Film-making basics: filming on location

Filming 101 – the basics

Exposure, Aperture & the F-Stop

What’s the problem here?

The darkness or lightness of a shot is called its ‘exposure’

If the shot is too dark we call it

‘under-exposed’

The darkness or lightness of a shot is called its ‘exposure’

If the shot is too light we call it

‘over-exposed’

We can control a shots exposure using our cameras Aperture (also called its Iris)

The iris is the hole at the end of your camera lens which lets light in. Its made up of little blades that open, or close.

We can control a shots exposure using our cameras Aperture (also called its Iris)

The larger the hole is, the more light it can let through. What effect do you think this has on your shot?

The larger the hole is the brighter your shot is.

The Aperture is displayed on your cameras viewfinder as a number called an F-stop.

The lower the F-stop, the brighter your shot will be.

An example

F22(under-exposed, you need to open up your aperture)

F5.6 (much better, the person is easily visible in shot)

Controlling the aperture on your camera.

You can control the aperture using the lens ring closest to your camera body (there are 3 lens rings on a normal zoom lens).

What is focus?

“…the state of an optical image when it is distinct and clearly defined…”

Key terms:Blurry, sharp, out of focus, in focus, depth of field.

We control the focus of our shot, choosing what is blurry and what is sharp.

By choosing what is in focus we choose what our viewer looks at.

Focusing your audiences attention is a key part of storytelling.

Controlling the focus on your camera.

You can control the aperture using the lens ring furthest away from your camera body.

Focus

A good rule for focusing:

1. zoom in all the way

2. focus on the person / subject you want to focus on

3. zoom back out to the shot you want.

Setting up sound when filming

What will you need?

• A microphone

• An XLR cable

• Your camera

1. Plug the XLR cable into the bottom of your microphone

+

2. Connect XLR to camera

Plug the other end of the XLR cable into either of the mic inputs on your camera

3. Set mic to phantom power

Make sure the Input is set to +48V. This is called phantom power (the microphone will be powered by the camera).

4. Plug in headphones to camera

You should be able to hear your audio.

5. Check your levels

Audio levels are shown on your viewfinder as 2 white bars which go up or down depending on the noise being picked up by microphone.

If the bars are filling up or going red the recording volume needs to be turned down.

5. Check your levels

If the bars are filling up or going red the recording volume needs to be turned down using the volume wheels.

Composition rules: Head-room

“Head room is the space between the top of a subject's head and the top of the screen frame”

HEAD-ROOM

No head-room = bad shot

Far too much head-room

The perfect amount of head room (a little between the top of the head and the top

of frame)

Master shot

Is when you film the whole scene from start to end from a wide angle. You then re-film the scene from all your other angles. Having a master shot gives you more options in editing.

Filming in the dark

What do these night shoots have in common?

What do these night shoots have in common?

Filming at night is difficult

• What your eye see’s and the camera see’s are two different things.

What you see at night What the camera see’s

Filming at night is difficult

• You need to make sure your actors and location are well lit.

• You might use PAG lights, LED lights.

• You should film near existing light sources (street lamps, headlights, etc…).

• LED light packs are cheap, powerful and readily available (well worth investing in)

If you don’t have lighting think about day for night.

This is where you film in the day and colour correct it in post to make it look like night-time.

Filming in the dark.

The cameras GAIN is a way to make the picture brighter when filming at night, but it also makes the picture more grainy.

Before filming always check to see if your gain is on.

If you don’t want grain, you don’t want gain.

Don’t film into the sun, always film with it at your back (if possible)

BASIC FILMING TECHNIQUES

1. Don’t film into the sun

2. Don’t film in the dark (without extra lighting)

3. Always film a master shot for each scene 1st

4. Always make sure to film each scene from more than one angle

5. Give yourself 5 seconds after hitting record before you start the action

6. Check your aperture, focus, audio levels and the gain before filming each shot (do it every time)