Camera workshop

Today was our first camera workshop with Fergus. 

It was a great day learning about the Sony EX cameras.
I have never used one of these before so was interested in finding out more about them.
Fergus went through the controls and options on them, this was great as I didn't know the amount of options that were available on them like focus assist, time-lapse and stop frame. Today we mainly learnt how to operate the camera, camera frames/shot sizes, focus, gain and shutter.

Pull focus 

Keeping the same frame 

We had a couple of tasks, the first being a pull focus exercise. I was teamed up with Sam and Matt, fun to work with!  We each took turns using the camera and being in front to complete the task. I enjoyed using the camera and think I managed to do a good pull focus. Fergus stepped the challenge up by asking us to ease out and follow the person keeping the same shot/frame. This I found slightly difficult as I have never done this before along with being new to the camera. I switched the zoom control from ring to button, and used manual focus on the ring. I did quite well surprisingly apart from being out of focus at the end as the subject walked forward close to the camera. You can see from the photos how we did the tasks.



After lunch Fergus set us another task of filming a small scene using a camera 'bag' and using 5 different camera shots and angles to create the scene. It was decided that Sam was on camera for this as he wanted more experience. Plus Matt and I did not mind being on screen. We started our scene as a bag with headphones in and Matt gives me the bag, I then put on the headphones and it turns into an advert, like beats by Dre.

I think this went well, I enjoyed being on screen and helped Sam get the shots. We all saw everyones raw footage before going back to base room and capturing the footage onto a mac. We edited in the group and after putting it into Adobe I put footage into Final Cut to see if I could make a good edit. Sam and Matt decided to help with me and edit on Final cut, as we found it much easier and quicker. I quickly cut all the clips together, added music and title.

It was a fun and exciting task, Sam was on camera and I feel the shots were a little off. We made good progress overall but some of the shots could have been better, and one of the shots on me was darker than rest. I added a little colour correction in final cut but did not spend a lot of time fixing it.

Here is the video:

After trying out the Sony camera I feel that I may use it for my screenplay project. The options and controls on the Sony are great, quite user friendly and easy enough to use. I want to practice some more before deciding whether to use the Sony or not. I often use a DSLR for making films/shorts due to the nice picture, depth of field and ease of use. Sony will be great to use for the zoom (smother than a DSLR) but also the time lapse and stop frame features. Another advantage with the Sony is the audio input, meaning I won't have to sync the audio to visual like I have done when using a DSLR.

I enjoyed using the Sony and really think it will be a fantastic tool to use for my drama. I am looking forward to the next workshops.