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Evaluation Hatfield Forest Project

My preproduction period went really well. I had loads of research into wildlife filming techniques, previous wildlife documentaries, Terrance Mallick and his work with the golden sun but the research that worked best for me was learning my location. I took a few days to take recce shots and learn my way around Hatfield Forest. If I did not do this I would of found it a lot harder when coming to my production days to film when I don’t know my way around and could even get myself lost. If I had more time I would of done more research into my specific camera and settings for wildlife filming as it would of saved a few bad production days. My production days had a slow start with bad weather for most of the days and about a whole month of constant rain preventing me from filming. When the weather was good I got some great shots in the golden hour. Not only did the weather ruin some of my shots but the seasons changed whilst I was filming which made the trees go from being dead with no leaves all of a sudden to beautiful colourful shots. To overcome this issue I had include it in my editing with the voiceover saying “as the season changes from winter to spring.” If I had more time I would of loved to get some shots of summer and winter so I can conclude the whole different seasons of the year. My research showed me to keep it simple when it comes to the edit. I avoided using fancy transitions. I always keep things simple by using either a cross fade, fade in and out to black or no transition effect at all. This allows the cinematography to really impact the audience. I also tried not to add any colour grades over the edit as it almost acts as a lie to the audience as wildlife filming is about documenting the natural world and it wouldn’t be very natural if it was added with loads of effects. I chose to work in the style of Terrance Mallick. I do feel like I chose the correct person because although he does not do wildlife cinematography his work with the golden hour is amazing. I worked in the style of him as much as I could but with bad weather on some days and deer being deep in the forest I couldn’t include the sun in my shots like I planned. If I had more time I would work with the golden hour theme but work more with the sky in the golden hour than the sun much like what Terrance Mallick did in Days Of Heaven. One of the hardest part of my documentary to film was finding the deer. I knew this would be an issue as it is recommended to only film dear in rutting season as they are more bold but this is only in October and I could wait that long. I got in touch with a park ranger during the pre production period to learn more about where the deer are often spotted and the ranger showed me where they are all seen during the day but when I went there I sat there for hours seeing nothing. I knew that field knowledge and skills are very important as different species will need different approaches to film it. I tried to do as much research as possible for this which did help such as I learnt ways to stalk them but I found that I learnt more from trial and error when I was out filming. For example my research showed me to sit and wait in a known location for the deer and they will walk passed but this is not what happened for me I had to walk through the deep parts of the forest and scout them out. An issue I had because it was in the deep parts of the forest, trees and branches were ruining the shots so I had to move angles and in doing so the deers all saw me and ran away. All in all I managed to get about 3 shots of the deer which were usable for my final edit. If I had more time I would of focused more on the deer than other animals in my documentary as they are beautiful animals and are not often seen as they are so shy. An issue I encountered when filming some recce shots of Hatfield Forest was that the clips I recorded when taken back to edit clearly had some areas of noise which created a grainy look which was not what I wanted. I then took this to edit and used the effect “denoise” in aftereffects which cleared a lot of the issue. This then created a new issue that the sharpness of the image had gone. Although this was not what I wanted either it still looked better than the grainy image before edit. I started looking into the issue why I had noise in the first place and realised that I had the gain set on high when filming. I researched more into gain and found out that gain is used for low lit scenes or night filming to be lit up more to see the images but often adds noise as a consequence of this. For wildlife filming I want the gain to be as low as possible to get the clearest shots. I am glad I leant this early on otherwise my whole project could of had this issue. I done a lot of research into filming on eye level techniques and wildlife framing techniques which I used throughout my whole project. The only shot where I do not feel like I managed to do this was with the swan taking off out of the water. This is because I was not expecting to see this and I had to act quick to get it on camera so I rushed the pan a little. I took this to the edit and added a warp stabilising effect and slowed the clip down to clean up the pan. I had an issue of unwanted noise from planes, cars and dogs. This ruined the natural sounds. Luckily from my research into previous wildlife documentaries I found that a way around this is to add dramatic music which created tension with the audience. I did however get some peer feedback that my music was a bit too much which could of made it comic but also had some strong positive feedback about it too. As I learnt in my research with wildlife cinematography it’s key to travel light. I filmed on my own so all the equipment I needed to be able to carry myself. I could only take the most important stuff. I done very well to carry all the equipment but in some cases it held me back. If I was to do this again I would find a production assistant to help me carry equipment and also set up on location. This would mean I could have more equipment and I would be able to use a slider, gimbals or drones to add more movement to my documentary. In conclusion I am very happy with the outcome of my documentary and I worked well to overcome the issues I faced while filming. There is a lot more I wish I could of done if I had time but unfortunately I had to meet deadlines.

