There were two different film workshops on Tuesday 24th, the first being set a task of moving through a space as different characters. My groups first task was to create a short film or scene that was from the perspective of a child. We first considered what physical actions we would have to take so that we could immerse the viewer in the mindset that they were watching events from the eyes of a child. I had previously spoken to Joel about how I would go about recording a scene like this, so my group and I already had a pretty good idea on how we could record this.
We decided to keep the camera height low as well as have the camera peak around corners hesitantly before following the students as we wanted to depict a curious child that would be a little fearful of the people and environment they were in. Our first attempt at recording this very quick sequence failed due to some problems with the Gimbal, we are not entirely sure what went wrong as originally we thought the battery had died, however when checking it we discovered it had been fully charged.
Our group swapped out our Gimbal with another spare one. This time when recording we didn't have any faults with the hardware. We didn't plan out of any of the shots for this task as we wanted to create on continuous shot that was improvised so that we could try our bests to capture an authentic experience. The result of the first task was decent and we couldn't have expected to create something much better then what we did with the short time that we had. The video can be seen below with myself as the cameraman. The video is below:
The second film we recorded and worked on as a group ended up being a really interesting concept and video. We were tasked to record a film of a character searching for someone around the building. The idea was created that instead of recording from the perspective of the searcher, that instead we filmed from the perspective of the character being found / chased. Gabe worked on planning the camera shots and narrative while I considered the transitions and camera cuts. Gabe and I decided on using a whip cut to create tension and fear as well as using it to imitate a single shot. This was important for us to discuss for before we filmed so that we could whip the camera around at the end of each shot to make creating those transitions in post a bit easier.
The short narrative / plot of the video sequence was that the searching characters would get ever closer until they had found who they were looking for. Once the shots were recorded it was relatively simple to put the three clips together and add an additive dissolve over the first cut to make the whip cut smoother and more natural. The dissolve transition lasted only 9 frames so that it could act as a very short and subtle addition to the transition of cuts.
The second cut was harder to make look more natural as the lighting changed within the two cuts and Gabe's hand was no longer in the frame during the final clip. To try and make the transition as smooth as I could I overlapped the second and third clip by 5 frames and decreased the opacity of the second clip from 100% to 0% over those five frames. If you aren't paying close attention then it is possible that you wouldn't notice the two whip cuts. The second film is below:
The final film we recorded in the first workshop involved creating our own character, we were provided with no other details om what we needed to record. In this recording it was decided that we could create an opposite character of the child, instead of making the viewer feel small and afraid we would create a giant character that made others afraid and concerned instead. Gabe was the tallest in the group and held the camera above his head as he walked. This video was not intended to be taken seriously so we had the character humorously hit their head on the door frame as well as have Dan faint at the sight of the giant character. The video can be seen below:
This workshop had been really enjoyable and provided us with the opportunity to create some unique and humorous short films as we explored different methods of recording our movement though space as well as how to create camera with a simple camera movements and cuts. I think that this workshop was a great success as we all learnt valuable techniques from the tasks.
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