Sunday 9 March 2014
This post is a brief
breakdown on my workflow for planning a project, plus most of the videos that
I’ve found on the web of Canterbury Cathedral.
Before I plan to film
a project/event, my number one rule that I’ve set myself is, I always check the
web to see any existing footage of its location, how it was filmed/covered, the
camera used (if provided in the info) and any other possible equipment used to
carry out the production, and what the end result of it was, book marking these
videos during this process.
Regardless of the
quality of the equipment used, for example, it could be a high end production
from the bbc, or a semi pro production from someone using a dslr, or even something
filmed on a mobile phone, the information provided to me from these videos helps
me analyse and consider possible angles
I can cover the event from (i.e. birds
eye wide establishing shot, or looking up wide establishing shot), lighting situation (such as where the practical light is coming
from and what practical light is at the location, this could be for example,
outside light through the window, or lighting provided by the building such as
i.e. nightclub flood lights, plus did the video use additional lights), the activity of the location (is it busy or is it quiet? This will help me
with planning a story and know what
to expect from the location), lens
used (will let me know how a certain
lens captured the location and the end result, which will help me judge if I
like the distortion of the lens in that environment, plus if it was a fast
lens, how it picked up the natural lighting of its location to help show its
ambience) the exposure of the practical
lighting (i.e. in the cathedral with
the window panels letting through lots of light, constant change in exposure)
the story of the video.
These few things along
with many other analysis of the video will help me to plan on how to cover the
event in regards to what lens I want to use and how it will help with providing
more light, if in a low lit situation, also what lens to use to capture the
location, do I want to use a 14mm super wide angle lens to get a wide
establishing shot from close to the building to give it a really wide distorted
look. Additional lighting to bring along with me and the effect it will have on
the footage (i.e. bright led light will
light up the location, but flood out the natural ambience light (depending on
lens), but can be used to create a DOF between subject and background),
also with planning a story for the event as well, having seen what
stories/coverage has been done, this will help me to know what to do, or what not
to do, plus give me ideas from their videos as to what worked and looked nice
and what didn’t.
Hopefully this kind of
makes sense, but these are some of the thought processes that go through my
mind when I’m watching these videos, and it happens instantaneously where my
mind is set on breaking down these videos to pick out the good points and the
bad points, helping me to better prepare to film at the location.
Here are some of the
videos that I’ve found on the web of Canterbury Cathedral:
Interview based with a lot of cut away B/Roll footage (important video 11 mins long)
Voice narrated video
Voice narrated video
Presenter based video with V/O
Voice narrated video
