Camera Workshops

In the very first camera workshop that was lead by Fergus, we were introduced to the Sony EX cameras, these types of cameras are industry standard so I was excited to learn about them. I had never used these cameras before, I had always used DSLR cameras in the past so I was excited to see what these types of cameras could do differently.

At first glance I thought these cameras would be quite complicated with all the different buttons that are on it, however, Fergus showed us how to work our way around the cameras and I soon learned that the camera was not as bad as I thought it would be.

We were shown how to do different shots with the cameras and then we were given the task to recreate these shots, the first one that we did was the pull focus, what we had to do for this was have two subjects in the same shot and have the first subject on focus and slowly pull the focus to the second subject while pulling the first subject out of focus.

In the second, Fergus went into more detail about how we work the cameras, we were shown how to use the Zebra and Peaking options, these are both there to help us with focusing. Within this session we also went through the white balance, we were shown how to change the balance and how to store a white balance if we needed to change it, we were shown that if you had someone hold up a white piece of paper in front of the camera, you can correct the lighting in white balance and then you can store it in either A or B so you are ready to start filming.

We were given the task to film somebody walking towards a chair and sitting down, we were to do this using multiple shots but making sure we use the 180 degree rule so we only film on one side so it makes it easier to edit together and does not confuse the audience once the edit is complete. Doing this task, I learned how to control a camera better and I learned that using multiple shots was better than using less, you have more to edit together and makes things more interesting to the audience with different shots.

In another workshop we were given the task where we all switched roles, there was to be two actors, a mic operator and a director, we each took turns in switching roles, we had to film a short script in 4-5 different shots and edit them together.

From all the workshops I have learned so much, I though I knew things about filming, but from going to all these different workshops I learned more than i thought I would, I thought when I first saw the cameras that I wouldnt be able to work my way around them but now I feel a lot more confident in them and feel that I can use them now to my best ability. There is still so much more that i can learn from the cameras and I feel I will learn more about them when I start to use them more and more.