Preliminary task Evaluation

We filmed in the old media room above the theater studio. This room is plain, a little ruff looking as things have clearly been pulled off the wall. This fit well with the way we wanted the story to seem; a little mysteries and some where they weren't meant to be. My role was to do continuity, to make sure everything was the same in each shot. I watched for small things like which hand the actor used to pick up the suitcase and how many steps she took, so that it would be easier when it came round to editing.
We had the room light; we used two lights. We did this to try and make it so there was no shadow but we did not have sufficient space to make it completely without shadow. We wanted to have it bright in the actors faces in an high intensity interview type fashion. I do not think it was that effective because we did not have all proper stands and could not the the angle exactly right.
Alex was operating the camera in are group. She set up the camera and then both me and Tk checked after to make sure it was correct. After each time we moved the tripod and camera we made sure it was rebubbled. I made sure that in each frame you could not see the lighting equipment or our shadows. We used all the angles that were given to us on the story board, and when we added our own we made sure that they added to the story and we not completely random.
When filming we did it all in a specific order e.g. shooting all wide shots first, then all over the sholdershots and not in chronological order. Each time we shot from each angle we did the whole scene. At no point did we cross the 180 degree line, we made sure we did not so that the image would not appear flipped to the viewer.
Tk was the director, at the start of each shot she would stay "stand by" we would then respond "standing by" to let her know we were ready. After that she calls "roll camera", Alex would then reply "camera rolling" when the camera was ready. To start the scene Tk "Action".

Account of all my practical experiences thus far

Introduction to blogs

We are keeping a blog to show all are media work, what we have learnt and what we are doing. This helps to show how we are finding it, what we are enjoying and also how well we understand what we are covering. So far I have written:
• An introduction
• Analysed three different photo’s of me.
• Introductions to Photoshop, camera and tripod and studio.

Account of all my practical experiences thus far

Introduction to studio
So far we have only really gone into the studio to film interviews. I was helping with the lighting. I learnt that to have good lighting for the interview was have a good balance of light in front and behind/ above and below. Not to create shadows on the other persons face and also not to blind them or the camera. A blue light looks more like natural light and a man-made light tends to have more of an orange glow. We haven’t used it yet but on another tour of the studio we looked at a basic set and a blue screen. Using a blue screen allows you to use insert any type of background or setting e.g. putting people on the moon.

Account of all my practical experiences thus far

Introduction to Camera and tripod
In our first proper session with the PD170 camera we learnt first how to set up the cartoni delta tripod. To make sure that the bright yellow bubble thing was facing us before we put on the pan handle, this could be on the left or right side depending on preference. The next thing we learnt was how to attach the camera to the tripod. This was reasonable easy but something that must be done right or the camera could fall off and break.
After attaching the camera, we learnt how to “bubble” the camera; this is done so that the camera is level on top of the tripod. Then looking into the more technical side of the camera, we looked into what should be on the screen of the viewer before we start to film; so that we can get the best possible material e.g. there are no decibels “0db”. Also to make sure when we start recording for the first thirty seconds to record colour bars; if the camera is going to mess up its most likely to happen in the first 30 seconds.

Account of all my practical experiences thus far

Introduction to Photoshop
In our first session on Photoshop with Matt we learnt how to use the basics on the tool bar; first we learnt to use the lasso tool. This is useful for copying parts of images from one photo to another or moving it around the same photo e.g. moving the head of one person and putting it onto another. We then learnt how to use the dodge and burn tool, dodge makes the selected section lighter and burn makes it darker, I learnt that it looks more realist and effective to use it in small amounts then build up. I enjoyed using the clone stamp tool, this enables you to clone one area and make an exact copy of it to anther place. A lot of the tools on the tool bar are self explanatory e.g. move tool, brush tool and eraser tool.