Practical Skills Evaluation

Evaluation:

Over the entire unit my practical skills and knowledge of these skills have also increased a lot since the beginning of the year. I had some camera knowledge but only when it came to photography to it was eyeopening to learn that there were so many more techniques and skills to learn when it came to to the whole unit. So my filming skills had improved by focusing that the camera was steady when filming as it is a lot more evident when watching clips back if the footage is all over the place. 

Learning different ways to drastically change lighting in scene too was very key as I can tell throughout the entire unit, i've improved drastically on this portion because my lighting skills were beginner level, having to enhance them a lot when editing, where as know i'm able to plan around natural lighting hours to try and get the best possible lighting, as well as become more advanced with extra lighting too if needed which is very handy as well. Knowing the settings on the outside and the inside of the camera are really good skills to know too, as tech can be tricky sometimes so knowing how to use them properly is essential, especially when you require them for your projects and future projects too.

I've been able to become educated on my knowledge of the health and safety features when working with other, using equipment which can be a very handy skill as well as good to know for your own safety and other around you, which is top priority! So this skill has made more more aware of my surrounding and potential dangers you have to thing about for you and others when creating projects.

I believe that I still need to improve on my microphone/audio skills as for the majority of my projects, I used a lot of audio that was downloadable so I only got the chance to use speak audio a couple of times but even then i wasn't super confident and happy with the overall result so if i could go back and improve, it would to be more experimental with mic skills and how to edit with audio files more. However on the downloaded audio, I was able to combined different audios together in one of my past projects this year which was new for me but i kept experimenting and finally was able to do it, which was a big achievement for me and made the overall project improve a lot more.

Health and Safety

In the Studio:

Considering health and safety when working in the photography room is very important. It is a requirement that everyone is aware of the responsibilities while using the equipment in the room and around them. Everyone in the room should be cautious of cables and electrical objects in the studio as it can be a hazard that can result into a worse situation. Staying caution can help prevent any accidents or hazards from occurring. Always make sure that the fire door or emergency exit aren't blocked by anything as well as you knowing where they are in the room., this allows you to have a clear exit if you need to leave the room quickly, ensuring your safety.

Certain Criteria To Stick To In The Studio:

• Making sure that there are no cables or objects on the floor which could possible be a tripping hazard.
• Checking the equipment is hooked up properly with no lose wires or bulbs overheating. If anything did happen to the equipment it is important to alert a technician staff to help resolve the problem.
• The studio is a small room so due to COVID-19, only a certain amount of people are allowed in the room at once. It is required that masks are worn if you're not being the actual subject. Anyone else should wait outside of the room to ensure nobody else enters and makes the studio too crowded.
• No food or drink should be allowed in the studio, this prevents any damage done to the equipment that could have occurred from food or drink being spilt resulting in damaged objects.
• Make sure the studio is kept tidy as it is only a small space so keeping it as tidy as possible ensure more space for the equipment.
• Keeping an eye on the heating in the room, as well as the temperature of the lighting if they are on for a certain amount of time. This has to be checked because the studio isn't a very big room so it can heat up fast especially if a group of people are in their together. The actual lights can overheat or blow if they are on for too long, this can also be a hazard that could be avoid.

Split Screen Video

Split Screen Video: 

This is my attempt at creating a split screen video, the video doesn't have any meaning to it, it's just a series of clips of my sister doing everyday stuff on one afternoon. If I recreated or attempted to create a spilt screen video again I would improve it by using a tripod as well as adding a better light source as the lights in my house are very warm tinted so it makes the overall video appear very yellow/orange tinted. I would also spend more time making sure the actual split in the video was balanced throughout the video as I found this quite difficult to do, so I would spend more time on it.

ISO Task

Iso is one of the three main components to how cameras capture images in the right exposure, the other two being shutter speed and aperture. Iso is a camera setting which brightens or darkens a photo depending on getting the right exposure or getting the desired way you want your images to look like. 

Typically ISO is used in darker environments as it allows you to brighten the image without the use of additional lights. However by increasing the ISO, it can add grain or 'noise' to your images so they don't appear as sharp as normal images. So the higher amount of ISO you use in an image, the grainer it will be so the quality deteriorates. 

The faster shutter speed with a high ISO can decrease or remove motion blur, giving the shot a cleaner sharper finish to it rather being blurred as people move around.

The ISO Values:

• ISO 100 (lowest)
• ISO 200
• ISO 400
• ISO 800
• ISO 1600
• ISO 3200
• ISO 6400 (highest)

This video is an example of shots with different ISO setting that we completed in Billy's lesson. You can see the comparisons of how the quality decreases as the ISO increases. For these shots the shutter speed stayed at 1/50. If I was to go back and redo these shots, I would use a tripod as the shots are shaky because I was holding the camera the whole time.

Grainy Effect:

The grainy look is sometimes wanted in clips on purpose, examples such as horror films like Paranormal Activity in the CCTV footage clips. The grain makes the effect of the clip look more realistic so the audience believe it more.

Referencing: 

• Mansurov, N (2019, August 14). Photography Life. Retrieved from Photography Life Website : https://photographylife.com/what-is-iso-in-photography#:~:text=In%20very%20basic%20terms%2C%20ISO,aperture%20and%20shutter%20speed%20settings.

Shutter Speed Task

"As a rule of thumb, you want the denominator of your shutter speed to be approximately double the number of frames per second that you are recording" So if you're recording at around 24/25 frames per second, it is recommended that your shutter speed be set at 1/50th of a second to get the best outcome.

In this clip, we recorded the same fan but with three different shutter speed setting to show the comparison of how shutter speed can effect the way moving objects can appear when being recorded on different speeds. The first one was the slowest shutter speed we tried of 1/30th of a second, then the second being normal shutter speed for moving images which is 1/50th of a second. Finally showing an example of the a fast shutter speed at 1/250th of a second. In these clips i did decrease the speed of these images by 50% so you can really see the changes happening in each clip.

Aperture Task

Aperture affects the Depth of Field and this is turn effects the amount of light entering the lens. So for an example if you're filming a low light setting, it is recommended to use the largest aperture as possible so the f number would be the smallest number it can be. This would be f2.8.

Aperture is known for its 4 key factors that affect it, these being:

• Physical Depth - Having physical depth behind your subject so you can see the effects of Depth of Field properly.
• Focal length - Depending on what lens you're using can effect focal length so the longer the lens, the more shallower of depth is.
• F stop - F2.8 or F22.
• Focal Distance - The distance between you and your subject.

In this clip, we show three examples using all different camera lens such as:

• The first one being F2.8 and we used a 50mm lens.
• The second one being F8 and we used a standard lens.
• The last one being F22 and we used a wide angle lens.

We filmed the same clips so it would show the comparison of the same place, with different aperture settings and we used the college's fencing as a makeshift tripod, so the shots were less shaky than the hand held shots.

Creative Filmmaking Notes - Focal Length

 Different Lenses:

• Telephoto
• Wide Angle
• Zoom

This is out experiment with different focal lengths and lenses. Labelled each image with the type of focal length.

Continuity Editing Video - My Example Video

Pull Focus Experiments