T351 Week 1 - Summer 2008

Welcome! & Introductions

Agenda:

• Course overview, review syllabus & grading procedures
• Look at some samples of last semester’s work
• Do a quick, in class assignment
• Begin cameras
  • take lunch break
• Continue cameras
• Homework assignment: Storyboard / Continuity Sequence
• Shooting assignment

Course description: T351 teaches the technical skills and creative principles required for video field and post production. Topics include:

• Video camera: lenses, imaging & recording
• Video technology (HDTV, signal transport, display technology)
• Composition
• Continuity (technical & film-style)
• Audio (recording and editing)
• Lighting
• Editing
• Producing / becoming better storytellers

My Personal Goals:

• To teach you proficiency in field production (in all aspects)
• For you to become solid editors
• That you'll become better writers and producers
• Provide you with several high quality portfolio projects

[Personal goal – as a student field and post was my favorite class. You can do almost anything. You can try your hand at any topic or genre.]

Food and drinks are not allowed in the classrooms, lab or studio. These places only get cleaned once a week. Please make sure you don’t bring in or leave trash. Help us keep it clean.

Circulate roster. Need your name, e-mail & phone number.

Syllabus & Class Structure: 1 lecture & 3 labs per week
Contact info. E-mail & phone works well.
Office hours are Tuesday from 9-11 AM & by appt.

Readings are from my own on-line notes and the Television Production Cybertext, found at: http://www.cybercollege.org/tvp_ind.htm

Every week you will take part in lab activities. There is paperwork to go with each activity. It is up to you to download it off of the website and bring it to lab. We’ll provide you with the ones this week, but you are responsible after the first week.

Check web site for revised readings & assignments.

Tapes: If you haven't done so already, go buy your mini DV tapes today!

Review syllabus (take time)

• Attendance
• Come on time
• Course requirements and grading
• Schedule- no lecture next week, but labs as usual
• Facility Policies (read over) We will cover these in more detail in the labs.
• Only those in production courses can use the facilities
• Safety is a primary concern
• No food or drink allowed
• Lab hours- set shortly after the start of every semester

Reservations for equipment need to be made ahead of time, in person with the lab monitor. Typically only for four-hour blocks of time. We will cover specific procedures in the labs later this week

Most equipment has controls and switches, which should normally be left alone. If you don’t know what they do, don’t flip them. Better yet, RTFM find out what they do.

Report any broken equipment to the lab monitor or to the instructor.

Equipment must be returned on time. If for some reason you are late, CALL THE LAB.

Success. What does it take to be successful in this class?

• Both sides of your brain (both right and left) as you need to be both artist and technician
• Come to every class and lab on time
• Do all of the paperwork, including loggin footage and writing critiques
• Stay on top of the weekly readings
• Don't wait to the last minute to do your work. Do your assignments ahead of or on time. If you wait untill the last minute, you will be rushed and the equipment won't work. When it knows you need to use it, it’ll break.
• Take individual responsibility. I'm not going to hound you if you don't turn things in. It's up to you.
• Participate in class and with teams
• Preapre for assignments and study for tests

Focus on Quality not Quantity. You have a unique opportunity in this class to create a number of different portfolio pieces. Take advantage of this.

If you create and outstanding video, you can do much with it and it will lead to more opportunities: awards, jobs, getting into graduate school, etc.

The main criteria for being succesful in the industry is being on time, having a good attitude, and having an outstanding reel.

Successfully carrying out the T351 projects requires a large time commitment - If you love what you are doing and get engrossed in the project, the time will fly by.

Don't worry about finding the "perfect" project. Some of my best projects have been about subjects I didn't care a bout or want to pursue. Once you select an idea or a story, approach it objectively, and put all of your efforts into it. You might be surprised with what you end up with.

When you make a production, strive to make it the highest caliber possible. This means:

• You will tell a story or make a point with your work
• Every shot will be steady, in focus and properly color balanced
• Every shot will be framed nicely with the proper exposure
• Movements will be smooth
• Your backgrounds will comliment the subject and not distract the viewer
• Your scenes will be lit nicely
• Your graphics will follow the rules of good composition and design
• Your audio will be clear and mixed appropriately
• You work will have legal integrity: No music or talent will be used without a release.

Become a critical TV viewer Whenever you watch TV or go to the movies.

• Think about the production… observe the details
• Where was the camera placed (high low, tripod, dolly, jib or hand held)
• What motivated the edit? (action, sound etc)
• What is in focus and out of focus?
• Look at the lighting (hard or soft, back and set lights)
• Do the scenes have a mood or feel to them?
• What motivated the edit?
• Watch with the sound turned off
• Close your eyes and listen (music, SFX, close-miked or far)
• Pretend you are the director & figure out the process used to create the scene

If time allows, show samples of final projects from last semester

In class exercise: Take out a sheet of paper. Write down:

• Name
• Year at IU
• Areas of study/major
• Personal interests/hobbies
• Most importantly - list three things you want to get out of this course. Be specific (documentary portfolio piece, understanding of lighting etc.)
• What kind of project are you looking forward to making the most?

