Pre-Production Intro

Pre-production is the steps and processes taken in planning before a shoot, so that production runs smoothly and time isn't wasted on things that aren't prepared. Once a filmmaker gets an idea in their head, one of the first steps is writing it down, preferably in a place with other ideas, so they can go back to it and remember their thoughts. If they choose to pursue the idea, they should pitch it to others to get feedback and reshape their original idea. From there, it's about creating a script and storyboards to show the dialogue between actors, and how each scene will play out. Before they can go to a camera, a filmmaker should create a shot list that can serve as a guideline for how to shoot each scene, so they don't have to be making those decisions during production with all the heavy equipment.

Framing and Angles in Film/TV

Now that I have a general understanding of framing, angles, and composition, I'm able to recognize them in cinema and television and appreciate their purpose. Before this unit, I was aware of some of the general framing like long shots and close ups, but there were so many others that I had no idea existed. However now that I've been taught what to look for, it's hard not to appreciate it when something like a low angle shows up in a movie I'm watching, and the context perfectly fits the reasons I've learned it's used (making characters appear more strong and powerful). Outside of film/tv, I see concepts like composition play out in the real world in interior design, painting, and theater. In those cases, it's also about finding a balanced composition where elements in the foreground hold a larger meaning than what is placed in the background, and different elements come together to promote symmetry and uniformity.    

Camera/Composition Summary

The camera and composition unit has taught me the mechanics of white balancing a camera and why it's done, the different parts to a tripod and how to operate them, and how to create a good composition through general rules like the Rule of Thirds and headroom. I'm still curious about the Golden Rule because I see how it's applied in certain movies, but I don't know how to follow it for my own clips. I think it would be helpful if the LCD monitors had the Fibonacci sequence drawn out as a reference, so I could position the camera according to that.  Also, I still have questions about the proper way to shoot in the sun, because I don't know if it's best for the subject to stand with their back toward the sun, or facing it. I would like to learn more about others ways to export footage from a camera, because I'm curious of how to transfer video files to someone when I don't want to just loan them my SD card.

Power Through Composition

You can give your characters power by framing them in the center, placing them in the foreground, or positioning them somewhere in the upper section of the frame. In general, placing a character dead center gives off a sense of authority where the viewer's eyes are directed right to it. Since the foreground is "first in line" and closest to the audience, placing your subject there allows them to appear powerful. We generally look at the larger images first because they produce more aesthetic energy, so a character in the foreground would have attention directed right to it, making them seem important. Also the upper section of the frame can depict power because characters that are placed there are "on top" of those in the lower frame, which altogether puts them in a position of authority.

The Hitchcock Rule

The Hitchcock Rule is that the size of any object in a frame should be proportional to its importance to the story at that moment. It can be applied both on set and in the editing room to ensure that only the details that are really needed are captured. I put a close up of a clock ticking in one of my films to depict the passage of time and show the patience of one of the characters. I chose to highlight that detail because I didn't want the camera on the subject the whole time, and I wanted some other clips I could mix in. Since time was significant to that portion of the story, I figured it was proper to film a close-up of the clock, so in essence I was following Hitchcock's Rule without even knowing it.

A Fresh Look at Tripods

The main components of a professional tripod are the fluid head, the pan bar, the legs, the leg locks, the spreader, and the boots. The most important is the head, as it serves as an attachment for the camera, and has four essential systems (handle, release, drag, and lock). The pan bar is detachable and is essentially a bent arm that allows you to operate the camera. For the legs, they're usually extendable in two sections so the height can be adjusted, and they can be collapsed for storage. The leg locks are responsible for locking the legs at a certain height, and the boots protect the bottom of the legs so the tripod can be used in external conditions. Finally, the spreader keeps the stability of the legs so they don't collapse on themselves, and can be adjusted to accommodate the legs at certain heights.  