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Production Diary : Hatfield Forest Project

I started my filming from the 5th of february to gather enough shots to complete this documentary I knew it would take a long time because animals have be very hard to find and film. 

5th of February 

Today I planned to film sunrise over the water for a great establishing shot to start my documentary. I checked the weather on the 4th and it was meant to be clear sky’s all morning. I arrive at 7:00 for sunrise at 7:30 to allow myself time to set up and walk into the forest to my location of filming. When I got to my location it started to snow which ruined all my shots. I tried to adapt to the weather and get some good shots with the snow but as it hadn't settled it looked dull and not much different from rain which did not fit the theme of my documentary. 

7th of February 

Today I planned to reshot the footage from the 5th which was a sunrise over the water shot. Unfortunately yet again the weather let me down and the sun was blocked by clouds. I then decided to focus my filming on wildlife in the water and got some footage of ducks and amazing footage of a swan taking off. Unfortunately as I was not expecting it the pan of the shot could of been better but in the edit I will be able to fix it using a stabilising effect and slowing the clip down.

9th of feb 

Today I planned to film deer in a field which I knew they have often been spotted. Their was no golden hour and it was very cold and at some points it started to snow. I stayed in a field from 8:00 to 12:00 and saw no deer. This could of been bad luck or there could of been a factor which scared them off such as weather or I was too loud they heard me. On the walk back to my car through the forest I saw a deer but by the time I managed to get my camera out the deer had seen me and was ready to run. 

14th of February 

Today was a clear sky day and I planned to film animals around the forest. I got some good clips of squirrel and goats but  when taken back to edit clearly had some areas of noise which created a grainy look which was not what I wanted. I then took this to edit and used the effect “denoise” in aftereffects which cleared a lot of the issue. This then created a new issue that the sharpness of the image had gone. Although this was not what I wanted either it still looked better than the grainy image before edit. I started looking into the issue why I had noise in the first place and realised that I had the gain set on high when filming. I researched more into gain and found out that gain is used for low lit scenes or night filming to be lit up more to see the images but often adds noise as a consequence of this. For wildlife filming I want the gain to be as low as possible to get the clearest shots. Due to this issue I will need to reshot these scenes.

 Due to the poor weather I had to stop filming for a period of time. 

23rd of March 

Today I filmed the sunrise over the water shot which I had tried a few times. It worked very well as although it was a bit cloudy it added atmosphere to the shot and made it really effective. When taking it back to the edit I added a small colour grade to enhance the brightness and colour of the sun. It gave a really good establishing shot.

16th of April 

I saw on the news earlier in the week that the UK will be hit with a heat wave. I chose to take full advantage of this by filming as much as I could. When I arrived I realised the difference between the winter and spring at Hatfield forest and I decided to include this in my documentary. This was because all the leaves and grass is so colourful. I waited in the same field as I was before looking for deer. I waited from 6:00 to 8:00 and chose to walk though the forest in areas people don't often go as this is where I last saw the deer. I ran into two different groups of deer. It was hard to get into a good angle as a lot of the shots would be blocked by trees. The first group was eating the grass which created a great shot but was not long before they spotted me and ran away. As this group was very far away from me I had to zoom in quite a lot which ruin the quality of the shot a little bit. The second group was walking passed which again mad a good shot but as I tried to follow them they noticed and ran off. 

