lights camera action!

Finally we started doing filming! Its been a long time coming, i have been waiting to get my hands on a camera and starts filming straight from the start of the year!! 
   

We had a tutorial on how to use a camera, and what the buttons were. three main things that i learned were that:

1. You must NEVER leave the camera out in the rain!

2. Always check the equipment is working before going out on location

3. Make sure that you focus the camera and NEVER use zoom!!

This is something like the camera that we used in class:

This is a professional camera that
they use on real film sets

We also learned how to use a tripod, even though i have used a tripod before it was good having a recap so that i don't accidentally break it..

I like using the tripod because it gives you nice steady shots, how ever if you want to get a steady shot bust close up in a difficult position then it is very hard, because you cant rest the tripod anywhere and then the shot gets wobbly.

We then got our scenario of what our little film is going to be about,
we got a thrilling game of cards.

We had to take a regular game of cards and make it thrilling and exciting; we had  to create an atmosphere of suspense, mystery and we had to accomplish this by our choice of shot distance, camera angle, and movement of the camera. we were only allowed a minimum of 12 shots, and we had t include a extreme close up, point of view shot, over the shoulder shot and a tracking shot. But now that i look back and remember we didn't read the sheet properly because ewe thought that it was only 12 shots and we cold do more... big mistake it only had to be a minimum of 12!


Ok whats done is done, we now have to think of a way to use the shots we already have to make it a thrilling & exciting game of cards. I was thinking of doing slow cuts so that its slow paced making in seem like the game is dragging on unwanted, i also want there to be edgy music to compliment it but i want it in- between, not to fast paced and not to slow paced. for example in the thriller 'what lies beneath', this is the title sequence: as you can see it has slow editing so that it can build suspense.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=&feature=player_embedded

We had to story board our scenes before we filmed them, i think that it is very important to storyboard because you will know exactly what you're supposed to film and this minimises time wastage, therefore leading you to be able to retake shots or make them better if necessary. i really enjoyed this lesson because we actually got to do practical work, and it was fun doing the filming now i cant wait to do the editing. even thought its gonna be hard to make it look like its all happening altogether (because of different lighting) its gonna be really good to see the end result.