Screen Direction

Characters should enter and exit the frame in correspondence with the previous shot. For example, if they exit one shot at screen right, they should enter the next shot from the left. This same principle applies to diagonal perspectives, so a person that exits in a close-up screen left should reenter the next shot from the right. If these rules aren't followed, the audience can become confused over the direction the subject is moving, as the cuts seem to lack continuity. For digital movement in the frame, there's less restriction, but you should ensure you're avoiding a graphic imbalance, so the subject's size doesn't drastically change from one shot to the next.

Angles and Composition

The difference between a high and a low shot is the position of the camera and its angle on the subject, as well as the perspective that's given off. A high angle is captured from a camera placed above the subject looking down, whereas a low angle positions the camera below a subject's eyes to look up at them. When you show them on screen, a high angle generally makes a character appear weak or submissive, whereas a low angle does quite the opposite and makes the subject appear powerful or dominant. An eye-level angle is different because it requires the camera to be placed right at the subject's height, causing the least discomfort to the audience. This technique often gives off no dramatic power and remains neutral, which makes it good for interviews or news castings.

Framing Shots

A full shot contains the entire body including the feet in the frame, a medium shot is cut around the subject's waist and shows their upper body, and a close up shot mainly frames just the subject's head. Over the shoulder shots refer more to the angle than the exact framing, as you can have the shot portrayed with a full, medium, or close up frame.  The two shot is no different as you can apply different shots to achieve the effect. Although commonly mistaken, the types of shots and the framing don't have a large correlation with the lens you choose to use.  You can achieve the shot with any type of lens, only the image will have a different look and effect depending on the size of the lens.

Camera Movement

Some mentioned camera movements are panning the camera, trucking, and dollying. They're used to add a sense of motion to each shot, therefore infusing kinetic energy that can accentuate the action in the scene. Different movements can give off different emotions, like a dolly shot giving off discomfort as it slowly moves in on a character's face, or a pan showing distance between the subject and their location. I think a good film that I could go home and study for its camera movement is The Untouchables, because there are several moments where unusual movements are utilized to add angst to the gangster vibes. For instance, there is an infamous shot where the camera pans around the table  to shows each of the men's expression, which is something I want to look into because its an uncommon usage of a pan.

Zooming vs. Dolly

Zooming is simply a magnification of the image, whereas a dolly requires the camera to actually move. A dolly shot can be very useful because it displaces other objects in the background and creates a three-dimensional feel, whereas a zoom shot lacks depth creation. Dolly shots can be very useful when trying to show a closer image of a subject, as there's less room for wide-angle distortion, a common flaw in zooming. Similar to a dolly, a trucking shot also requires the camera to move, only from side to side. This technique helps when shooting a person in motion because it allows the subject's position in the frame to stay constant, which gives the audience the feeling that they're experiencing the action first-hand.

Rule of Thirds

The "Rule of Thirds" is a tip for where to place subjects in the frame to make the image look more interesting and natural to the eyes. In essence, this rule divides the 16:9 image into a 3x3 frame, creating both three sections horizontally and vertically. Generally, it's advised to frame your subject  on one of the points of intersection in the grid, and to adjust their eye-line to be on the top horizontal line. Also when filming something like a horizon or a sunset, it's important to use the 3x3 grid and place the phenomenon on one of the horizontal lines. In the future, it's important to remember this rule because it gives a basis of how to compose a decent shot, however it's also important to recognize that the rule can be broken when you want to create a certain effect.

6 Rules of Video Composition

The rule of thirds is a guideline that divides the frame into a 3x3 frame, and advises your subject's eyes to be framed on the uppermost line, near one of the points of intersection. It's important when composing an image because it leaves the proper headspace and appears natural, whereas a shot that doesn't follow the guideline has too much negative space and can appear centered, which looks awkward altogether. The 180 degree rule says that the camera should never cross the imaginary line between two individuals having a discourse, otherwise it will confuse the audience. When shooting a video, this technique should be used for every conversation because it's necessary to switch up the camera angles, but for continuity reasons you must be aware of where you can and can't move the camera. You can create depths with your shots by positioning and framing elements of the scene, like distancing the subject from the background and having them move through the frame, rather than across it.