[Process/review roster while class is doing exercise]

Homework:

Bring in 2 copies of a 6-8 frame storyboard to lab tomorrow. You will shoot these in lab on Wednesday and edit them on Thursday. (see the storyboard exercise for more information)

You will be graded on the following:

• 6 – 8 frame storyboard (includes a one line description)
• Framing, blocking & continuity
• Production & editing
• Your critique

Readings: Do the on-line readings on cameras & lenses. This will be on the first quiz!

For Week 1 please read: cybercollege.org/tvp_ind.htm 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19 & 20 (cameras, lenses & viewfinders)

For Week 2 please read: cybercollege.org/tvp_ind.htm 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56 & 57 (continuity & technical continuity, editing guidelines and timecode)

Camera / lens review:

• CCD - Stands for Charge Coupled Device.
• CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor)
  • CCD and CMOS sensors convert light to electrical energy. Lens diameters match CCDs, so a 2/3" lens would be mounted on a camera with 2/3" CCDs. The bigger the CCD, the more pixels you can fit on it. (The Sony Z1Us use three 1/3" CCDs. Thompson cameras in Studio 5 use 2/3" CCDs)
• Resolution (Horizontal resolution is determined by the maximum number of vertical lines resolved. Requires a test chart.) The studio camera heads can resolve about 700 lines. VHS tape can only resolve about 230 lines.
• Gain (boosts signal and adds noise)
• Focal length: (Don't confuse with depth of field!) the distance from the optical center of the lens to the focal plane (CCD or target) of the camera). When focused at infinity, a 10 mm lens will be 10 mm from the film plate or CCD.
• Zoom lens - The focal length can be continuously varied
• Angle of view (Telephoto lenses have narrow angles of view, while wide angle lenses have wide, or large angles of view.
• Zoom ratio: Often (but not always) given in a ratio or two numbers (eg 12 x 10) The first number represents the minimum focal length in millimeters, and the second number the multiplier. A 12 X 10 zoom lens would have a minimum focal length of 12mm and a maximum focal length of 120mm.
• Compressing distance: telephoto lenses provide the effect of compressing distance
• Changes in apparent speed: Telephoto lenses also have the effect of slowing down Z motion. (The Z vector is directly in-line with the lens- as opposed to up and down or let to right.)
• Perspective changes - Wide angle lenses can cause distortion
• “What is normal” A normal lens won't cause visible distortion. To calculate the normal lens, measure diagonally from corner to corner. (eg a 50 mm lens would be "normal" for a 35 mm camera.
• Lens speed - lenses which let lots of light in (have small apertures) are said to be "fast". Lenses which have large apertures (don't let much light in) are said to be "slow".
• F-stop - inversely related to aperture or iris opening
• Depth of field - the range of distance that objects will be in focus
• Relationship between depth of field and f-stop - the higher the f-stop (smaller aperture) the greater the depth of field you will have.
• Relationship between lenses and depth of field - wide lenses will have a greater depth of field than telephoto lenses.
• Selective focus (related to rack focus and follow focus)
• Follow focus
• Rack focus
• Macro focus
• Auto focus (problems with)
• ND filters - Neutral density filters don't influence the color temperature. They are gray and translucent. There purpose is to minimize the light coming into the camera.

Sensors

The lens focuses the light onto an imaging or pickup device. In the old days these were tubes, these days CCDs (Charge Coupled Device) or CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) sensors are used.

Most professional video cameras that have CCDs use a beam splitter, which consists of prisms. The incoming light is split into its primary components, Red Green & Blue and recorded onto three separate CCDs. The CCDs are about the size of a postage stamp and convert the light energy into an electric charge. Before CCDs, cameras used tubes. However a growing number are using single CMOS sensors. CMOS sensors use less power than CCDs.

Sensitivity

How much light does the camera need to operate? This is called minimum illumination or sensitivity. It’s measured in foot-candles (American) or lux (European) usually along with the required f-stop and gain needed to capture an image. For example Panasonic's AJ-SDX900 reported minimum illumination is 0.01 lux (F 1.4, +48dB +20dB gain).

F-stop

An f-stop represents the size of the aperture in an inverse manner. A large f-stop corresponds to a small aperture, or opening in the iris. A small f-stop represents a large opening. You should know your standard f-stops: 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22. Increasing one f-stop will cut the light in half. Decreasing the f-stop by one will double the light.

The relationship between F-stop and depth of field: The larger the f-stop (or smaller the opening) the greater your depth of field will be. The smaller the f-stop the smaller/shallower your depth of field will be.

Think about this. You are on location shooting a MCU of your talent for an interview. The background is in focus and detracting from the subject. What can you do to make the background less distracting?

Aspect Ratio

Aspect ratios should be provided width to height. The two common aspect ratios of TV are 4:3 and 16:9.

• 4 x 3 (or 1.33:1)
• 16 x 9 (or 1.78:1) This is closer to 35 mm movies.