17th of April

Today all I needed to finish off my project was some B-roll. I walked around the forest taking shots of trees, leaves and anything that I found to be useful. 

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Wildlife Cinematographer : Hatfield Forest Project

Wildlife cinematography focuses on filming various forms of wildlife in their natural habitat. It is considered one of the hardest forms of cinematography as not only must I focus on composition, sound techniques, exposer and lighting, you must also have good field skills and knowledge.

Field knowledge and skills are very important as different species will need different approaches to film it. I recently have been filming deer and the first time I went I couldn’t get a single shot of them. This was because I didn’t know the animal well enough. After this I done a lot of research and found out a lot of information which was vital to get some good clips.

The first thing I learnt was that deer are most active at dawn and dusk. This means that they will be walking around and most easy to spot at these times. A know saying with photographers and videographers is “the golden hour.” This is known as the best time to take photographs and videos. The golden hour is the time around sun rise and sun set when the sun light has more atmosphere to travel through, giving it a more golden appearance. I try to avoid the few hours around the very middle of the day as most cameras struggles to cope with the bright spots and dark shadows in the middle of a sunny day. Also, your plant or animal will be lit from the top which isn't a particularly nice look. Often there is no sun with the typical British weather and I find myself out on a very cloudy grey day. Clouds can be a plus in the form of a very large diffuser as I can benefit from this soft and uniform light. When I take macro photos or videos of wildflowers, or long exposures of woodland streams are usually better off with an overcast sky as it gets rid of the really harsh, bright areas and the really dark shadow. I always make sure to get to my location of filming half a hour before sunrise or sunset as deer are most active around dawn and dusk. When filming in the golden hour I must take into account that if filming animals it takes time to find your animal. I learnt this the hard way when filming deer in Hatfield Forest I couldn’t find the animals until midday and the lighting in the shots were not as good as it would have been earlier. To make sure this never happens again I try to show up half a hour before the golden hour to set up and find the animal I want to film.

Another key aspect of filming is knowing your location. The first thing I did when getting into wildlife cinematography was to research places around me to film. I needed to make sure that the location had exactly what I was looking for. There would be nothing worth than spending a filming day in a place that didn’t have the wildlife you wanted. I found places such as Hatfield Forest, Lake District and Richmond Park. These places all had wildlife but the only one close to me was Hatfield Forest. I then took a couple of days walking around the forest making notes of things in each area. Small things like water sources and types of vegetation make a huge difference as to what wildlife will be around these areas. I also discovered loads of areas in the forest with no vegetation and the forest seemed to be dead which means there would not be much wildlife here. Also it makes sense to know my location to know how long it takes to get into the spot I want to film, if I wanted to be there for sunrise I wouldn’t want to miss any of it because I didn’t allow time for walking in the location. The sun rises from the east and sets in the west, know this I need to know my location to know where to be if I wanted to film sun rise or sun set in the golden hour. These shots will create a great establishing shot if I get the sun across the lake. As shown from the photo to the right I found a great source to help me know where to stand for the filming.

I got in contact with the nation trust to talk to people that work at the forest to help me learn even more about the location. I was very aware to make sure the email is professional to show I am serious about what I want to do and they know I will not be doing anything I shouldn’t be doing in the forest.

