary society. This questioning and statements on contemporary issues was big feature of the New Wave Movement across all countries but the French in particular. Therefore using this location is perfect to fit in with our initial brief.
Equipment List:
Tripod - So we could get good, steady shots, particularly when filming along Queens Road.
2 SLR Cameras - 1 Canon 600D DSLR and 1 Canon 500D DSLR for multiple angles, and shot variety etc.
1 Lumix Camera - for stills to document the shoot.
Reflector - To experiment more with lighting.
When planning for this shoot we again compiled a list of things we would have liked to achieve. So for example, the use of the reflector was a must as we had not yet experiment with light in any way. Also, some more tracking shots on Queens Road (for location purposes - to a get an idea of the area) and close up shots, cut outs of the long/mid shots that we are taking.
Health and Safety
As one of the locations from todays shoot is right next a busy high street and road, therefore, considering possible health and safety issues is vital. Being cautious of the traffic and ensuring we are clearly seen is important and making sure the equipment is kept a safe distance from road to avoid accidents must be taken into account. Maintaining a sensible, professional atmosphere between the crew members is a must, avoiding any problems or arguments that could lead to issues.
As it is a busy high street, many people will be walking up and down, particularly as we will be timing mid-afternoon, this mean we must be very aware of ourselves and the equipment. no unnecessary equipment should be taken, this means we will be able to control the equipment more efficiently, avoiding damage/loss/theft. Another point to consider, would be how the members of the public feel about being on the camera as getting them in the background go shots will be unavoidable. We must ensure that they feel comfortable and if stated other we must take that into consideration. Should we enter a shop on the high street film, a permission form must be signed and dated before filming takes place, and on the possibility of this happening, after a form has been signed, an efficient risk assessment of the new location must be carried out and then filming can begin.
As the images below show, the second location we took to on this shoot was the park from an earlier shoot. This again means members of the public will be around, we must take this into consideration. Also, the condition of the ground, must be thought about, particularly as we had a subject sitting not the floor. A risk assessment of the area needs to be carried out, checking for any unsanitary or dangerous objects, if so a new area should be found as we had no way of safely removing the objects. We had to consider the stability of the tripod, to ensure a blanked imaged and avoid damage to equipment should the tripod be uneven and fall.
Innovative Camera Movements
Tracking Shot Taken from Inside Car
For health and safety on this shoot please click link.
All of the footage on this post took inspiration directly from a handful of Neuvelle Vague movies, as it is this style of film making we are aiming to achieve and is stated in our original brief.
While thinking about the possible shots we could experiment with on this particular shoot, we decided that one of the group could try out a tracking shot taken from the inside of a car. Long tracking shots are something that are used throughout the new wave, such as at the end of Truffaut's 400 Blows. Shooting from the car has particular reference to Godard's A Bout de Souffle (as is with the inspiration for the escalator shots).
MVI 0051 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
As it was not my group that went out to film the particular piece of footage I can't comment on the ease at which the shot could be taken, but from what I understand from talking to the group the most difficult part of shooting this was maintaing good focus and keeping a strong composition within the frame. This is something that can be seen from viewing the short clips they shot. For example, as the road is not a perfectly smooth surface, any bumps could cause a car wing mirror to appear briefly with the frame. The clip I have chosen is one of the most successful of this type and manages to avoid having any of the car coming into the shot.
What you can also see form the above footage, is how under-exposed it is. This is due to the fact that, to keep the image in focus, the aperture was set to an f/22, this causes less light to get into the camera due to the the narrow lens opening. When setting the aperture to this, it is vital that the shutter speed and ISO are correctly adjusted to counteract the small amount of the light getting into the camera. In this case, it would have been best to change the ISO to a more sensitive setting, the higher light sensitivity would have avoided this under-exposure. I say altering the ISO would be best, as due to the nature of the footage, there is a lot of movement, therefore slowing the shutter speed would have caused the footage to be very blurred. Shots such as these require a fairly higher shutter speed, to capture as many shots per frame as possible.
Below are some screen shots of ones that did not work quite so well.
Location 2
Merry-Go-Round
For the health and safety from this shoot (below footage) please click link.
MVI 9780 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
This shot was taken on a merry-go-round in the park location chosen for that day. The shot was achieved by getting the subject to stand on one side and then setting up the camera and tripod on the opposite side. We then spun the merry-go-round with both the camera and subject stood upon it, allowing the subject to remain completely in focus while the background spun around it. This kind of shot links in well with the idea of the french new wave influence as we are making use of objects etc that all ready move, much like the way in which Godard places the camera on the car and the escalator. The idea of achieving such shots with such a low budget reflects the work of the new wave directors and therefore, maintains a link to a our brief.
