The Camera Workshop 14/09/2016

The last Wednesday we learned the basic principles of handling the filmmaking equipment. The cameras used in Hurtwood Media Department are Black Magic USRA Mini. They film in 4k and allow interchangeable lenses.

To avoid causing damage to such expensive devices, we were told the “yours” and “mine” rule. Each time a piece of equipment was passed, the person giving it said “yours” and did not let go until the accepting student replied “mine”. This principle prevented the equipment from falling due to the lack of attention from one of the partners. Then we fixed and adjusted the cameras on tripods, as another safety we were to fix and adjust the cameras on tripods, as another safety measure. Black Magic tripods have a spirit level, which makes tilts and pans of the tripod’s head smoother movements.

To focus a movie camera one has to make a maximum zoom in on an object of interest and focus on it using the focus ring on a lens. Then when the camera is out of zoom, the focus remains sharp. This way a camera focuses on the smaller details of a projection permanently.

The next step was the introduction to camera’s ISO setting, which is its sensitivity to light. The higher is the ISO, the more light sensitive is the camera, the higher is the exposure of the recording. To set it, zoom out completely and adjust the ISO until zebra stripes begin to appear. The zebra stripes show if the film is overexposed, so one has to avoid their excess in a frame.

The term “shutter angle” is a way of describing shutter speed relative to the frame rate. The larger is the angle, the slower is the shutter speed. If one wants subjects which are blurred for a greater fraction of their frame to frame displacement, then one would choose a larger shutter angle, and vice versa.

Another setting related to light is white balance. It is used to get rid of the blue cast while filming outside or to balance out the colours. One can change it by increasing and decreasing its levels in the image settings.

However, one should always film in colour and without any effects on the image. It is up to a director to choose the effects during the editing which finalise the impression of a shot.