Camera Settings

When I reach the filming process for creating my short film, I must know what types of cameras and the settings I will be using. Although there are multiple types of cameras with the potential to bring out cinematic qualities, I will be focusing on the use and settings of DSLR cameras as that is the type of camera my school's media department has provided me with.

The DSLR camera is a versatile camera, with the name DSLR standing for 'Digital Single Lens Reflex'. This essentially means that the camera combines the optics and mechanisms of a single-lens camera with a digital imaging sensor. This helps with attaching and switching to different lenses which will help you perform with different looks.

There are various settings available on the DSLR camera. Three of the main, important ones are shutter speed, ISO, and aperture. When filming, I plan to adjust the shutter speed settings to 1/60, in order to have the shots at 30fps. However, you can choose to shoot at 1/50 for more motion blur, as the fps will be at 24 then.

There are different accessories you can use to achieve cinematic quality on the DSLR. Here are a few must-haves:

• 
  SD card
• Tripods
• Camera bag
• Lenses
• Lens filters
• Battery charger
• Microphones
• Remote control
  

When using the camera for filming cinematically I must consider the settings I will need to use to adjust the camera's view and be able to fit the atmosphere and location of the film. The settings I will be adjusting will be aperture, making sure it is open as much as possible as one of the locations will have low lighting. There is an option to use the flashlight attachment on the DSLR, however I'd rather rely on external lights to help. 

CAMERA SETTINGS:

MANUAL MODE - You have control over everything from aperture to shutter speed.

APERTURE - Aperture is part of the exposure triangle, responsible for the exposure in the camera.

DEPTH OF FIELD - Controls the range of what is in focus in the camera's view.

SHUTTER SPEED - The speed of what the camera sensor captures stills.

TYPES OF CAMERA LENSES:

STANDARD - The lenses produces an image which roughly matches the human eye, giving a natural view.

WIDE ANGLE - Gives a full shot of the subject and its surroundings, giving the viewers a sense of place.

ZOOM - Can adjust its focal length, by zooming in and out. Normally used in a way to give the illusion of moving closer or further away from the subject.

These three lenses are the lenses I will use for my short film.

Here is an example of the zoom lenses being used with depth of field, in order to practice focus pulling.

Here is an example of practicing aperture:

How Editing compliments Lighting and Camerawork

 

Timecodes to be marked as conventions in my Final Edit

CAMERA LANGUAGE:

-0:00 to 0:25

-0:28

-0:33

-0:39

-0:43

-0:47

-0:50

-1:03

-1:07

-1:10

-1:11

-1:13

-1:17

-1:18

-1:21

-1:24

-1:36 to 1:47

-1:48 to 2:07

-2:26

-2:31

-2:39 to 2:43

-2:44 to 2:57

-3:01

-3:03 to 3:12

-3:14

-3:16

-3:22

-3:25

-3:30

MISE-EN-SCENE:

-0:20

-0:48

-1:04

-1:09

-1:20

-1:55

-2:11

-2:40

-3:06 to 3:10

-3:14

LIGHTING:

-0:06 to 0:59

-1:09

-1:11

-1:13

-1:19

-1:20

-1:47

-2:16

-2:45

-2:56 to 3:00

-3:14

-3:22

-3:29

Production Log Week 13

 

Post-Production Tools

 

When editing my first and final edit, a tool I mainly used was the blade tool. I used the shortcut key (command + B) to make my editing more quick and efficient. I used this tool for cutting up videos to shorten them so I can have flawless transitions, while also using the tool for audio files to help cut up any unwanted noise that creeped into the recordings.

Here is an example:

Another technique I used were the effects presets. I used the "gaussian blur", "letterbox", "Prism" effects and more, to make the film more cinematic, and emphasise certain scenes like the hallucinating scene. I dragged the effects to the desired clip and adjusted the settings to make it effective and fit my short film.

On the top right corner, you can see an example:

A technique I carried out when editing the sound in my short film was cutting the original version of the non-diegetic soundtrack and fading it into the instrumental, to smooth over into the cinematic aspect of the film. By doing this I also lowered the volume of the instrumental so it doesn't overpower the dialogue.

Here is an example:

An editing tool I used when editing my short film was that I did colour correction on every clip used. This was so I can fix any underexposed clips, and adjust the look to keep the audience engaged and satisfied with the look of the shots. I did this by enabling colour adjustments and changed the amount of exposure, contrast, brightness, highlights, saturation, shadows, and midtones, all so the quality is higher.

Here is the before and after colour correcting:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Finally, a tool I used to control the sounds in different clips was the volume adjuster. I used the fade in/out slider in the audio adjuster of clips, and even muted some, so that unwanted noise wouldn't come through carelessly. 

Here is an example:

Changes I made to my Storyboard during Production

 

When filming my short film I had to make changes to my storyboard to be able to capture the best quality shots. 

In one of the shots where Belle looks at the door for a second then puts her lipstick on after, I was originally going to have the camera shot from the back and the n cuts to the side. However I quickly realised that the angle wasn't that appealing for her side and back profile, and didn't properly capture the room door, so I opted to angle the camera a bit more front-faced, but still on the side, which opened up Belle's space more and overall looked much better that the original idea. It also  added more variety into the camera movement.

Here is the original plan:

Compared to the final look:

Another change in the storyboard was the way that the Director was introduced with snaking his arms around Belle. Instead, I went for an extreme close-up of his hand going onto her shoulder, in order to keep the affection a bit more subtle, while also bringing more variety in the type of camera shots.

Additionally, I was changed the shot when Belle directly looks up at the director, as it was an awkward and uncomfortable action to perform, so instead we went for the movement of Belle turning slightly to the side and looking at him from over her shoulder. This was a more effective and comfortable change.

Here is the before:

Compared to the final look:

Export Format

When I finally finished editing my final edit, I looked at the specification to see what format the film must be exported in (H.264 and MP4). The format I chose was computer. This is so the film can export in a .MP4 file. I chose H.264 as the video codec, as the specification recommended. The resolution I chose for the short film was 1080p, as I filmed in that resolution, so exporting in 4k wouldn't have made a difference, and would've taken unnecessary space.