Focusing

Why is focusing important?  What is the best way to focus a video camera?

    Focusing is important because having a shot be out of focus means that it is blurry and you can't properly see whatever is in shot. Focusing manually is important because it'll allow you to make camera movements and zoom in without worry of going out of focus. The best way to focus a video camera is to zoom in on the subject—if it is a person, you should zoom in on their eyes—before adjusting the focus ring or wheel on the camera until the subject is in focus. This is the best way as it allows you the freedom to zoom in and out without the subject going out of focus. 

White Balance

What is white balance? What color is outside lighting vs. inside lighting? Why is it important to white-balance your camera?

    White balance is a camera setting that helps make the colors on camera look the same way they do in reality. You should white balance whenever the lighting conditions change. Lighting is measured in degrees Kelven, with outside lighting being blue at 5600k and inside lighting being orange at 3200k. It is important to white-balance your camera as the scene being filmed won't look the same as it does to the naked eye if you don't.

Horror Film Challenge Status

How did your Horror Filmmaking Challenge go over the week?  What were some of the challenges that you encountered?  How did you overcome them?  What do you still have left to do?

    My group's Horror Filmmaking Challenge went pretty well over the week. We had already come up with a concept and some key moments in class on Thursday and called during the week off to finish planning and writing out our vision. We decided on filming on Thursday and divided up the parts on what each person would lead on. Some challenges that we encountered were scheduling and availability. As it was a break, a lot of us had different commitments that would prevent us from meeting. This included trips, rehearsals, and other meetings. Having so many different schedules made figuring out a day to shoot a bit difficult. However we overcame this by communicating and figuring out a day and timeframe that we'd all be free for. The other issue of availability came up as one of our group member's parents wouldn't let them go to the shoot. We had initially wanted to shoot at their house but had to replan and instead shoot at a different location as well as change the actors of our film. Because of this, the workload shifted with them taking on more work behind the scenes for after the shoot. We are mostly finished and have a cut that is ready and are taking feedback from peers.

Sony FS5 Walkthrough

What are some key features of the Sony FS5 camcorder? What are three things you'd like to learn more about it in detail?

    Some key features of the Sony FS5 camcorder is the zoom ring, focus ring, iris, ND filter, white balance, and gain. The zoom and focus ring allow you to properly set up a shot, getting the right focal length and putting the subject in focus. The iris allows you to control the depth of field and exposure, having an auto and push auto option. The ND filter lowers the exposure of the image, acting like sunglasses for the lens, and it has preset settings and variable settings. White balancing makes colors on camera appear the same in real life, having a manual way to set it on top of a preset and auto mode. The gain allows you to electronically brighten the image and it has three presets and an auto mode. Three things that I would like to learn more about in detail are the phantom power setting, how to properly set up audio, and the way that the depth of field changes with the iris.

Camera Unit Goals

Take some time and type up three goals that you have to complete during this unit. How do you plan on accomplishing these?

    Three goals that I have for this unit is to learn how to operate a camera, how to determine what desired visuals are on camera, and understand the capabilities and functions of a camera. I have no clue how to operate a camera whatsoever, so I'm going to try my hardest to absorb everything I can on how to do so and also ask questions to both Mr. Furtado and my peers so that I could at least get the basic idea of how to use a camera. I have an amateur aesthetic eye so I want to be able to have a better idea of what is actually visually appealing and I hope to learn a little more on composition. I don't have any idea what cameras are capable of doing, besides recording, so I really want to learn what functions are possible with cameras. I plan on taking detailed and notes and draw graphics to solidify what I learn in the unit.

The Rule of Six

Summarize each of the six when to make a cut.  Why do you think cutting on emotion and story is so much more important than the other four? 

    Emotion is the most important and is what you want the audience to feel. Story is focused on whether the edit moves the story in a meaningful way, and if ignored can cause boredom or confusion. Rhythm helps the flow and connection of shots in an edit and can help the audience ignore other issues. Eye trace is how the cut affects where the audience looks in a frame and guides them to know what to focus on. 2D plane of screen helps the audience maintain spacial continuity by keeping action along the 180° path of motion. 3D space is how the cut maintains the space and the spacial relations between things in the frame, also following the 180° rule.

    Cutting on emotion and story is so much more important than the other 4 because they are what have the biggest impact on the audience and keeps their attention to the screen. The emotion is the most important because it is what you're trying to make you audience feel by watching the film, it's how the audience is going to be moved or impacted by the movie. Cutting on story is also very important as it prevents confusion and boredom. These two things can kill a movie as it completely breaks the audience out of a story and can cause them to lose their attention on the film.

Time Remapping

Summarize the three techniques that he taught in this lesson? What is a way you could use each of these individual techniques going forward with your video's that you create?

    Three techniques that he taught in this lesson are adjusting the speeding, ramping the speed change, and tweaking the key frames. Adjusting the speed is done by right clicking on a clip's fx badge and selecting time remapping, then dragging the horizontal line up or down to speed up or slow down. You can create a key frame to set when the speed changes, however this can be jarring if you don't ramp. Ramping allows the change of speed to happen smoother and is done by dragging one side of a key frame, which will create the ramp. You can make the ramps even smoother by clicking a key frame, bringing up a box with bezier handles, and moving the handles to round out the corners of the ramp. To move keyframes without splitting them, hold alt while moving it. And to move split keyframes, simply click and drag from the space between the two halves. You can also reverse the video by holding command or control while moving an un-split key frame to do so. I can use each of these techniques to add much more drama to a shot, creating different feelings and emotions by altering the speed.