Today we filmed another multi-camera study session with Trev Meaney, who performed around five of his poems. I decided that I wanted to work behind the camera, as this is what I want to concentrate on. I was given camera one, a camera that I have worked on only once but I was keen to work behind it again. Unlike most studio sessions, camera was was situated at the side of the study so the shot was more of a profile shot, picking up the side of Trev Meaney's face. There were a few different shots that I had to do during today's filming, for example, close up on his eyes, medium shot of his face side on, and a medium shot of his hands.
Prior to the shoot I had done a little bit of research, for example, I watched a few videos of Trev Meaney to have a look at his work and his poems. I would have thought of some interview questions for the shoot today but I was unaware that he was coming in today, I thought that he was coming into the studio at a later date.
The studio session today was different to any others that we had done before, firstly because we were filming a band, which meant that there was only one person to film instead of having 3, 4, or 5 people, which is what you expect a band to have. I enjoyed the session today and didn't find it challenging at all because there wasn't that many different shots that had to be done.
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Shooting My Experimental Video
Today I decided that I was ready to shoot my experimental video. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to film food colouring in water so that I could create surreal images for my film.
First of all I had to get some food colourings to use for my piece. Originally I wanted colours such as; blue, green, red, purple and yellow. Unfortunately when I went top buy them they only had blue, yellow, green and black. I was unsure about black as I wanted the colours to mix and create new colours, and I thought that black would have dominated the other colours and canceled them out, but I decided to go with black because I didn't think that three colours would have been enough. I decided that when I was to use the black I would use as little as possible to prevent it turning the water completely black.
I was able to use a clear container to hold the water, this meant that I was able to put the camera underneath the container and still be able to film. I did plan to use a HD camera to shooting my video, but because the container had to be help above the ground I thought that it would be difficult to put the camera underneath, as this would mean that the container would have to be held higher than it was, which would not have been possible. I was suggested to use a HD flip camera, which has the looks of a mobile phone, and is extremely easy to use. This camera differs to the otrher camera because you have no option to manually focus, as it is all done automatically. Although I orgianlly prefered to film with a HD camera, I think the flip camera was the better option as it made the shoot more fisbale.
Before the shoot I filled the container with water so that it was around one inch deep. I didnt want to fill the container with too much water becuase I thought that it would require more food colouring, and I needed to make sure I had some left over incase I needed to re-shoot. I also decided not to use so much water becuase it meant more trips to the tap, which was digging into production time. To create a surreal image I decided that the container had to be lit so that the water had reflections which reflected against the food colouring. I decided to go with blue and yellow lighting. The reason behind this is becuase two of the food colourings that I had where blue and yellow, so I thought that they would match. I had thought about using red but becuase I was unable to get hold of red food colouring I decided not to.
Once the camera was rolling I started to rock the container so that the water formed ripples which I thought would look interesting. I then added my first colour to the water. I allowed the colouring to set then decided to to shake the container and lift one side so that the colours ran. I experimented using different colours and how I added them to the water, aswell as where I added them to the water. At one stage the water got a bit cloudy and there were two thick lumps of food colouring, so I thought it would be a good idea to mix swirl the water with my hand to get the water moving again. This is probally something that I will edit out because I dont want any body parts in the video, although if I speed it up it might look as obvious that I used my hand. After about five minutes of filming I decided to stop shooting becuase I thought that I had enough footage for my video. Once I had finished filming I had a quick preview on the small monitor on the flip camera. From what I saw I was impressed and it make me wanting to get editting as soon as.
I imported the footage onto the computer and started to view back what I had got. As I wasnt needing the audio I unlinked it from the video. To do this I clicked onto the audio that I wanted deleting, then clicked on Clip at the top of the page, I then scrolled down to unlink and unlinked the audio and video, then clicked on the audio on the timeline then deleted. I didnt really get a lot of editing done today due to production time, but I hope that tomorrow I will possiblty be able to finish editting my experiemental video then think about the audio that I can use for my piece.
First of all I had to get some food colourings to use for my piece. Originally I wanted colours such as; blue, green, red, purple and yellow. Unfortunately when I went top buy them they only had blue, yellow, green and black. I was unsure about black as I wanted the colours to mix and create new colours, and I thought that black would have dominated the other colours and canceled them out, but I decided to go with black because I didn't think that three colours would have been enough. I decided that when I was to use the black I would use as little as possible to prevent it turning the water completely black.