Another aspect of all types of cinematography is framing and composition. Trying to stick to techniques such as the rule of thirds can be very tricky with moving wildlife as they can be very unpredictable. Walking/Flying Room is another technique I use. This is if my subject is moving towards the edge of the frame and I am panning the camera to follow, I make sure I leave plenty of room for it to move into. If the tail end of the subject goes out of frame now and again it’s no big deal but if the head moves out of frame it can totally ruin my shot. Rather than pan with the subject I try keeping the camera fixed and record some shots where the subject either walks into or out of the frame. I also combine the two techniques by allowing the subject to walk into frame, pan along with it for a while, stop the pan and then let it walk out of frame. These will provide excellent cut points when I come to edit my shots together. When framing the image I have learnt that filming on eye level of the animal is key. For example if I am filming a bird up in the tree I must find a way to raise myself to the level of the bird rather than standing below and pointing the camera up. When researching into tips for wildlife filming, I discovered that watching backgrounds its very important. As much as the main focus of every picture is important what is behind it can ruin the shot. To have the background out of focus can make the wildlife stand out yet if telling a story about the animal the background will set a scene and would need to be in focus. 

Shy animals such as deer, birds, foxes, badgers and much other wildlife that will run away with the first sign of people are very hard to film. This means not only do I need to be a great camera operator/cinematographer, I also have to have excellent field knowledge. Deer and foxes have extreme sense of hearing and smell. Its always key to be walking into the wind as if I walk with the wind then my sense of smell will travel infant of me and scare off the animals before I even arrive. It’s very hard to sneak up on deer and foxes as they can hear my every move. Sometimes it makes it easier in wet conditions to stalk the animals as the twigs are bendy and soggy so twigs don’t tend to snap as easily and not scaring off the animals. After days of walking around in Hatfield Forest I have found that the easiest way to film shy animals is to sit around quietly and wait for the animals to appear. This only worked because I knew my location well enough that I found an area near where the target animal is. I have always been tempted to get a little closer to the animals but I must consider losing everything if I scare off the animals, also I must always be careful about disturbing the nature or animals. If I was to try to get closer I learnt to move forward in zig zag patterns and not making eye contact with the animal. This way the animal does not think I am interested in it. The next pictures are research I did to enhance my field knowledge on deer. 

It is key to prepare for every day of filming. I do not want to get to my location and realise I have forgot something that is vital either ruining the shoot or delaying the day as I had to travel home. This is why I have a check list of all equipment I need. With wildlife cinematography it’s key to travel light, I film on my own so all the equipment I need to be able to carry myself. This means I must take only the most important stuff. Tripods must be very steady with wildlife filming, when filming I will be zooming in a lot so the smallest movement will impact the shots. I have also been looking into a polarising filter for the camera. A polarising filter is a lightweight filter placed in front of the camera lens in photography in order to darken skies, manage reflections, or suppress glare from the surface of lakes or the sea. This filter will be very useful to capture great establishing shots. I will also be using a wide angle lens which is another attachment for the camera to widen the shot. It will help me capture great establishing shots and landscape shots. I have been looking into filming with a slider which would add movement to my filming. This is another piece of equipment which is heavy and I do not think I will be able to carry all of this. I may have to choose certain days with the slider and ask a friend to hep assist me to carry all the equipment to the location. When planning filming days it’s important to check weather forecasts. I may need to get rain covers or lens hoods to protect my camera from the rain. I have also discovered days being very cloudy which blocks the golden hour sun. If I plan ahead I can change the days and make sure all the filming is on the best days with the best weather. It is also key to check the times of sun rise and sun set to know what times to arrive on location.

An issue I encountered when filming some recce shots of Hatfield Forest was that the clips I recorded when taken back to edit clearly had some areas of noise which created a grainy look which was not what I wanted. I then took this to edit and used the effect “denoise” in aftereffects which cleared a lot of the issue. This then created a new issue that the sharpness of the image had gone. Although this was not what I wanted either it still looked better than the grainy image before edit. I started looking into the issue why I had noise in the first place and realised that I had the gain set on high when filming. I researched more into gain and found out that gain is used for low lit scenes or night filming to be lit up more to see the images but often adds noise as a consequence of this. For wildlife filming I want the gain to be as low as possible to get the clearest shots.

My research showed me to keep it simple when it comes to the edit. I avoid using fancy transitions. I always keep things simple by using either a cross fade, fade in and out to black or no transition effect at all. This allows the cinematography to really impact the audience. I also try not to add any colour grades over the edit as it almost acts as a lie to the audience as wildlife filming is about documenting the natural world and it wouldn’t be very natural if it was added with loads of effects.