Something that we can take from this shoot, is that though this shot has worked well, the aperture (deeper discussion of aperture in a future post) is an element that we can work on the next time we try this kind of shot. In this shot, if we were to alter the aperture, to say an f/4, we could achieve a more shallow depth of field, creating a more stylised look by keeping the subject in focus and the background out of focus.
Shots From Escalator and Lift
For the health and safety outline from this shoot (below footage) please click link.
As we were in a shopping centre we decided to take advantage of the escalators, to see if we could shoot any interesting footage by placing the camera and subject onto the moving platform. The initial idea was to almost imitate the scene from A Bout de Souffle (Godard). We shot the subject moving up and down the escalators from a few different angles (though I feel more would have given us a better variety to work which is something we should consider for future filming, particularly when it comes to filming the final footage). We achieved this footage by using a hand-held technique and having the camera several steps in front or behind the subject whilst travelling on the escalator. The result offers a smooth tracking shot, at a consistent distance from the subject.
Another technique we experimented with, was the idea of placing the camera inside a lift and shooting through the glass panels whilst the lift descended, we thought this possible due to glass doors that this particular lift had. On attempting this shot, we soon realised it would not work quite as we hoped. Though the doors are glass, the platform etc on the outside got in the way of actually seeing any activity on the outside of the lift, defeating the object of the shot entirely. As you can see from the clip below. I feel this particular experiment has potential, perhaps with an entirely glass lift it could work. This idea of experimenting with new techniques and making the most out of what little budget there is to work with, is a string connection to the new wave movement.
The two pieces of footage below, are two different angles that we tried whilst shooting on the escalator. This definitely turned out to be a fairly successful experiment and we will definitely consider using such a shot in the final final, something that I feel could be worked on for the next time would be the composition and framing of the shot to ensure that we stick as much as possible to the rule of thirds and leading lines rule etc. This should hopefully give us a more professional looking finish as well as a stylised feel due to the use of innovative camera movement. The camera work is something that Godard's Breathless inspired us try out, this keeps in with the new wave style we are trying to achieve. This, as well as the fact we are shooting with a very low budget and the subject within the footage is a non-actor, keeps us in line with our brief.
The footage below, off the subject travelling down the escalator, is shot with a narrow aperture, recognisable from the focus of the image. to ensure that the image was correctly lit, we had to ensure we adjusted the other settings in relation to this aperture. The shopping centre in which we were filming was very well lit, therefore the narrow lens opening was not too much of a problem, so we simply had to up the ISO just slightly.
One thing that is definitely notable and could be improved, is the position of the camera behind the subject, if we were to have the subject a little more central to the shot, the over the shoulder style shot would have worked much better and the entire balance of the image would be better, improved the footage as a whole.
MVI 3018 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
MVI 3019 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
This piece of footage (below)was shaken during our shoot in Oxford. As we tried to experiment as much as possible during this shoot to maintain as much footage as we could, we opted here for a piece shot at an oblique angle to see what kind of effect this would give off. This unusually camera style is, in some ways reflective of the New Wave as it uses a different technique to a mainstream movie. However, it does take the image into a more surreal feel and New Wave tends to stick to realism, due to its context of society etc.
MVI 6393 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
For the health and safety from the shoot (above footage) please click link.
For health and safety on this shoot please click link.
All of the footage on this post took inspiration directly from a handful of Neuvelle Vague movies, as it is this style of film making we are aiming to achieve and is stated in our original brief.
While thinking about the possible shots we could experiment with on this particular shoot, we decided that one of the group could try out a tracking shot taken from the inside of a car. Long tracking shots are something that are used throughout the new wave, such as at the end of Truffaut's 400 Blows. Shooting from the car has particular reference to Godard's A Bout de Souffle (as is with the inspiration for the escalator shots).
MVI 0051 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
As it was not my group that went out to film the particular piece of footage I can't comment on the ease at which the shot could be taken, but from what I understand from talking to the group the most difficult part of shooting this was maintaing good focus and keeping a strong composition within the frame. This is something that can be seen from viewing the short clips they shot. For example, as the road is not a perfectly smooth surface, any bumps could cause a car wing mirror to appear briefly with the frame. The clip I have chosen is one of the most successful of this type and manages to avoid having any of the car coming into the shot.
What you can also see form the above footage, is how under-exposed it is. This is due to the fact that, to keep the image in focus, the aperture was set to an f/22, this causes less light to get into the camera due to the the narrow lens opening. When setting the aperture to this, it is vital that the shutter speed and ISO are correctly adjusted to counteract the small amount of the light getting into the camera. In this case, it would have been best to change the ISO to a more sensitive setting, the higher light sensitivity would have avoided this under-exposure. I say altering the ISO would be best, as due to the nature of the footage, there is a lot of movement, therefore slowing the shutter speed would have caused the footage to be very blurred. Shots such as these require a fairly higher shutter speed, to capture as many shots per frame as possible.
