Answer to discussion board question

http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/tutorial/01-technique.html

The answer for the camera tip.

My Answer:

When filming if panning or tilting is necessary, it is best to start at the most uncomfortable position of the move (if there is one) and end up at the most comfortable position at the end. No one wants to film a scene and realize that you can't reach far enough to finish shooting.

An original video (Kanye West "welcome to heartbreak"

This video looks like a horribly edited video, in terrible definition but it works in making the video stand out, especially with the special effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMH0e8kIZtE

DV Filmmaking: Chapter 9 & 10

Final cut pro released in 1999, allowed independant film makers to edit their films w/out spending large amounts of money on a "Avid", it made editing film as easy as cutting and pasting.

(final cut pro became a competitor to adobe premeire which was the standard program for Desktop video editing, final cut express is a cheaper version with less features.)

How non-linear editing benefits the independant film maker

Tape-to-tape linear editing

editing with no "undo", button, once an edit is made it becomes permanent.

Frames (bars in a timeline???)

timelines- uses series of tracks ordered vertically (one over another) to add audio/video to a video.

Non-destructive editing

Editing reels of 16mm and 35mm film has traditionally been a non-linear process, but its a destructive one unlike digital editing. Film makers refer to editing as "cutting a project together", the term "clip" comes from cutting a piece of film to select the segment of footage they want, and splice it into a sequence they want.

(the problem was editors ended up with many small leftover clips "trims" that are hard to manage. )

( The term "cutting room floor" comes from leaving a clip on the cutting room floor and discarding it from the movie, *editors hung clips of film on hooks in large bins incase they needed the extra film*). (91)

King Darshaans Music Video Recommendation

The Video I found for King Darshaans "lil more luv" was kind of annoying, but the lighting cause by the car lights and spot lights in the back combined with the dancing made it really creative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZG4wmUMKL0

Final Cut Express 4-Lesson 1-3

(scan 14-15) Covering the basics

Cmd N (opens folder)

Cmd + Opt. D ( hides/ shows Dock)

Cmd W (closes an open window on the desktop)

Space Bar- opens/closes selected media file in quick look window (in full screen mode it starts or stops a clip)

Editing Video

-One NTSC DV Frame is made up of 480 horizontal lines of 720 pixles each 720x480. (PAL is 720x576).

Aspect Ratiostandard television sets are 4x3, meaning taller than wider, high definition are 16x9 (page 20)

In HD it is 1080 lines of video information another has 720.

HD image with 16:9 aspect ratio has dimensions of 1920 x 1080 (1920 pixles across one line and 1018 lines of video information).

If the footage was not shot in a format different than HDV or DV, you may have to dub it to digital format before bringing it to final cut pro express (scan page 23).

Working with quicktimeplays dozens of files (audio, video, graphics). Quicktime files are .mov

Exporting a single frame from a video and using it in a graphics program is also possible.

medium shot: zoomed a few feet from es

establishing shot: wide area

medium close up shot: framed around chest, face is framed tightly

two shot: equal importance to two subjects (scan 30)

Final cut express has a non-linear editing program, so you could change your mind about the placement over and over about the placement/ length of a shot w/out it affecting your original media.

Working with a Project

-sequence: clips edited and placed together

-bin: leftover film

Lesson-DV Filmmaking: Ch 4 (Lighting)

Lighting for Digital

lighting allows an audience to see what your shooting. Lighting is a tool that adds depth, texture, and nuance to a composition. Careful use of (skillful) lighting can make any shot a great shot audience

white balance-

light has a color cast that tints the objects in a shot. Unlike the human eye a camera does not compensate for differences in lighting for better or for worse. (37)

Cinematographers use the term "Color Temperature" to refer to the range of color a light source emits, and is measured as a temperature in units called Kelvin. (at the end of the scale light sources emit more red and yellow light, at the higher end they emit more blue light.

Avoid mixed lighting situations. Filmmakers avoid household light bulbs and flurescent lights in a room, and use tungsten lights to shot a shot. Film reels are balanced to shoot in daylight (or tungsten environments). Daylight film= outside. tungsten= indoor shoot. Dv camcorders have white balance features (take a sample of the white in the area every time camcorder setup is changed. Color temperature of indoor lighting varies depending on type of lights, while the temperature outdoors depends on the time of day.

Lights in a indoor location or daylight coming through windows can make a mixed lighting situation making a preset white balance useless. Setting white balance example.(39)

Setting an aperture

-exposure: the way light interacts with a negative to create an image.

wider apertures let in more light, smaller apertures allow less light to pass

Relying on a automatic setting does not give much control

Aperture of a camcorder is like Iris of human eye (both expand to let more light in, or contract to keep them out.

Different exposure settings can have someone in focus with an abstract background, or a bright background with the person being a silhouette.

Zebra Lines tell you if a shot is too bright or not. Too much zebra lines all over the frame means too much light has been let in, while no visible zebra lights could mean the exposure may be darker. (blown out=over exposed)

A camcorder with zebra lines would show thin diagonal lines indicating a problem. No zebra lines could mean the shot is good.