Sound can help to visualise what is outside of the frame, the area behind the camera, an area the audience cannot see. For example, the audience can see a wide shot above the tree canopy, and even though they can’t see monkeys, they can hear them screaming. Let the viewer’s imagination tell a story. I always record a “buzz track” on location (atmospheric, background sound). This can be very useful in the edit to put down behind a sequence of shots so that you don’t get that nasty jump in sound between cuts. Music can also be a helpful addition to my film, by helping to smooth transitions between shots and making my piece more appealing. From the practise shots I have taken I learnt that filming at dawn allows the best sound. This is because there is no noise pollution. Also trying to track some animals if you listen to the sounds of nature you can hear them and know which direction to head.

I have taken a lot of inspiration from the filmmaker Terrence Malick. This is mainly because of the film Days of Heaven, a 1978 American romantic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick. It has won a lot of awards for its cinematography. The main aspect which inspired me was that almost the whole film was shot during the golden hour. This gave the film a magic touch and made all the sad scenes have soft light. One thing I did not realise until the second time watching that the film although being filmed in the golden hour never showed a shot of the sun. This means the golden hour had soft colourful sky but not to overpowering the shots. I will work in the style of this for my Wildlife documentary. I will try to film all my footage in the golden hour this will add a lot of colour to all my shots. 

When watching a documentary about Richmond Park presented by David Attenborough I learnt the impact of non-diegetic sound. This is the sound that is not visible on screen. These sounds in the documentary were quiet music which played over the natural soundtrack. This music created tension and added atmosphere. It also engaged me as the viewer as it made the documentary more interesting. This documentary was filmed with experienced wildlife film makers, including leading cameraman from Blue Planet II. It is an award-winning film by conservation charity. This shows the high standard of this documentary and why it will be great to work using inspiration and help from this. Due to Youtube’s media, I was able to see the likes and dislikes of this film. With 676 likes to 6 dislikes it was highly appreciated with the audience. When looking through the comments of the documentary it showed me that audiences main appeal was the presentation by David Attenborough. This highlighted that the voice and presentation of my film will impact my documentary highly. 

This shot really appealed to me as the colours of the shot stands out. It was clearly shot in the golden hour as the sun has a golden hint to it. The low shot across the water increases the effects of the ripples of the water and makes it stand out. The rule of thirds was clearly applied here as the sun is the main focus of the picture. I tried to recreate this image as seen below. 

I looked into target audience’s for my documentary to understand how to appeal to the audience. From the BFI film academy audience research and statistics 2015, I came to the conclusion that the age of my audience would be 55+. This is because due to films such as The Railway Man and MR. Turner had over 50% were there audience. This would be because of the seriousness and the art which appeals to this age. 

When continuing through this page I realised the gender of my target audience must be female as films with the same age genre like the railway man have a 62% to 38% female audience. The could again be due to the application of the arts. 

Further on in this page I discovered my social economic grouping to be A and B as again The Railway Man and MR. Turner had over 70% of this grouping. 

Questionnaires

I created a Questionnaire about documentaries to compare the difference ages of my audience and understand what appeals to different age groups. From the two examples above it was clear to me that the older generation seemed to watch more documentaries as the examples I have the older participant had seen them all. Other answers from age ranges 0-18 hadn't seen any of them. This concludes me to believe that the younger generation are not as interested in documentaries which supports my hypothesis I made earlier with my secondary research into target audience. The older generation which is my target audience seemed to care more for the content being filmed which means I must work hard to develop my documentary. The younger generation seemed to enjoy the voiceovers and presenters more which leads me to believe that the presenter is one of the main reasons young people watch a documentary. If I can find a presenter that engages the younger generation as well as the older generation it could help me to create a mass audience. 

