Film Production - Friday

 In English, we are now looking at our close viewing assessment. Today we watched three videos on different areas that are all involved with the production of a film. These areas are the handling of a camera, the sound production and the director. Here are some things I learn today about each of these areas:

Dissecting the Camera:

There are many important aspects of a camera that the camera crew need to take into consideration when filming each shot. These are things such as the focal length and field of view, aperture and shutter speed. A fixed focal length has higher quality because it is designed to focus only on one thing while a variable focal length is more versatile and can zoom in and out to focus on different things which is why it is also referred to as a zoom lens. An f/1.2 lens can open its aperture wider while an f/16 is going to be the narrowest. Aperture means how much light is being let in through the lens and can be adjusted so more or less light is let in. Shutter speed is how long the film inside is exposed to light and this can also be adjusted. There are different types of roles in the camera department, some of which include the director of photography (also known as a cinematographer), camera operator and the first assistant camera. 

Sound Production:

Sound is a very important aspect in film that helps to tell the story. There are many different things that the sound production crew need to keep in mind. For example, the boom operators need to know where the best position for the mic will be in a scene, while also understanding where the actors will move so they can keep the boom mic out of the camera shot. The team also need to be able to sync the audio and the visual scene together and plan which type of windscreen will be best for the mic for each particular scene.

The Director:

The director works with people from all different departments of the film (such as the camera crew, the actors, the editing team etc). Their job is to direct the team and actors on how they want the scene to look. However, their job is to also just guide the actors on what their character is feeling so that way, the actors are able to really put themselves in their character's shoes without it being too forced or unnatural. They have to plan where all the cameras should go and what they want to achieve from the scene. The different production departments will give them various choices for each scene and the director will decide what goes best together to accomplish how they envisioned the film to look.