Saturday, 21 February 2015

Video Entry #7 - Reading Notes

Video Microphone

Using the fishpole
- Held high: Tiring if held high for long. Shadows of the microphone may be unavoidable
- Underarm support: Favoured for some situations, however can pick up background noise easily
- End on ground: Comfortable for sustained shooting. Best for stationary objects

Microphone distance
- Mirophone should suit the size of the shot

In our documentary, we aim to use a fishpole overhead or underarm to get the audio as most filming is going to be done inside, so things such as birds or seagulls above won't pick up on the audio. We will use a shotgun microphone to record the audio. We would like to use the lavalier microphone, however it is rarely in stock on SISO and I forgot myself to book it.

Practical Lighting

- "As we shall see, there are many situations where just one lamp, or a well placed reflector, is all that is needed to make a picture spring to life. Even where production is on a larger scale, foresight and imagination can often make a little light go a long way. It is chiefly a matter of knowing what you are aiming at, what to look out for, and what you can do about problems you meet."

- "'Lighting' involves a lot more than simply having enough illumination around to let the camera see what is going on. Light influences what your subject looks like, how people feel about what they see, what attracts their attention. So we need to think about not only where to put our lamps, but the sort of light we are getting from them, and how all this affects the quality of our pictures."

- "Because the sun is so distance, it behaves as a localized point source of light. Its rays are therefore very directional and travel to us in straight lines. They cast distinct sharp shadows, which emphasize the texture and contours of any subject, especially when the light falls at an oblique angle...Many, man-made light sources, such as a match, a candle or a bare light bulb, also behave in this way. Because they are of very limited size, they act as point sources and produce hard light."

- "Diffused light scatters in all directions. It occurs naturally, when the sun is obscured by cloud, and whenever sunlight is reflected from rough light-toned surfaces."

We don't intend to not use any other light sources that the ones available to use as they are bulky and we are wanting a natural feel to the documentary. If there are lamps available where we go, I'm sure we will take advantage of them, however it is not a necessity in my opinion. We will attempt to try to illuminate our subjects so they appear approachable and inviting rather than casting shadows on them from harsh lighting. As stated, we will be inside for the majority of the filming, especially the interviews so we will only need to diffuse the lamps, should be choose to use them.


Interviews

- "Try to choose an interviewee who is able to express themselves succinctly and who you think will not be unduly nervous in front of the camera."

- "Prepare your interview, think what you want to know and why"

- "Always introduce the interviewee...Tell why he/she is there or why you want to interview him/her"

When choosing an interviewees, we will go for the ones that seem friendly, have a good personality and appear to be natural when being filmed. We will have to gather as a group and write out questions on what we think we will need to add to the documentary. We will have them introduce themselves. This makes it so they're more relaxed to be in front of the camera as well.

Recording sound

- "Sound recording is often one of those most overlooked parts of the production process, especially in video production. Unlike radio, video and television demand that microphones are hidden away from the camera whenever possibly, but, crucially, you also need to keep your sound synced with the camera."

- "Sync sound means simply that what is being said synchronises with the movements of the mouth. When a speaker your audience can see is out of sync, you risk parodying all those badly dubbed Kung Fu movies, not (necessarily) good."

We will do our best to record the best quality sound we can. Obviously there will be hiccups as this is our first time but we plan to not let the microphones be seen as to appear professional. We plan to use the Sony HVR-Z1E which has the sound built into the video recording so it should be okay. But if we have to use a separate audio recorder, we will have to sync the audio in post-production. 

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