DTV (Digital TV)

The latest word is that broadcast NTSC will be dead in Feb 2009. Broadcasters are already transmitting digital video using the ATSC standards (Advanced Television Systems Committee). Digital TV supports older 4:3 content and new, HDTV programs recorded in 16 x 9. The new ATSC standards also support a number of new frame rates. In addition to 60i we have 24p and 60p. Some of the new digital formats (standard and HDTV) use progressive scanning instead of an interlaced frame.

Progressive Scanning: The electron beam scans each line (not skipping even or odds etc)

Common formats supported by Digital TV include:

480p uses only 480 lines scanned at 60 frames per second (good but not HDTV)
720p uses 720 lines at 60 frames per second (HDTV)
1080i uses interlace scanning (each field has 539.5 lines) (HDTV)

ATSC supported formats:

HDTV/SDTV	Horizontal lines	Vertical lines	Aspect Ratio	Frame Rate
SDTV	640	480	4:3 & 16:9	60p, 60i, 30p, 24p
SDTV	704	480	4:3 & 16:9	60p, 60i, 30p, 24p
HDTV	1280	720	16:9	60p, 30p, 24p
HDTV	1920	1080	16:9	60i, 60p, 30p, 24p

Viewfinders

Why B & W viewfinder and not color?

The number of pixel elements in a CRT or LCD display determines the resolution. More pixels = greater resolution, right? Color monitors need phosphors for each of the Red, Green and Blue elements, where black and white monitors only need one. So given the same size CRT monitor or viewfinder, a black and white monitor will have 3 times more resolution than a color monitor. Since we are primarily concerned with framing and focus when we shoot, it's best to use the monitor or viewfinder with the sharpest display, which in most cases will be B & W.

Setting proper aperture

Monitors are nice but never trust them until you see color bars through it first. The same applies for viewfinders. Always check out the appearance of color bars through your viewfinder before manually adjusting the iris.

Waveform monitors and vectorscopes are used in both the studio and in the field.

• Waveform monitors display brightness and timing information. The major setting to be aware of are:
  • ATSC (digital) black should be 0 IRE
  • NTSC (analog) black should be 7.5 IRE
  • The brightest portion of the screen should be no greater than 100 IRE
• Vectorscopes show color information

While waveform monitors and vectorscopes are helpful, they aren't always available or practical.

Zebra Stripes

Know how to set proper exposure using zebra stripes. (The switch on back of the Sony Z1Us will turn the zebra stripes on or off in the viewfinder.) Zebra stripes become visible when a certain IRE (brightness) level is reached. This brightness level can be set through the camera menu. Don't use zebra stripes unless you know what they are set for.

Continuity

#1 rule: Don't confuse the viewer! This is why we strive to maintain continuity. Preserve the illusion of space & time. People and objects remain faithful to their positions (this can be tricky over days of shooting)

Edits must be motivated for the best continuity. When shooting think about how you will get from one shot to another. Will action motivate the edit? A sound?

Viewers create mental maps of where things are and expect time to progress forward.

A Master Shot, which is often a wide shot, establishes the initial relationship of people and things within a given scene or location. You can preserve this illusion by using the 180-degree rule when you shoot.

Review the 180-degree rule. (two people sitting at a table)

How to cross the line:

• Subject changes attention or move gaze to establish a new vector.
• Shoot down the line
• Subject moves
• Move the camera over line (dolly, crane etc)
• Use a cutaway, then come back to your scene from a different vantage point

Viewers are getting more used to seeing the rule broken. (Which doesn't make it right.) Fox news (Bill O Reilly) is pretty good at breaking the 180 degree rule.

Insert shots – close up from a larger shot

Cutaways – cut away to something related (could be something happening simultaneously)

Technical Continuity

Unplanned changes in sound, lighting, video or setting is referred to as a technical continuity problem.

Moviemistakes.com has lots of fun examples of technical continuity problems.

A famous one is in T2, when the T2 liquid robot cop is chasing Ahnuld and little John Conner. The T2 is driving a semi, Ahnuld & John are on a motorcycle down in a drainage canal. The T2 drives the semi off of the overpass down into the canal, and we can clearly see the windshield popping out. In the next shot of the front of the semi, the glass is back in the semi. That's an example of a technical continuity problem.

While your productions are not likely to suffer from an elaborate problem such as this, beware of common mistakes:

• Changes in color temperature. Avoid mixed lighting locations and white balance whenever you change the locations.
• Changes is light levels Keep lighting levels consistent within a scene.
• Primary Audio - use the same mic, in the same manner when recording your talent. (Don't use a lav in one scene and a handheld on a stand in another)
• Background audio - avoid abrupt changes within the same scene. Always record 60 seconds of ambient sound, which you can layer in to the audio mix.

HOMEWORK:

Do the readings

Write a critique for your storyboard / continuity sequences

Write proposals for: interview/feature story & art video

For Wednesday, bring questions and story outline for Audio/News Exercise.

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