I was able to use a clear container to hold the water, this meant that I was able to put the camera underneath the container and still be able to film. I did plan to use a HD camera to shooting my video, but because the container had to be help above the ground I thought that it would be difficult to put the camera underneath, as this would mean that the container would have to be held higher than it was, which would not have been possible. I was suggested to use a HD flip camera, which has the looks of a mobile phone, and is extremely easy to use. This camera differs to the otrher camera because you have no option to manually focus, as it is all done automatically. Although I orgianlly prefered to film with a HD camera, I think the flip camera was the better option as it made the shoot more fisbale.
Before the shoot I filled the container with water so that it was around one inch deep. I didnt want to fill the container with too much water becuase I thought that it would require more food colouring, and I needed to make sure I had some left over incase I needed to re-shoot. I also decided not to use so much water becuase it meant more trips to the tap, which was digging into production time. To create a surreal image I decided that the container had to be lit so that the water had reflections which reflected against the food colouring. I decided to go with blue and yellow lighting. The reason behind this is becuase two of the food colourings that I had where blue and yellow, so I thought that they would match. I had thought about using red but becuase I was unable to get hold of red food colouring I decided not to.
Once the camera was rolling I started to rock the container so that the water formed ripples which I thought would look interesting. I then added my first colour to the water. I allowed the colouring to set then decided to to shake the container and lift one side so that the colours ran. I experimented using different colours and how I added them to the water, aswell as where I added them to the water. At one stage the water got a bit cloudy and there were two thick lumps of food colouring, so I thought it would be a good idea to mix swirl the water with my hand to get the water moving again. This is probally something that I will edit out because I dont want any body parts in the video, although if I speed it up it might look as obvious that I used my hand. After about five minutes of filming I decided to stop shooting becuase I thought that I had enough footage for my video. Once I had finished filming I had a quick preview on the small monitor on the flip camera. From what I saw I was impressed and it make me wanting to get editting as soon as.
I imported the footage onto the computer and started to view back what I had got. As I wasnt needing the audio I unlinked it from the video. To do this I clicked onto the audio that I wanted deleting, then clicked on Clip at the top of the page, I then scrolled down to unlink and unlinked the audio and video, then clicked on the audio on the timeline then deleted. I didnt really get a lot of editing done today due to production time, but I hope that tomorrow I will possiblty be able to finish editting my experiemental video then think about the audio that I can use for my piece.
Friday, 18 November 2011
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Experimental Video Idea
I have been planning out a few more ideas for my experimental video, just in case the others are not fisbale. I was watching a Beady Eye music video when I noticed something that i thought looked very Len Lye inspired.
The first few seconds, and final few seonds, shows what I think to be is coloursed paints and colouring mixing with oils which is creating unusual and surreal effects. When I first saw this and started to analyse this I thought that the director of the music video could have been inspired by Len Lye to create this image.
I want to be able to take something along the lines of this, aswell as films by Len Lye, and combine them to create something surreal and different. I will then take my experimental audio and add it to the film. If my experimental audio does not match my video then I will create a new piece of audio, probably using my synthesizer.
The first few seconds, and final few seonds, shows what I think to be is coloursed paints and colouring mixing with oils which is creating unusual and surreal effects. When I first saw this and started to analyse this I thought that the director of the music video could have been inspired by Len Lye to create this image.
I want to be able to take something along the lines of this, aswell as films by Len Lye, and combine them to create something surreal and different. I will then take my experimental audio and add it to the film. If my experimental audio does not match my video then I will create a new piece of audio, probably using my synthesizer.
Digital Photography
Today I had a photography lesson about how photographs can be used instead of sketches when creating storyboards. Storyboards are something that I have never really been brilliant at, personally I feel that this is due to my poor skills in drawing, I much prefer to create shot lists instead as I feel that I have a better way of explaining a shot than of drawing one.
First of all I started by being introduced to the camera, which was a Nikon 3100, although I did understand the basics because I have a camera similar to it myself. Once I had familiarised myself with the camera I started to work with another class member to create a visual storyboard for a short film that we could pherhaps make. We decided to create a short storyboard, consisting of around ten images, about somebody in need of the toilet who is unable to get to the toilet becuase it's locked. Overall we took around seventy images and had to cut it down to ten. Some of the images that we had werent great, either becuase they were out of focus or we had multiple shots already like it.
