Advanced camera workshop

On Friday my class had our first advanced camera workshop. One thing that was different to last year was the fact that we are now using monitors more often to review back footage rather than the screen on the camera. This Is because the monitor is a lot better for getting accurate exposure and colour visuals than it is on the camera screen. This is different to last year as colour and exposure are more important for our music video. 

The second thing we looked at was shutter speed. Shutter speed is measured in degrees and is to do with how motion looks in front of the camera. 180 degrees is the neutral speed which makes things look like they are moving how they would in real life in front of the camera. If you decrease the shutter speed it makes the motion look more crisp and less blurry which may be used for action sequences/ sport and when you increase it, it makes the footage more smooth, which may be used for more dreamlike sequences. 

FPS stands for frames per second and 25 is the normal rate in the UK. It controls the speed of the footage e.g slow motion. Increasing FPS makes it slower and decreasing it makes it faster.

The lenses we are using this year are prime lenses, which contrast to last year when we were using zoom lenses. Prime lenses are better quality in terms of video footage, however they cannot zoom in our out, which the zoom lenses can. Each prime lens needs an adapter to fit onto the camera effectively and 18 is shooting wide, and as the number goes up e.g 50 the camera zooms in further. 

In order to get the correct focus, you use a measuring tape and measure from the focal plane on the camera to the object you are wanting in focus. Then you focus the lens depending on the distance from the camera to your subject of interest which is measured in feet. The number should match up with the red line on your camera lens. 

The lens box should either be completely open or shut completely to prevent any damage being done to the lens. A hybrid of both a zoom lens and a prime lens is a ‘Pictor zoom,’ lens, which essentially does both.

Finally, we worked on composing an imaginary band in a shot to make it look more interesting than a traditional set up, which we did by using depth and different angles as well as levels which worked.