The Magic of Movies

What are three key things to remember after watching this video when using the Benro tripod? Make sure camera is counter balanced correctly so it does not fall off. The counter balance settings are 5.5 lb, 9.9 lb, 14.3 lb, 17.6 lb. Make sure to set your tripod to zero before putting away. Don't let go of your camera even if you think it's more stable. These three thing's will help you be safe with your camera.

What insights did our guest speaker, Dave Desio, provide that might shape your perspective on the film industry and its behind-the-scenes roles? How do you think their experiences might influence your career aspirations or understanding of the entertainment world?  Dave Desio spoke a lot about how we might be interested in only one specific role but when we get to actually experience being a part of a big project our minds might change on what position of the job we want to do. This was something I knew about before and he got more into depth and detail about it. Dave also gave us more advice about how you can't mess up and you have to do your best. My perspective hasn't changed much these are things I feel we are supposed to know especially if we're trying to take it seriously and become a professional in the film industry.  

What is look room? What is lead room? What are they important to the video you are shooting? Look room is the sibling of head room. Looking room is the amount of space in front of the subjects gaze. In order to get the looking room you're going to want to use the rule of thirds. You might be asking what is the rule of thirds? The rule of thirds is the basic rule of composition in film production and you divide the frame visually into thirds.  Lead room is the amount of space you have on your subject and this could also be the space for whatever direction your subject is moving towards to (left or right side of frame). These two things are important because without a proper look room you will get lost and this just breaks the eye-line rule. Having a improper lead room will lead viewers to get confused with where the subject is heading to it will make the viewer lose a sense of direction and it simply does not convey clear story telling which makes your work appear messy. It is cru...

What is headroom? Why is it important to the videos you are making?  Headroom is the amount of space below a roof, ceiling, or bridge, or below the top of something. It's important because if you have too little headroom it can look uncomfortable claustrophobic. If you have too much headroom it can look unbalanced and imposing, you should have not too little and not too much. The main goal of headroom is to create a visual balance. The most visually important element to shooting with a person is putting the camera where the eyes meet it gives a good balanced look. 

What are three key tips to hand-holding your camcorder? How can you implement these starting today? Hand holding your camera gives a more personal touch to your project. Hand holding your camera adds a better sense of realism. Three given tips in the article are hold the camera close to your body, relax your shoulders, and use support rigs. One of the most common mistakes is holding your camera at arms length. This tends to create a more shaky look which messes up your shots and wastes your time by having no other choice but to retake them. It's a common problem you can solve by simply holding the camera closer to your body with your elbows, close to the sides. Your shoulders play a big part in holding a camera. Depending how you are with your shoulders being tense makes your camera shaky. Relax your shoulders take a few deep breaths before shooting. If you know you're going to be holding your camera for a long time use a support rig, doing so will create less shakiness and mo...

What are the key parts of a professional tripod? What does each important part of the tripod do? A spreader is a three-armed star with a cup at the end of each one. The spreader prevents the tripod from slipping and keeps it stable. The most important part of a tripod is the head.A good head has at least four essential systems: handle, release, drag and lock. The last key component to a good professional tripod are the legs. Having the right legs for a tripod means a flexible/adjustable length. 

What is headroom? What is look room? What lead room? Why are each of these important for your composition? Headroom is an element you should consider when framing your subject. Headroom is the amount of space between the top of someone’s head and the top of the frame. Look room is the space that you leave in front of someone’s face on the screen. Lead room is the amount of space in front of, or in the direction that the subject is moving. These three things are the main factors to having good composition they make sure your frame is right the spacing is correct and nothing looks unproportioned.

A Gain in videography is the relative difference between the input and the output video signal. It is mainly used to brighten the low lit or dark videos. Gain amplifies the video signal coming from your camera sensor electronically.In simple terms, it is increasing and decreasing the brightness of the image. But so does the Exposure. Yes, Exposure is the primary function of a camera to get a perfect picture devoid of noises and blurs. Gain regulates the light sensitivity of the camera. The lower the gain, the less noise in the image. The higher the gain the more noise.

What is an ND filter? Why should you use an ND filter while shooting video?  ND= Neutral Density is essentially sunglasses for your camera. ND gives you the option to have more or less exposure. Most of the time you're going to want to keep your shutter and ISO the same you don't want to move it around. What you want to do is set the neutral density filter. You're not going to lose quality for using the ND filter. You should use an ND filter to produce more accurate colors for your project.

What do focus and exposure do? How do you check to see if your subject is in focus when shooting? How do you check to make sure your subject is exposed correctly?  Focus is the act of concentrating your interest or activity on something. Manual focus is so important that most professional cameras don't even have an auto-focus feature. The iris is an adjustable opening (aperture), which controls the amount of light coming through (i.e. the "exposure"). Before using your manual iris you need to know what the correct exposure looks like in your viewfinder (note:if your camera has the option to adjust viewfinder settings, you'll need to do that first.) A good start is to set your camera on auto-iris and frame a shot with nice, even lighting. Correct exposure contains three main factors, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. 

Why is focusing important? What is the best way to focus a video camera?  A clear and sharp picture is a hallmark of a professional shooter, regardless if you're using a 2000$ camera or 200,000$ camera. Make sure to always check your lens/focus, it is very crucial to your project. The best way to focus your camera is by doing it manually (manual focus mode). First you wanna zoom into your subject. If it's a person it's only their eyes that you zoom in on.

What is white balance? What color is outside lighting vs. inside lighting? Why is it important to white-balance your camera? You want to white balance whenever the lighting condition changes, such as you move indoors to outdoors, vice versa.  It's important to white balance your camera to have the perfect establishment of white. 

What are some key features of the Sony FS5 camcorder? What are three things you'd like to learn more about it in detail? The camera comes with the body itself, charger/AC adaptor, USB cable, a SD card to record. You can use the AC adaptor to power it. If you press full auto all your settings will be automatically set. Three things I'd like to learn more in detail, is the audio buttons. I'm also curious about the recording buttons and why theres more than one.

My horror film weekend was a bit chaotic because the heat and time we started shooting. Some of the challenges we encountered was the exposure and bright sunny weather. We filmed on a very hot day it was approximately 90 degrees. We overcame them by giving each other words of encouragement and trying to do the best we could to get the shots done. I think whats left is just fixing the mistakes and learning from them, overall it was a good experience.

Take some time and type up three goals that you have to complete during this unit. How do you plan on accomplishing these? My three goals this unit are to learn how to operate camcorders. I also want to learn how to the camera tools work such as white balance, focus, and zoom. The final thing I want to learn is some of the history of cameras, how they evolved, the different models, etc. I want to accomplish these by putting my full focus/attention on this unit, ask questions, try and learn from my other classmates, help each other.

What are three things overall that you've learned in this unit? What are two things that you would like to know more about in the editing unit? What is one question you still have about what we've covered?  Three things I learned in the editing unit were transitions, L cut J cut, frame-rates. Something I would like to go a little more into detail is codecs and frame-rates. I admit I still don't fully understand what a codec is, and that is why I'd like to be a little more informed over it. I also would like to go more into depth with frame-rates and how frame-rates can be used/work. Overall I do feel I know a lot more about editing and what it means, why it's important.