T351 Week 1 Lab

Agenda:

• Introductions
• Review lab policies
• Review cameras
• In-class competency exercise
• Begin Field Shoot Exercise (due in one week)

Welcome & Introductions: Who are you? What movies or TV shows do you like to watch? What are you interested in?

Lab/Class policies: (Quick Review of policies & checkout procedure)

• Be sure you know the lab policies (In syllabus), the lab hours (Posted on door), and how to check out equipment.
• When you return equipment, be sure to wind cables and make sure everything is neat & accounted for. Expect to go through checklist with lab monitor
• Always label your tapes and cases on the spine! Face labels often jam so please use a spine label. We will mark you off if this is not done!

Camera Overview: Good camera operators are artists and engineers. In addition to knowing the rules of composition and being able to frame your subject, you must know your camera inside and out and be highly skilled at lighting, audio and working with talent. An incredibly well framed image will be worthless if the white balance is off, or if the lighting is bad or the audio is noisy.

Camaera tour:

• Power
• Bars/Camera switch (Always record at leat 30 seconds of color bars at the head of a tape)
• Filter Wheel / White Balance A/B/Preset setting- Always Check/Set!
• Viewfinder: Use color bars to check/set brightness, contrast & focus.
• Lens
• Focus (zoom in to focus)
• Minimum focal distance (usually several feet unless you stay wide)
• Macro (be careful to leave in right place)
• Back focus (don't touch)
• Zoom (Servo switch can be switched off)
• Iris (Auto/manual mode - push to set button on lens)
• Depth of field. This is the range of distance to the lens that objects can be in focus. Sometimes you want a large depth of field, sometime you want a small one. How to control:
  • Aperture: A smaller aperture has a greater depth of field than a large aperture. So adding light to a scene can increase your depth of field.
  • Wide shots have a large depth of field. Everything will have a tendency to be in focus.
  • Close-ups have a shallow depth of field.
• Mic/line inputs (48 volt Phantom power for condenser microphones)
• AGC
• Audio monitor switch (L/R/Mix)
• Shutter (Reduces amount of light entering camera) Good for fast action slow motion and grabbing stills. This can also affect the depth of field.
• Gain (Always leave on 0. Adds noise)
• Time code (Free run/Rec run) Professionals ALWAYS set the time code for each reel. It's good if the hours correspond to the reel numbers: Reel 1 can start at 01:00:00:00, reel 2 at 02:00:00:00, etc.

Tripods:

• Leave tripods laying down unless they're being used. (Don't lean them up against a flat wall or counter. They'll fall over.)
• Make sure the camera is perfectly level. Slightly tilted shots are a sign of mediocrity. A tilted/canted camera shot can be good to use (known as a Dutch angle), but one that's just slightly off looks bad.
• Never take your hand off of the camera unless you are sure it's secured to the plate and tripod.
• Never leave a camera unattended on a tripod unless you are ABSOLUTELY SURE the tripod is locked off.
• Develop the habit of unlocking the pan & tilt before you try to move the camera and locking it as soon as you are finished.

Shooting Checklist:

• Is the camera set to the proper format, aspect ratio, and frame rate? (HDV, DV or DVCAM, 16x9 or 4x3, 60i, etc.?)
• Check White Balance setting (A/B/Preset) or filter wheel if your camera has one.
• Are Neutral Density filters, Gain, and Shutter settings turned off?
• Is your timecode set?
• Record at least 30 seconds of color bars at the start of every tape
• Before shooting, don't just think about the shot, but think about the entire sequence:
  • Rule of threes: Consider the shot that comes before the one you are shooting, what you are shooting, and what comes after.
  • What specific action or point is motivating your edit?
  • Are you following the rules of continuity (180 rule, no jump cuts, etc.)
  • Always allow at least 5 seconds of pre-roll and post-roll

Break into groups. Go through competency checklist

Shooting Tips:

• Shoot plenty of establishing shots (at least three for news/features)
• Add depth/motion whenever possible (block and shoot along the Z axis)
• Tell your story with close-ups
• Use a tripod (unless you have a really good reason not to)
• When shooting handheld, stay wide - don't zoom in
• Always record (good) audio - even if it's just with the camera mic.

Cold Weather:

• It's OK to go from warm to cold. You can use the camera immediately if you go outside in cold weather.
• Going from cold to warm is problematic. Condensation forms on the gear. (That's why glasses fog up when you come inside.) Do not open the camera inside if it's cold. Condensation will form on the head drum. Give it time to gradually warm up before opening (ejecting) a tape. Don't store a camera somewhere cold and expect to use it someplace warm immediately.

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