Once we had all the images we uploaded them onto the computer and started editing, although we ran out of time and were unable to do any major editing on them, for example, putting them in the correct order, and putting effects. I'll definatly be coming back to this work at a later date to finish the work.
I learnt a lot today, and this is a skills that I will be using in work to come as I feel that it will make storyboarding, and the actual production a lot easier and understandable.
First of all I started by being introduced to the camera, which was a Nikon 3100, although I did understand the basics because I have a camera similar to it myself. Once I had familiarised myself with the camera I started to work with another class member to create a visual storyboard for a short film that we could pherhaps make. We decided to create a short storyboard, consisting of around ten images, about somebody in need of the toilet who is unable to get to the toilet becuase it's locked. Overall we took around seventy images and had to cut it down to ten. Some of the images that we had werent great, either becuase they were out of focus or we had multiple shots already like it.
Once we had all the images we uploaded them onto the computer and started editing, although we ran out of time and were unable to do any major editing on them, for example, putting them in the correct order, and putting effects. I'll definatly be coming back to this work at a later date to finish the work.
I learnt a lot today, and this is a skills that I will be using in work to come as I feel that it will make storyboarding, and the actual production a lot easier and understandable.
Experimental Video Research
Ive been looking at a wide range of work by Len Lye. I feel that his work will be an inspiration on my work.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Developing My Experimental Video Idea
Ive recently been looking at different ideas for my experimental video. Although I have come up with a few ideas I want to be able to able challenge myself and create something that I ha vent done before. I have decided that I am going to create my experimental video around my experimental sound piece.
When I was watching Upside Down: The Creation Records Story I came across an image that reminded me of my experimental audio. When I was creating my experimental audio I was listening to a lot of Creation Records music, which created an image in my head, which I then took and created a piece of audio from what I saw. It never came to me to create my experimental video around my experimental audio.
I have also been looking at the work of Len Lye and I am interested in his work. I am going to watch a few more of Len Lye's video for inspiration. Currently I have watched Rainbow Dance, Trade Tattoo and Kaleidoscope.
When I was watching Upside Down: The Creation Records Story I came across an image that reminded me of my experimental audio. When I was creating my experimental audio I was listening to a lot of Creation Records music, which created an image in my head, which I then took and created a piece of audio from what I saw. It never came to me to create my experimental video around my experimental audio.
I am hoping to create a piece of work that is influenced by both pieces of work above that will refer to my experimental audio.
Thursday, 10 November 2011
North Sea Radio Orchestra Studio Session
Today we filmed another multi-camera studio session with North Sea Radio Orchestra. I decided that I wanted to occupy camera three today, a camera that I have never done before. I have had a lot of experience using camera two (the establishing shot) so I thought that the only way for me to improve my skills was to work on a different camera which I feel is harder to operate. Camera three is on the left hand side of the studio and in todays session I had to focus on the lead singer of the band. My primary shot was an extreme close up of the lead singer, but I also had a medium close up, and a medium shot with the bassoon player in shot. The most complex shot that I had to do today was an extremely slow zoom out of the lead singers face, which I feel that I did well.
I also decided that I wanted to film the interview that also took place in the studio. Prior to the interview I had done a reasonable amount of research and I had also come up with a few possible questions that could be asked. The majority of the questions that I came up were asked in the interview.
I also decided that I wanted to film the interview that also took place in the studio. Prior to the interview I had done a reasonable amount of research and I had also come up with a few possible questions that could be asked. The majority of the questions that I came up were asked in the interview.
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
North Sea Radio Orchestra Studio Session
Tomorrow in the studio we have another client. We will be filming North Sea Radio Orchestra. In previous band sessions I have done a lot of camera work, and tomorrow I feel that I want to go on camera again, but not when the band are preforming, when the band are being interview is when I would like to work behind the camera. I feel that this will enhance my camera skills, as I haven't really had the opportunity to film many interviews before. I will also be contributing to the research and questions which will be used in the interview.
Maya Deren Inspired Film
A few weeks ago we had a multi-camera session in the studio at college, we had four men come in from a marshal arts group who we were going to film. The film that we were going to be creating is going to be inspired by Mara Deren's 'Violence on Mediation'.