Today the college got a new piece of equipment. The equipment was a shoulder mount. I was given a tutorial of how to use it and I found that it would be perfect for my project. It almost acted like a gimbal with this releasing pole which stabilised every shot. With my nature filming it would allow a lot of movement which would be a lot more appealing to my target audience. The only trouble I found was that to set up the shoulder mount it took two people and I was filming on my own. To overcome this issue so that I could use the shoulder mount I will have to bring along a production assistant. 

Possible Issues

Weather and Sunrise - This will be one of the biggest issues I will face for filming this short documentary. Living in the U.K. the weather is very unpredictable. With all my filming being outside the weather will effect the whole of my documentary. With bad weather in all my shots it can completely change the mood of my documentary and mostly ruin the shots that I plan to take. With trying to film this documentary in the style of Terrence Malick, I will be trying to film all my shots in the golden hour period which is around sunrise and and sunset. For this style to work it relies on a clear sky morning or evening to allow the sun the shine. The only way I can beat this issue of weather is to keep a constant eye on weather forecasts and if there is a day with clear sky mornings or evenings I must be sure to film it. Temperature - As mentioned above I will be filming around sunrise and sunset. At these times the temperature will be getting very cold. For me I just need to prepare and bring appropriate clothing. When the cold hits it is likely some animals will go sleep or deeper into the woods. To overcome this issue it is important to research the animal I plan to film. Unwanted Noise, Wind, Cars and Planes - The time of day I will be filming I avoid a lot of issues from unwanted noise from people or cars. The wind can ruin the sound of a shot but if it is windy I need to prepare the correct equipment and it will be okay. Hatfield forest is right next Stansted Airport one of U.K. busiest airports. This means that planes are often flying above ruining the sound of certain  shots. I have looked into runway times and it was clear the a plane leaves from the south runway every 8 minutes. So the only way to work around this issue is to time every 8 minutes to expect the sound to be ruined around then. Transport - I own a car and hold a UK driving license, Hatfield forest is only a 5 minute drive away from where I live so for me transport to Hatfield forest wont be too big of a deal. Where the transport gets tricky is when I arrive at Hatfield Forest. Once my car is parked in the designated car parking area it is on foot everywhere else. From the car park to the other side of Hatfield forest is almost 4 miles. Being on my own carrying all my equipment will be very hard. To overcome this issue I will have to travel light only using the most important equipment, plan ahead to know exactly where in Hatfield forest I will be filming so I do not waste time and if I need certain equipment and I cant carry on my own ask someone to assist the filming day as a production assistant. Equipment - With wildlife cinematography it’s key to travel light, I film on my own so all the equipment I need to be able to carry myself. This means I must take only the most important stuff. Tripods must be very steady with wildlife filming, when filming I will be zooming in a lot so the smallest movement will impact the shots. I have been looking into filming with a slider which would add movement to my filming. This is another piece of equipment which is heavy and I do not think I will be able to carry all of this. I may have to choose certain days with the slider and ask a friend to hep assist me to carry all the equipment to the location. There is a lot more equipment I would love to take with me such as gimbals, drones and many more but because of my budget and also having to carry alone I cant. learning wildlife - Field knowledge and skills are very important as different species will need different approaches to film it. If I don’t know how to film shy animals I could scare them away. To overcome this I done a lot of research which can be seen on my blog.   learning my location - I need to know my location to know what wildlife will be around in different areas. I took a couple of days walking around the forest making notes of things in each area. I took notes of small things like water sources and types of vegetation make a huge difference as to what wildlife will be around these areas. I also discovered loads of areas in the forest with no vegetation and the forest seemed to be dead which means there would not be much wildlife here. Also it makes sense to know my location to know how long it takes to get into the spot I want to film, if I wanted to be there for sunrise I wouldn’t want to miss any of it because I didn’t allow time for walking in the location. Finding wildlife - Some types of wildlife such as deer are really hard to find. It can take days to find a deer and then I need to get in a good position to film them. To overcome this I emailed a ranger at the park and asked them for some advise and know locations of where deer are often spotted. I got a really helpful response which can be seen on my blog. Time limit - It may be hard to get the whole documentary done for the time limit. To overcome this issue I will started filming a couple of weeks earlier by quickly completing the pre production and planning stages.

