Basic skills camera work and composition

Composition:

Photography brings a visual language that is universal in understanding. We must then understand its vocabulary which consists of shapes, textures, patterns, lines, colours, shade of light to dark and sharp to blurry images. Just as we must learn to arrange words in a coherent order in order to make sense when we write or speak, so too must we put visual elements together in an organized manner if our photographs are to convey their meaning clearly and vividly.

Composition means arrangement: the orderly putting together of parts to make a unified whole; composition through a personal, intuitive act. However, there are basic principles that govern the way visual elements behave and interact when you combine them inside the four borders of a photograph. Once we have sharpened our vision and grasped these basic ideas of principles, then we will have the potential for making our photographs more exciting and effective than ever before.

The Rule of thirds:

Using the steps outlined previously to help tightened

My trailer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/trailermaker/view/7iaehf

7iaehf

How to use Photoshop

Abode Photoshop is a graphic and picture editing tool. It enables the user to alter, manipulate and create images either from existing photos or found images.
Photoshop CS2 is the package we use here.

Example tool used;
Marquee Tool - cuts box shapes around a part of the image, then you can copy and paste that image into another picture
Lasso Tool- helps you to accurately cut an image out and copy and paste it into another picture.
Spot healing Tool- allows you to hide imperfactions that may be visable. Simply click on the spot you want removed.
Clone Stamp Tool- allows you to copy parts of an image into another image. Simply press Alt and click to select the area you want cloned. Burning and Dodging - You can use the burn tool to burn the images to make them look older, darker or damaged.
Lighten and Darken - To lighten and darken areas that are well exposed but just don't look right yet, first try dragging the middle gray triangle back and forth. Just do it till it looks right


We took an image from the movie CloverField and had to insert an image of a person walking acroos the water. This required us to cut out the image using Lasso then copy and paste. Then we had to make the colours match up by going to Image - Adjustments - Hue/saturation. Then selcting a hue that was similar to the image. The we had to add a reflection of the person in the water. So we copied and pasted the person again and then rotated them and flipped them over. Then we had to add ripples to the water by going to Filter- Distort- Ripple. This helped to make the image more realistic.

My personal experience:
I found photoshop very difficult! It was extremely confusing and too technical for me! I especially found the clone stamp really hard to operate as it never did exactly what i wanted. But i can now see how many amazing things photoshop does and the huge impact it has had on  the media industry.

Introduction to Media Studies

This year we will study all areas of film making, including camera work,
editing and photoshop. We will also learn the basic codes and conventions of Thriller movies, and how to create supense and atmosphere on film. Then eventually we will film our own Thriller movie Introduction using all the skills we will learn, in a group. Then we will start the editing process, until we reach the final product.

Prelim Account of shoot day

We decided to shoot our film in a classroom. As the room featured a door that was very effective and the actress could be shot in different levels and angles. We used the close-up of the actresses hand on the door handle which could be used later on to create suspense. Daniella was the "director". And she would shout 'stand-by' for every one's attention on cast. And signalled the actresses in by shouting "Action!"
I participated in the camera work and shot many of sences, exploring different angles and levels to shoot. When to use zoom and when to follow the actresses or not.

Lighting
We use 2 blond lights that created a more kind of theatrical effective imagery on the actresses figures to highlight and sharpen their facial expressions.
This effect was important to the scene as it created an edgy suspenseful scene. The artificial blond light gave that kind of strong eery atmoshpere to the actresses and props.

Filming
We did set the camera up correctly. We used the tripod, unlocked and locked the nuts as necessary. We also hand-held the camera, for the majority of the time to give a more realistic and nervous effect to the audience's view.
We did remember to use the white balance, we adjusted it when were inside the darkened room and outside in the natural light. We did have to remind the camera-man not to film a shot in front of the blonds lights as it would create an unexplained shadow and create an error in a shot.
We used appropriate angles to the shot. Upward view shot and downward view shot on the actress - this gave feeling on superiority or inferiority on a character. We used an over-shoulder shot to emphasise we are on that characters side and viewing their point of view as if the audience were that person.
We took make close-ups on parts of the body, such as hands and feet twitching nervously to create an anxious atmosphere. We abided by the 180 degree rule.

I have learnt the basics of the camera functioning. And tried to apply them to the use of shooting scenes. We have adapted the way a camera should be used when shooting a preferred scene. So our script gave a sense of suspense, and therefore we zoomed in on Extreme close-ups of the eyes, hands and feet and close-ups on the face. Long-shots were used so the audience could establish the location and medium-shot was used to emphasise an importance on a characters speech.