Notes from 21st/22nd Workshop

The weekend was a great success – though first I shall start with all the things we learned and then see how much more I can be bothered to write: Tips for the camera guys - in writing for your convenience.

Before you start filming:

• Make sure the camera is set to the right height for the shot.
• Secure the tripod (no floppyness) – otherwise your shots will DEFINITELY be wobbly and rubbish
• Make sure the camera is level

Video settings:

• HD
• 16:9 ratio
• White balance (set to what you think looks best and natural – not what the camera necessarily tells you to do automatically. Manual is better) Set after each light/set change. Use preset white balances that you’ve done for particular light situations if it's easy to do
• Shutter speed should be set to 50 – always (unless you’re doing a really fast shot, in which case it’s lower)
• Set iris to manual, and reset after each light/set change. Press “Exposure/Iris” button to do this.
• Set focus to manual. Press “Focus” and note change in icon on screen. Set focus level after each take for a sharp focus. For people: zoom into their eye (while they are still and in position) and turn focus wheel till eye is focused completely. Then zoom out. Soft focus is bad.
• Expand focus to widen the focus.
• Only use Auto focus for movement shots where you can’t have it preset without it looking weird.
• Set gain on 0 dB UNLESS it is dark – this artificially brightens the shot but at the cost of pixels, and, thus, quality.
• Frame within a frame shots are good!

Sound Tips:

• Outside the boom + microphone goes underneath the camera set up if the winds are too strong; otherwise it goes high above to catch the best sound.
• ALWAYS have a sound monitor person with good quality HEADPHONES to check sound – they also move the boom
• Each small movement on the boom translates loudly as sound, so watch out and keep still.
• Sound is sometimes impossible to fix, but to help get good quality then protect the dead cat with your own body.
• Sound levels down, gain levels up? – Can’t remember what this was in relation to exactly, can someone else remember?
• Red audio levels are BAD. Adjust to good on the camera settings, not the headphone settings.
• Buzz track: a 20-30 sec collection of sounds that can be used as “filler” sound over images. This is recorded in “silence” – which isn’t silence, but the sounds of the place.
• Do “close ups” on the general noise –  record specific sounds that are characteristic of the situation/setting.
• Reconstruct sound if need be/use sound effects

Best quote: “The guy that I had was called Keith – and everybody hated Keith.”

And that is that.