Bibliography

BBC Nature. (2018). Wildlife Photography: Tips for Beginners. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/22115362 [Accessed 18 May 2018].

En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Wildlife photography. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_photography [Accessed 18 May 2018].

National Trust. (2018). Contact us. [online] Available at: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/contact-us [Accessed 18 May 2018].

National Trust. (2018). Hatfield Forest. [online] Available at: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hatfield-forest [Accessed 18 May 2018].

En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Polarizing filter (photography). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizing_filter_(photography) [Accessed 18 May 2018].

Steves-digicams.com. (2018). Camcorder Controls: How To Use Gain - Steve's Digicams. [online] Available at: http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/camcorder-operation/camcorder-controls-how-to-use-gain.html [Accessed 18 May 2018].

Filmmaking, A. and Alexander, J. (2018). A Beginners Guide to Wildlife Filmmaking | Eden Shorts | Eden Channel. [online] Eden.uktv.co.uk. Available at: https://eden.uktv.co.uk/eden-shorts/article/beginners-guide-wildlife-filmmaking/ [Accessed 18 May 2018].

YouTube. (2018). Richmond Park National Nature Reserve. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMGKSwqryso&t=325s [Accessed 18 May 2018].

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Film and Television level 3 year 2

Unit 9

Making a documentary 

Today we got into groups to make one of the ideas individuals have created. Our group decided to create Joe’s idea which is a short documentary on how sport effects young peoples lives. It will mainly focus on the sports; rugby, football and golf. I took up the role of camera operator. Joe is director. Elliot is editing and production assistant. 

Pre-production

Today we started the pre-production. I had the paperwork of; a call sheet, equipment list, locations and recce shots, and a shot list. I found most difficulty in the equipment list as a lot of the equipment we wanted to use was unavailable such as a shoulder mount and a second camera. We wanted to take a second camera for the interview scenes to have a close up and a mid shot to make the documentary more professional. We leant that although we can’t have two cameras we close have the same effect but we will have to film the interview twice which might not work as the second time it could become fake.

Production Diary

Day 1 

Today we went to Braintree rugby club to film the rugby scenes and interview for the documentary. I took part as camera operator. The shots taken were framed and taken very well but when the clips were taken back to the edit it was clear that a few of the shots were over exposed. It was clear that the cameras iris was open to much and needed to be closed. I had a talk with the teacher and learnt to pay close attention when setting up the camera as the iris was on manual and for this you need to be adjusting the iris for each shot. In future to prevent this from happening I must pay more attention when setting up the camera. Either have the iris on automatic or have it on manual and keep adjusting the iris to fit the lighting. 

Day 2 

Today we went and reshot the over exposed images. This time i had the iris on automatic so I could focus on the framing of the work. The shots came out all good and what we wanted. We worked well with the time scale we had.

Experimental research

Today me and the team took out a track and dolly kit with a camera to learn how to use it professionally so we can use it for projects. I took the roll of camera operator. We was just doing a few shots of an actor walking toward the camera. I found it partially hard to keep to speed with pace of the actor walking. We tried asking the actor to slow down the walk but it look unnatural. In the end to get a good shot; I was on the camera controlling the framing and recording, a person controlling the speed of the camera moving along the dolly and a person standing at the back of the track to make sure we don't run the camera off the track.

Planning a short documentary.

My short documentary is going to be about the sport of rugby and why I am unable to play anymore. It will feature old footage of me playing rugby. The documentary will start of some clips of Braintree rugby club playing some rugby then cutting to some shots of the changing room talks and team tactics, then following this clips of fans and supporters having fun and watching the games. While these clips are being shown there will be a voiceover of information about rugby e.g. when it started, where it started, where it is leading today. This opening sequence will show the reasons for the love of the game. In the rest of the documentary will be an interview where I will get asked loads of questions about my love for the game and the reasons for not playing anymore.

