Something different

After completing my film, I decided to kill some time by re-editing the footage into a horror trailer. This isn’t related to the project, but still quite funny

Light and Lens | Music video

Light and Lens

I am happy with the finished film, but on the technical side, I would like to improve my skills of filming in low light conditions while reducing grain/noise as much as possible. I had a rule of not letting the ISO go beyond 1600 in low light conditions and keeping the exposure between 30 and 50. Perhaps I needed better lighting.

The meaning of the film is quite abstract with many different elements that I hope will allow the viewer to create their own story. Has he been dreaming of this girl that he meets? Is this his ex girlfriend that he misses? Is she dead!? I want the narrative to be individually perceived.

The film was shot over three different shooting days and was usually postponed when people took up a table we needed to film by. I used After Effects to assist with some visual effects such as the bench scene and enhancing the colour of her eyes.

Light and Lens – Technical logs

Here are technical logs for some of the first few shots. Because of how long my film took me to complete, I haven’t got time to do this for all 80 odd cuts that are in my film, but a fair few should show my understanding.

I’ll start with the first few shots and then skip to the different lighted ones. These are screenshots from the raw .MOV unedited video files.

First shot
MVI_1943  
My own Canon 550D
f/3.5
  18 mm focal length 
ISO 100
Natural lighting 

This is the first shot of the film. I consider it an establishing shot therefor it’s not at all a close up, and gives the viewer time and the ability to see a lot in the frame. I didn’t use any optical filtration because I was going for the natural look of light to work with the natural grass, such as the natural optical flare in the frame. The film starts among the green and then moves very quickly to locations surrounded by buildings. I wanted to emphasise this contrast.

Second shot
MVI_1945  
My own Canon 550D
f/5.6
  55 mm focal length 
ISO 200
Natural lighting 

Here, the settings have been tweaked to adjust for a sharper picture that isn’t expecting as much natural light as the first shot to be coming through.

Twelfth shot
MVI_1959
My own Canon 550D
f/5
  40 mm focal length 
ISO 100
Natural lighting

In this shot, the depth of field has been adjusted to allow me to walk into the focus. This is the second shot in my film to do this.

Nineteenth shot
MVI_1963
My own Canon 550D
f/11
  18 mm focal length 
ISO 1600
Natural lighting

This is another establishing shot, so the lens is set for a lot to be in the shot, and the f-stop is adjusted so that everything is in focus. The ISO has to compensate for the high f-stop, but this has brought grain/noise to the screen.

Twenty Ninth shot
MVI_1975
My own Canon 550D
f/5.6
  27 mm focal length 
ISO 1600
LED lighting

As the second half of the film is inside, it’s all lit by a single LED light. I wish I had two at times but the Roundabout pub that we filmed in was extremely busy and we were getting in peoples way to no end, even making people move downstairs.

Storyboard

I don’t recommend even attempting to correlate these storyboards to the final film, but I assure you they made sense on the day.

Light and Lens – Production journal

Here is a test I did before I begin pre-production for this project. I’ve been practicing with the .THM files that are created along side the video footage recorded on a Canon DSLR. I’m using the japanese model of the Canon 550D. The .THM files are a kind of container that possess all of the filming details required to recreate the shot that it refers too. I had trouble opening these files but discovered that changing the extension from .THM to .JPG turns it into a thumbnail of the video.
Only then, for some reason, will the extra properties be unlocked for me to see.

After completing a concept and storyboard for something I could complete in the short time I had, I gathered a selection of possible songs and had three days worth of shooting footage. The third day of filming will be tomorrow for me. A few shots will be re shot and more will be filmed. The biggest problem I’ve been facing is the frequent changing weather conditions, as well as the short window of light available in the day. During the dark indoor scenes, I’ve been facing problems with noise/grain on the camera despite looking up how to avoid this in low light conditions by controlling the camera’s settings. I find the grain becomes noticeable when the iso reaches above 1600 in low light conditions. A small LED light helped counter this.

Steadicam Video Tutorial

I worked in a group with Connor, Katy and Richard. Connor and Katy presented on screen while I worked the camera and Richard held the light reflector. I also did editing

Location Scouting

Location: The bombed church

This empty bombed church from WW2 is situated in the middle of a roundabout. The noise of traffic would have to be taken into account. The church is slightly lower than the road.

It would be a great set for a number of films; Medieval, WW2, or the place to camp out in a zombie apocalypse