Framing Good Shots

Headroom is the amount of space between an actor's head and the top of the screen. An important tip to remember is to place the subject's eyes on the top third imaginary line, because if the head is any lower, there's too much awkward space above the actor, and too high would create a cramped feeling where the head is in danger of going off screen. A similar concept is look room, which is the space left in front of someone's face, so it gives them room to breathe and space to move . Similar to headroom, it's important to get this amount of space right, because too little can make your subject appear boxed-in and confined by the side of the screen. Lead room is similar to look room, only it applies to moving objects like cars so the motion doesn't seem impeded and it appears the movement has somewhere to go.

Controlling Exposure

To control the exposure of your image, you need to know how to adjust the shutter speed, the aperture, and the gain control or element sensitivity. In general, your shutter speed is responsible for the motion blur of the image, and it's usually set to double the frame rate. However, the feature can also be used stylistically, as a higher shutter speed makes the action in the shot appear more staccato, and a lower shutter speed makes the action appear more blurry, and almost dream-like. Another element is aperture, which controls how much light enters the lens; the larger the aperture, the more light that gets in. Aperture is also responsible for the depth as field, as allowing a lot of light in the lens gives off a shallow depth of field, and vice versa. For gain control, its role is changing the sensitivity of the sensors, which allows less light to be needed in low-light scenarios. However, adjusting the gain should be used minimally because it creates digital noise that gives the image a grainy feel.

Zooming

Zooming adjusts the focal length on the lens, so that the subject gradually appears closer or farther away, like a magnification.  In general, going from a lower to a higher focal length is zooming in, and decreasing your focal length is zooming out. It's different than a dolly shot because a zoom is manipulated by the camera, whereas a dolly shot is actually moving the camera closer or farther away from the subject, therefore changing the physical distance. Since dolly shots don't require any zooming, they can be used with a lens that doesn't have that feature, like a prime lens. Zooming can be used effectively in certain instances like comedic effect or to enhance horror, because the technique is outdated and thus can make a scene appear funny, or sometimes eerie. However there are cases where it's ineffective, because our eyes can't naturally zoom like a camera, so a cinematographer must be selective with the zoom and only use it when it has a purpose.

Focus and Zoom

Focus is a manual feature on the camera that adjusts between a closer focus and a more distant focus to create the sharpest image. When focusing a shot, you should first zoom in on the subject and adjust the focus ring until the image is sharp, and then zoom out to the desired framing. If your subject becomes out of focus, it's important to know what direction to turn the ring so you don't create a more blurry image, and the focus is pulled to your subject. A different camera feature is exposure, which changes the brightness of your shot by controlling the amount of light that comes through the lens.
When changing the exposure, the main focus should be properly lighting the subject so that they don't appear too bright or too dark. To check if your subject is properly exposed, you can manually adjust the iris wheel to see how your lighting changes, and whether the image is enhanced or downgraded.

White Balance

Color temperature is a measurement in Kelvins that can be used to adjust a camera to make light appear more normal in certain circumstances. White balance is a process by which the camera is manually told what white looks like, so it can adjust the other colors in the room to look natural.
Normally, outside lighting has a color temperature of  5,500 K and appears blue to the camera, whereas indoor lighting is 3,200 K and shines orange. It's important to white balance your camera because it has no way of knowing the temperature of light you're using, and needs that instruction to produce a less saturated shot.  Also, white balancing in the production process means you don't have to toggle with color settings in the edit, which altogether saves time and makes the editor's job easier.

Sony FS5 Walkthrough

Some key features of the Sony FS5 camcorder are full auto mode, the white balance set, and the thumbnail button. In general, full auto mode is an important feature to know because it allows for all your settings from iris to shutter speed to be set automatically, which makes filming easier for those who are new to the camera.  Another important button is the white balance set, which allows you to tell the camera what white looks like, so the color of your shot can be altered to look the most natural, despite being under different light. In addition, the menu button is a key feature, because it brings up a display where you can change your video format, format your SD card, and toggle with your audio settings. As we dive into this camera, I'd like to learn more about the ND filter, the importance of shutter speed and what it does to the shot, and the gain features for both the camera and microphone.