Below are some screen shots of ones that did not work quite so well.
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| Here you can see the wing mirror in the bottom right hand corner. This screen shot also gives an example of how keeping focus can be difficult, as you see the focus is quite crisp. |
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| This clip it is quite clear to see, again, the wing mirror creeping into the shot. |
One of the shots that were taken on the this shoot proved to be very successful, especially with regards to the 'innovative' camera movements that the brief specifies in order to maintain a close influence from the French New Wave.
Merry-Go-Round
For the health and safety from this shoot (below footage) please click link.
MVI 9780 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
This shot was taken on a merry-go-round in the park location chosen for that day. The shot was achieved by getting the subject to stand on one side and then setting up the camera and tripod on the opposite side. We then spun the merry-go-round with both the camera and subject stood upon it, allowing the subject to remain completely in focus while the background spun around it. This kind of shot links in well with the idea of the french new wave influence as we are making use of objects etc that all ready move, much like the way in which Godard places the camera on the car and the escalator. The idea of achieving such shots with such a low budget reflects the work of the new wave directors and therefore, maintains a link to a our brief.
After the success of this particular shot, we aim to achieve something similar in all our other shoots, to create footage that is inspired by the neuvelle vague style as well as coming with our ways of ways to cleverly move the camera while focussing on a subject, to give our film an innovative style.
Something that we can take from this shoot, is that though this shot has worked well, the aperture (deeper discussion of aperture in a future post) is an element that we can work on the next time we try this kind of shot. In this shot, if we were to alter the aperture, to say an f/4, we could achieve a more shallow depth of field, creating a more stylised look by keeping the subject in focus and the background out of focus.
Shots From Escalator and Lift
For the health and safety outline from this shoot (below footage) please click link.
Another technique we experimented with, was the idea of placing the camera inside a lift and shooting through the glass panels whilst the lift descended, we thought this possible due to glass doors that this particular lift had. On attempting this shot, we soon realised it would not work quite as we hoped. Though the doors are glass, the platform etc on the outside got in the way of actually seeing any activity on the outside of the lift, defeating the object of the shot entirely. As you can see from the clip below. I feel this particular experiment has potential, perhaps with an entirely glass lift it could work. This idea of experimenting with new techniques and making the most out of what little budget there is to work with, is a string connection to the new wave movement.
The two pieces of footage below, are two different angles that we tried whilst shooting on the escalator. This definitely turned out to be a fairly successful experiment and we will definitely consider using such a shot in the final final, something that I feel could be worked on for the next time would be the composition and framing of the shot to ensure that we stick as much as possible to the rule of thirds and leading lines rule etc. This should hopefully give us a more professional looking finish as well as a stylised feel due to the use of innovative camera movement. The camera work is something that Godard's Breathless inspired us try out, this keeps in with the new wave style we are trying to achieve. This, as well as the fact we are shooting with a very low budget and the subject within the footage is a non-actor, keeps us in line with our brief.
 |
| This is a screen shot of the scene we imitated from Godard's A Bout de Souffle |
The footage below, off the subject travelling down the escalator, is shot with a narrow aperture, recognisable from the focus of the image. to ensure that the image was correctly lit, we had to ensure we adjusted the other settings in relation to this aperture. The shopping centre in which we were filming was very well lit, therefore the narrow lens opening was not too much of a problem, so we simply had to up the ISO just slightly.
One thing that is definitely notable and could be improved, is the position of the camera behind the subject, if we were to have the subject a little more central to the shot, the over the shoulder style shot would have worked much better and the entire balance of the image would be better, improved the footage as a whole.
MVI 3018 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
The clip in which the subject is travelling up the escalator (below), and we can see her face, is fairly well framed, the escalator runs directly down the middle of the frame, balancing the image nicely and the lines of the escalator direct nicely to the edge of the frame. However, the actual angle of the camera doesn't allow for the subject to be central to the image, i feel the camera angle is too high, therefore we do not see much of the subjects face. Definitely something that can be improved for the next shoot in this way. I also feel that the subject herself, is begins too dark though the rest of the shot is well lit, perhaps the use of a reflector would have improved this, as changing any camera tech settings (aperture/ISO/shutter speed) would have risked over-exposing the rest of image.
MVI 3019 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
This piece of footage (below)was shaken during our shoot in Oxford. As we tried to experiment as much as possible during this shoot to maintain as much footage as we could, we opted here for a piece shot at an oblique angle to see what kind of effect this would give off. This unusually camera style is, in some ways reflective of the New Wave as it uses a different technique to a mainstream movie. However, it does take the image into a more surreal feel and New Wave tends to stick to realism, due to its context of society etc.
MVI 6393 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
For the health and safety from the shoot (above footage) please click link.