Research ; Rugby started in 1886 at a school named rugby. A boy from the school was playing football and picked up the ball and started running with it. It was then developed into the 15 a-side game we see now on TV. England are the second best team in the world. Only won the world cup once in 2003 with the world famous captain Jonny Wilkinson. Rugby is a game for any size, any weight players.

 I took this shot as practise for my documentary. I edited the clips into 4 different colour grades. I asked 10 people which colour grade they found to be the most fitting given the context. The results came back that the bottom left one was the best by results of 8/10. I also was given advise to add a slight blue hint to fit the sad mood.  

The camera angles for the start of the opening sequence are going to be very abstract. Shots from inside the scrums, on the line outs and loads of other angles. In the changing room shots will be point of view to allow the audience to get a real feel of what it will be like to be involved with the rugby. The shots of the supporters and fans will be long and wide shots to show the numbers of people who love the sport. In the second part of the documentary the camera angles will be stationary mid shots for the interview. The framing should allow the whole face and shoulders in shot. Whichever direction the interviewee is facing should be more room in frame.

My documentary will be shown on tv channels such as BBC 4 or BBC 5. It could also be posted on youtube. The rating will be PG as it contains controlled violence in the game of rugby.

Unit 11

Research and self analysis job role you want to do in the film and TV industry.

I want to be a camera operator as I love to capture the moment through the lens of a camera. A camera operator is part of a film crew consisting of the director of photography and one or more camera assistants. The camera operator is responsible for physically operating the camera and maintaining composition and camera angles throughout a given scene or shot. In narrative filmmaking, the camera operator will collaborate with the director, director of photography, actors and crew to make technical and creative decisions.This job interests me as there is a lot of detail and knowledge that is a necessity to know in order to well at this job. Important camera operator skills include choreographing and framing shots, knowledge of and the ability to select appropriate camera lenses, and other equipment such as dollies, camera cranes and more to portray dramatic scenes. According to Prospects.ac.uk “While many television camera operatives have a degree, it's more important to have a showreel to demonstrate your passion for photography”. This showed me that to become successful I need to create a successful showreel. A showreel is a short videotape that contains examples of your work. In order to have a good showreel I need to have a lot of successful work to show my experience. 

I looked on indeed.co.uk and looked up camera operator jobs and there was only 5 I could find. I then searched runner jobs in the film and television industry and many jobs came up. It is a know fact that a runner job is a very good place to start in the industry to get experience and gain contacts. It would be a smart decision to go down this route as I do not aim to go to university so I will need to get as much experience as possible. When looking further into the runner jobs I noticed that the jobs all where in London or Salford.

The responsibilities I need to be a television camera operator:

assemble, prepare and set up equipment prior to filming, which may include tripods, monitors, lighting, cables and leads and headphones

offer advice on how best to shoot a scene and explain the visual impact created by particular shots

plan shots, for example when filming an expensive drama scene, such as an explosion, there may be only one chance to get things right, so shots need to be meticulously planned beforehand

practise the camera moves required for pre-arranged shots

study scripts

find solutions to technical or other practical problems (for an outside broadcast, for example, the natural light conditions need to be taken into account when setting up shots)

be prepared to innovate and experiment with ideas

work quickly, especially as timing is such an important factor

take sole responsibility in situations where only one camera operator is involved in the filming

keep up to date with filming methods and equipment

repair and maintain equipment

demonstrate a good awareness of health and safety issues

drive crew, actors and equipment to and from locations.

HAVARD REFRENCING

Prospects. 2017. Television camera operator job profile | Prospects.ac.uk. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/television-camera-operator. [Accessed 14 September 2017].

Camera operator - Wikipedia. 2017. Camera operator - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_operator. [Accessed 14 September 2017].