Today I got round to viewing the footage from the shoot and made a start on the editing of my individual edit. I had a few ideas that I wanted to take into editing the piece. Firstly, I wanted my film to be in black and white, I decided this because I felt that the aesthetics would make the film look as if it had come from a different era, but I also make the idea of keeping the original colour footage from the shoot to show a more modern version of Maya Deren's film. I also had an idea of editing my film so that I was focusing on one of the men preforming, by doing this it means that can have a narrative o my piece, for example, the beginning shows one man practising on his own, the middle section of the film shows the man sparring with another man, and the final scene of my film will show the man fighting against the other men.
I also had an idea to show all of the men performing, starting off with their individual performances, then moving onto the sparring, then the fighting at the end. I wont focus on just one of the men in this edit i will focus on all of them to show a wider perspective.
When I was editing I decided that I would edit two different sequences and find out which one looked the best. I have nearly finished editing both of the sequence. I will hopefully have them finished next week as I had an issue with the audio that I need to deal with.
Today I got round to viewing the footage from the shoot and made a start on the editing of my individual edit. I had a few ideas that I wanted to take into editing the piece. Firstly, I wanted my film to be in black and white, I decided this because I felt that the aesthetics would make the film look as if it had come from a different era, but I also make the idea of keeping the original colour footage from the shoot to show a more modern version of Maya Deren's film. I also had an idea of editing my film so that I was focusing on one of the men preforming, by doing this it means that can have a narrative o my piece, for example, the beginning shows one man practising on his own, the middle section of the film shows the man sparring with another man, and the final scene of my film will show the man fighting against the other men.
I also had an idea to show all of the men performing, starting off with their individual performances, then moving onto the sparring, then the fighting at the end. I wont focus on just one of the men in this edit i will focus on all of them to show a wider perspective.
When I was editing I decided that I would edit two different sequences and find out which one looked the best. I have nearly finished editing both of the sequence. I will hopefully have them finished next week as I had an issue with the audio that I need to deal with.
Experimental Audio Editing
Over the past two days I have been editing my experimental audio, that I recorded two weeks ago. I edited my audio piece on Adobe Audition. First thing that I did once all my audio was uploaded onto the computer was to listen to it back to find out which pieces were and were not going to used for my piece of experimental audio. Once I had decided which pieces I was going to use I decided too amplify all the pieces of audio so that they were to a reasonable audio level, not too loud or not too quiet. I then decided that I needed a piece of audio that would be used throughout the whole audio work, kind of like a music bed that fits behind other pieces of audio that go on top of it.
Once that I had all of my audio amplified I decided that I wanted to add a few different effects so that the sounds would sounds unique and experimental. I experimented using reverb, chorus, distortion, flanger and a few others to try and create a sound that would appear unusual. The hardest part of the editing process was finding out which audio sounded best in which place. I spent quite a long time trying different audio pieces in different places to see which sounded best, I feel that the final ordering of the audio was in the best possible lay out that it could have been.
Now that I have my experimental audio finished I feel that I might add to the piece. I was thinking that a piece of spoken poetry could be added to the piece, influenced by Aidan Moffat and John cooper Clarke. If I am to write a piece of poetry for my work then I want it to be a dark poem as I feel that it will fit with the audio. Although I have been thinking about this idea, I am also thinking that I'll have to be careful to make sure that my piece of experimental audio doesn't sound too much like a song, as this is not what I intend my audio piece to sound like.
Once that I had all of my audio amplified I decided that I wanted to add a few different effects so that the sounds would sounds unique and experimental. I experimented using reverb, chorus, distortion, flanger and a few others to try and create a sound that would appear unusual. The hardest part of the editing process was finding out which audio sounded best in which place. I spent quite a long time trying different audio pieces in different places to see which sounded best, I feel that the final ordering of the audio was in the best possible lay out that it could have been.
Now that I have my experimental audio finished I feel that I might add to the piece. I was thinking that a piece of spoken poetry could be added to the piece, influenced by Aidan Moffat and John cooper Clarke. If I am to write a piece of poetry for my work then I want it to be a dark poem as I feel that it will fit with the audio. Although I have been thinking about this idea, I am also thinking that I'll have to be careful to make sure that my piece of experimental audio doesn't sound too much like a song, as this is not what I intend my audio piece to sound like.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)