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Camera Techniques: Multistory Car Park
Establishing Shots From Car Park Roof
For this locations health and safety please see previous post or click link.
After our previous shoots we became aware of the fact that we had not experimented with different vantage points. The shots from the rooftop allowed us to experiment with filming townscapes, this is something that I had never done before and so provided some great experience and we produced some interesting footage. (clips to be put up soon) These are some shots that I feel would be worth considering for our final film as it does provide us with some brilliant establishing shots as well expanding the shot variety that can we could include.
We did however, run into one problem, that will need to be addressed into to avoid it happening again. This was that one of the cameras we took up to the rooftop, would not record any footage, I tried taking some still images to see if that would work and they did, though only a few would take before a warning message appeared informing me that the SD card was full. Therefore I double checked the card to see what was on there, and found there to be nothing, other than the few stills I had just taken. So after going through the settings I knew of that could affect this I could not come across the source of the problem, meaning we only had one camera that was able to capture any footage.
After taking the cameras back, the technician informed that it may be that SD card needing re-formatting, he showed me how to do this and it seem to rectify the problem. Though this hindered our shoot to some extent, as we could not get as much, footage as we'd like to have got, it has given us the knowledge and experience so that we are able to check this should the problem occur again.
Footage From The Car Park Roof:
MVI 3014 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
This is a short clip form the footage we manage to shoot at the top if the miltistory carpark, we choose this particular location as it offered us an interesting vantage point that we had not previously been able to capture. On top of this, we were able to capture a good establishing shot of the top, that we not otherwise have been able to shoot.
One problem with this piece off footage, which is quite noticeable, it that the pan is rather unsmooth, making the entire piece look unprofessional. This could have been rectified by perhaps loosing the screws to make the head of the tripod move with more ease. Alternatively we could have taken out the fluid head tripod, which in hindsight would have been more appropriate due the shots we wanted to get.
As you can see from the clip, we kept to a narrow aperture (f/22) in order to keep the entire shot in focus. Though this meant the image wasn't getting in enough light, but as we wanted this to be a panning we did not want to to slow the shutter speed to compensate for the narrow aperture, otherwise we may have risked blurring the image. Therefore, we upped the ISO (800) slightly so that the image didn't appear under-exposed, thankfully this didn't cause too much grain as the ISO didn't need to be at its highest.
This kind of shot maintains the points laid down in our brief as it is a low budget way of gaining good establishing shots, Neuvelle Vague directors always had a small budget to work with, this is the reason the became well known for the innovation and creation with camera angles and shots and they did have the budget to achieve them the way a Hollywood film crew might.
For this locations health and safety please see previous post or click link.
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| Screen Shot of Townscape |
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| Screen Shot of Townscape from different angle |
After our previous shoots we became aware of the fact that we had not experimented with different vantage points. The shots from the rooftop allowed us to experiment with filming townscapes, this is something that I had never done before and so provided some great experience and we produced some interesting footage. (clips to be put up soon) These are some shots that I feel would be worth considering for our final film as it does provide us with some brilliant establishing shots as well expanding the shot variety that can we could include.
After taking the cameras back, the technician informed that it may be that SD card needing re-formatting, he showed me how to do this and it seem to rectify the problem. Though this hindered our shoot to some extent, as we could not get as much, footage as we'd like to have got, it has given us the knowledge and experience so that we are able to check this should the problem occur again.
Footage From The Car Park Roof:
MVI 3014 from Sammie Masters-Hopkins on Vimeo.
This is a short clip form the footage we manage to shoot at the top if the miltistory carpark, we choose this particular location as it offered us an interesting vantage point that we had not previously been able to capture. On top of this, we were able to capture a good establishing shot of the top, that we not otherwise have been able to shoot.
One problem with this piece off footage, which is quite noticeable, it that the pan is rather unsmooth, making the entire piece look unprofessional. This could have been rectified by perhaps loosing the screws to make the head of the tripod move with more ease. Alternatively we could have taken out the fluid head tripod, which in hindsight would have been more appropriate due the shots we wanted to get.
As you can see from the clip, we kept to a narrow aperture (f/22) in order to keep the entire shot in focus. Though this meant the image wasn't getting in enough light, but as we wanted this to be a panning we did not want to to slow the shutter speed to compensate for the narrow aperture, otherwise we may have risked blurring the image. Therefore, we upped the ISO (800) slightly so that the image didn't appear under-exposed, thankfully this didn't cause too much grain as the ISO didn't need to be at its highest.
This kind of shot maintains the points laid down in our brief as it is a low budget way of gaining good establishing shots, Neuvelle Vague directors always had a small budget to work with, this is the reason the became well known for the innovation and creation with camera angles and shots and they did have the budget to achieve them the way a Hollywood film crew might.
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