Prelim Post Production.

To access are footage on Final Cut Pro we have to check out the raw footage from Final Cut Server. Once this had been done the raw video footage will be acssesable from Final Cut Pro.

Intially all the raw footage is in the rushers bin, from there we went threw every take of each shot to see which had the the best performance, lighting, sound, ect. Once we had chosen the take that we wanted we draged it in the log bin, we repeated this for each shot. We do this so all the good takes are in one area where they can be quickly acsesed.

Once a take of every shot has been placed in the log bin you can begin edidting the shots. we did this by selecting the shot we wanted and cuting it into the length that we wanted in the clip viewer before dragging the shot into the timeline, we repeated this for all the shots we wanted to have shown in the finnished product.

We chose spesific shots at differnt times for differnt reasons, We started of the scene with a wide tracking point of view shot the cut to a wide shot. This established the area so the audience can see where the scene is set which will assist the narrative. Then we continued to cut to relevent shots of either a character talking or acother character reacting. This helps the narrative of the story work and make sence.

We tryed to show that one character was more domminate then the orther by haveing the intal shot looking up at one character makeing them look bigger and more powereful.

When cutting from a certain shot to another, you have to make sure the timeing of the shots are inline with each orther, as the diologue must link up. This adds to the continuity of the scene.  Continuity editing is the predominant style of editing in narrative cinema and television. The purpose of continuity editing is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to establish a logical coherence between shots.

Prelim Shoot day evaluation

Location we filmed our prelim task in the studio, which was assigned to us. We filmed against the black curtain and the location was very useful as it had all the necessary props needed for the task e.g. door. Also another pro for the location was that there weren’t any people walking through the room. During the filming, I acted as one of 2 directors, it was my job to shout ‘action’, ‘turn over’ and ‘stand by’, making sure to leave a lead in and enough of a lead out until ‘cut’. Another way I helped out the filming, I helped thing about how to set up the shots and camera angles.

Lighting in our prelim task, we used the lights in the room, as we didn’t have any spare lights, but luckily the lighting was quite good, so we didn’t have any annoying shadows in the faces, the lighting was quite soft; the and dark, which did help the scene as it gave it a more of an ‘inside’ feel, which is were it was set. The lighting was effective.

Directing we set up the camera correctly and correctly focused and white balanced, but there was one short scene of, Lea, our actress’ eyes where had her talking to the camera.  Luckily we bubbled the tripod, which means adjusted the tripod so it’s level, correctly every time, so the angle isn’t off. Framing the shot gave us a bit of a problem in the close up, as our actress kept moving her head during the scene, which meant that at some points in the close up her head was halfway out of the frame, but as we redid the scene several times and adjusted the frame we finally got a good shot. In the over the shoulder shots we adjusted the angel sever times, so that the back of the room wasn’t in the room, as it wasn’t in any other shot which would have confused the audience. As we got a storyboard from our teachers before we started filming, we know just how to film the sequence as it was clearly laid out for us which hugely sped up up the filming process. During the filming we got our actress to stay in the same spot each time which helped us to stay on the 180 degree line. The line was kept throughout the filming of the task. In order to make sure all of our cast and crew knew what was going on we used the appropriate terminology; for example before we did anything the director shouted ‘stand by’ which told everyone to get ready, as soon as everyone is where they should be, one would then say ‘turn over’, to which the camera man would reply ‘turning over’ which means the camera is rolling, after a short  lead in the director shouted ‘action’ letting the actors know it is their time to shine. We did several shots during the task; all the necessary ones on the story board and after we were done with these, we played around with focusing from and to things, to give nice effects and we did a point of view shot and a close up on our prob, the gun.

In general i learnt a lot about what goes on behind the camera with setting up every scene and the way you need to take several takes for one scene to work and continuity is something I had never thought about before the evaluation. front his task I have learnt how to use a camera, work from a story board and edit things together to give it a sense of continuity. 

Pelim Task Evaluation

Introduction to Video Camera

Camera operation and Functions.

Time code Shows the amount of time the camera has recorded in minutes, seconds and the frames per second(25).

White-balancing Where the camera is told which colour is white, this should be done every time the lighting changes.

Aperture settings The size of the whole in the camera which lets the light in. If zebra lines come up on the screen this show to much or to little light is being let into the camera.

Focusing On the camera there is a option to use manual or auto focus. Manual focus allows you to choose which part of the film should be focused but the camera must be focused correctly on the object. Auto focus does this automatically but the camera does not know what you want to focus on which you could lead to focusing on the wrong object.

Setting up the tripod When setting up the tripod, you need to make sure its pulled up to the correct height. Then place the camera into the tripod shoe.

Bubbling This allows you to have the camera to have the write angle, you do this by turning the nobs under the tripod.

Benefits of tripod shots Allows you to shoot a steady smooth shot.

Benefits of handheld shots Allows you to shoot exotic shots.

Different camera shots can represent different things, ie close ups can show emotion and a wide shot can show the surrounding area. shots are also used regally to show juxtaposition. 

Basic shots-

Wide shot

Mid  shot

Close up

Cut away

Cut in

Over the shoulder shot

Industry terminology

STAND BY / STANDING BY -Gets everyone  into position for the take. The AD calls STAND BY and the response tells them that everyone is prepped

TURN OVER / TURNING OVER (Roll film/Rolling etc) The director tells the camera operator to start filming - a few seconds of film is then run as the camera gets up to speed - this is often referred to as LEAD IN. Once done the Camera operator will respond TURNING OVER or ROLLING (etc) to indicate being up to speed

ACTION! - Cue for the actors to perform the take, and the crew to do their jobs. It is good practice for the Director to let the film run on a further few seconds after the take is completed before cutting - this is referred to as LEAD OUT

CUT! - Cue for the camera to stop running film. Industry practice expects that the camera operator does not CUT before being told

I found the move between normal camera and video cameras too be quite different, they work on the same in fairly similar ways in focus etc. but you still have a lot more to think about how the video looks and the continuity of it.