To gain experience of filming I, as part of a group, created two sequences. The first is entitled 'the short life of a Kit Kat chunky'. We used one actress: Leah Robinson and one prop: The Kit Kat and filmed a short narrative beginning with someone buying the Kit Kat and ending with them eating it. This allowed us to gain experience in not only filming from a variety of different shot types but to learn for ourselves the difficulties in shooting a narrative. We struggled with two main aspects:
• Keeping continuity between shots - When we first began filming we didn't even think to ensure that every aspect of what we filmed was in the correct place and the camera was filming at the exact right angle/position etc when re filming a shot. This really made us think about planning specifically where the actress and props were positioned when filming and allowed us all to take a director’s role at some point as we had to instruct the other members in the group where to stand, position props or themselves etc. You will notice that during the sequence there is a cut to film Leah sitting down however, it is out of sequence from the previous shot as she is further away from the bench than before.
• The location - For part of the narrative we filmed outside. Again, having little camera experience we gave little thought to how different it is filming outside rather than inside. We soon realised that whilst we were previewing the clips that background noise and wind were an issue with filming outside. This wasn't a massive issue for this particular shoot because we knew beforehand we were going to mute the clips audio and add a music file on top but it made us think for future reference. Not only this but the lighting was an issue. The fact we were using an IPad meant that the focus was an auto focus and whilst filming it would automatically change therefore, causing the lighting to change. As a result, when we came to edit the clips together we had a smaller range of clips we could use due to them being noticeably different lighting. We realised that filming with natural light is more challenging in some cases and that maybe an IPad isn’t the best choice of equipment to use for filming.
However, although we had some difficulties we were happy with our final sequence and it gave us an important insight of parts of filming we would never have considered before. After we filmed the sequence it gave us a further chance to practise our editing skills. Having never used the 'Final Cut Pro' software before but knowing I have the intention to use it in our future projects, it gave us chance to explore the edits, transitions, filters, no diegetic and diegetic sounds/music and opening sequences we had available. Due to only having a short time we decided to focus initially on the editing and ensuring the sequence was in place before adding sound. This is why there is not sound on the whole video.
The second sequence we created was targeted specifically at practising continuity and ensuring that we could fit a series of different shots and shot types together so they flowed. We filmed the simple task of someone having a drink but throughout tried to use as many different shot types and movements. Again we struggled with some key aspects:
• Re-filming - As this project was specifically focusing on the fluidity of the sequence we paid huge attention to detail. This meant that when we previewed some of the shots we realised that the position of the actress’s hair, starting position of the cup, litter in the background or position of the actress when she sat down was different to the previous shot. This meant that when we first tried to piece them together there were chunks of the narrative missing which was not our aim. Therefore, we were forced to re-film some shots. Although this took us longer than anticipated when we compared our original sequence (with parts of the narrative missing) to the new one, we realised the importance of shooting a fluid sequence as it was easier for us to watch as viewers and appeared more professional.
• Props - we also struggled with the types of props we were using. We were given a plastic cup to use to drink out of. However, we soon realised that this was not suitable in our outdoor location we have chosen to use as it would blow away, fall over or move during our filming. Not only this but also the fact we chose a busy school location which meant we frequently had unplanned characters walking through the background of our shoots or we wasted time waiting for people to walk past until they were out of shot. Again this gave us an insight into the aspects of filming we had never considered before as you don't see them on camera.
We continued to discover things we had never considered in the editing stage, again in which we focused purely on the continuation of the shots. Having little experience using the software (Final Cut Pro which we used for the Kit Kat project above) we struggled to get to grips with how to crop shots accurately so the flowed from the previous. However, at the same time we picked up new tips and all felt like we understood the software much more by the end of the editing process. Due to focusing purely on continuation we didn't use any audio (we also muted the clips) and didn't add any effects or title sequences onto the final draft.
After experiencing the difficulties of filming first hand for the first time, the things I need to consider when doing my next filming project are:
1. Choosing a suitable location: not too busy, not too exposed to weather conditions and with suitable lighting.
2. The equipment we use to film: eg choosing a camera you can manually focus, change the lighting settings, a boom to prevent the camera picking up unwanted noises and using a tripod to keep the camera steady.
3. Continuation: making sure we pre-plan exactly where each prop should be positioned, the actor/actresses appearance and lighting conditions where possible.
4. Props: suitable for the location eg not too light and the right material so you can’t see the camera in the reflection.
5. the editing process: gain experience on how to use Final Cut Pro efficiently buy watching video tutorials or doing more practical work.
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