Indoor Lighting

careful lighting and subtle shadows give an image texture and depth. Paying too much attention to evenly expose all areas of a frame can make a shot lose its shading and nuances. Following the rules to the "T" isn't always completely necessary.

Buying a light kit may help

Fine-tuning light set-up

-keys to interview lighting are diffusion( fabric made of spun glass going in front of a light to soften the output- it makes the light softer and more manageable to a cinematographer) and light source placement (the light creates very bright areas and very dark shadows). Both of these create a more even light source (bright spots are pleasant lights, dark spots show detail and contour).

However, lights get very hot.

Chimera: lightning kit that allows a cinematographer to create intricate lighting effects that fade from light to dark under the control of the filmmaker.

(page 44 picture) a small light is used to fill any uninvited shadows (fill light). The Chimera serves as a primary light creating highlights (key light). A hair light adds a crescent-shaped shine to the head of the interviewee. It helps separate their head from the background (picture). (Links.)

Outdoor ligthing. (45)

For Outdoor lighting shooting in bright sunny settings isn't the best idea as it creates dark shadows. An object such as a I neutral density (nd) filter and a bounce card can be used.

a neutral density filter darkens the objects in a shot, but does not change the color casts, via a glass filter placed over the lens of a camcorder (a camcorder may have a built in ND function).

A Bounce Card is works the same way as a reflective screen used in a car windshield to prevent it from getting too hot. It bounces light to where you want it.

These items are especially useful when the subject has on a cap to avoid shadows under the cap (i.e. placing a bounce card under the face to eliminate the shadows under the cap

Shooting at night especially during dusk, because daylight looks blue during this time. The Golden Hour is the time immediately before/after a sunset because it gives off an especially warm glow (everything looks better onscreen).

Shooting at night may or low-light settings may require manual exposure settings, careful focus, and a high contrast viewfinder. A viewfinder may be helpful in avoiding grainy shots.

The Depth of field may be limited in darkers shots. In bright daylight a cinematographer can easily keep the foreground and background of an image in focus at the same time. At night it is more shallow, so it can make it harder to keep all areas in frame in focus. Automatic Focus on a camera, may cause it to be obvious that the camera does not know which person (subject) to focus on.

closing terms

daylight is blue, indoor light is yellow, white balance, manual functions are better, cloudy days are great for lighting, chimera and hair lights are good for indoor shoots, certain problems such as focus and under/over exposure are hard to fix in post production

Lesson :DV Filmmaking: Chapter 3-Composing a Shot

Composing a Shot

Medium Shot: most common type of framming, provides audience with detailed view of the subject, shows people what subjevt looks like and places persom in sopecific environment.

Wide Sjhot- large area, used to cover alot of action or let an audience know when a scene is taking place

Establishing shot: used to establish a location

Extremew wide shot (xws): good shots fot openning films. exremely large area in a single frame

Close-up: draws the audience into subject on screen, visually and emotionally (think Norma Desmond)

Extreme Close up: can make audience pay extra attention

16x 9 is friendly to wide shots

4x3 screens are better for the CUs and XCUs

Placing one shot after another (elemental process of building a film)

Jump cut: Take a continuous shot of a person doing something and cut a few seconds from the middle of the shot. Audience can tell an action is missing.

Cut-away is a scene that cuts away to another subject, so that audience dosent notice the "jump-cut" (missing action)

Coverage: used to to avoid "jump-cuts" , and get a variety of shots (two cameras can be used)

Continuity and detail management: make sure details are consistent

The Rule of 180/ crossing the Axis: crossing the "axis" can be confusing

(crossing the axis and mixing shots can be hard to follow)

Script Supervisors are hired to take pictures of scenes for the problem of continuity

Timing can be used to set the emotional tone of the film. quick cuts=more exiting tempo, longer shots= more thoughtful tone.

Shooting with DVD Compression in Mind

-DV footage is converted to the compatible MPEG-2 format using editing applications and DVD production packages that ship with encoders.

not all shots will look great when compressed for DVD.

Compression Algorithms-

4.7 gb translates to 25 minutes of camera footage DV (DV thats been captured without applying additional compression). Commercials DVD play more than 25minutes of footage because the video and audio has been compressed.

-compression removes redundant information from a digital signal (resulting in a more manageable file size).

-algorithms (complex mathematic formulas) are used by DVD compression programs to analyze digital video and audio that can be removed without anyone noticing. (32)

spatial and temporal are two types of compression. the more detail, the harder it is to compress the image.

Spatial compression- breaks an image into blocks, and if parts of a frame repeat, algorithm places same block in more than one location (i.e. the background is a white wall, one section of it is repeated in more than one location to save space. Dosent have to create an entirely new background for each frame of video. (increased amounts of compression= loss of video. quality).

Temporal compression-looks for information that repeats from one frame to another and repeats it in the place of similar information (a white wall, used from from frame where it would not change either way).

Shots that make compression easier

-A static shot, with a solid background would be the easiest to compress because there is no movement, or poorly light backgrounds to compress. Filming shots and seeing how they look on screen is a good idea, to see how everything compresses.