Archive for November 2014
Having took some test shots before the fight - i found that that helped me out, however, if i were to film something like this again i would bring a second camera operator with me to cover another angle, because i would of liked to get the super wide dirty frame shot from behind the spectators that i achieved in an earlier fight that night (example below)
Although, I'm happy with the shot's that i achieved so it's all good!
Here's a quick video that i edited together for Grant
Most of the footage used in this boxing video i'm going to be using on my short film.
Here's stills from the fight
On arrival to the boxing venue, because i had arrange before hand with Grant's promoter i collected my press pass at reception, which gave me access to all areas within the boxing venue which was:
- The balcony overlooking the boxing ring
- Vip seating area next to the boxing ring
- The judges table at the side of the boxing ring, where they ring the bell from
- The changing rooms where the fighters were preparing themselves mentally for the fight
Pretty much anywhere that i wanted to go, because of my press pass i was allowed to.
Because of this, and where Grants fight was 3rd till last, i utilised the time opportunity to explore the venue, testing out the various lighting scenarios and using the boxers fights before Grants to test out what type of shots i could get, and how the framing looked from various angles throughout different locations within the boxing arena, to then determine what i could achieve during Grants fight
Here's some examples below with Stills and Footage of from York Hall Leisure centre
With this shot, where the lighting was on at first i adjusted my camera for the lighting condition, i chose to film at the side of the ring to see how the framing would look, and also where i was using a shallow depth of field, i'd constantly be able to rack focus to give it that gritty feel as they were boxing
With this shot, i tried out some different angles, dirty framing from behind the audience, making the boxing in the background, this is a good shot as it would be used as a set up shot to crop in on the action, but also we're getting the audience perspective to the fight. Because the fight was long, i moved to a different location, however, ideally to pull this off i'd need to have two camera men as i couldn't risk taking the chance filming Grants fight.
These are some random stills, the first is a close up of the ring girl, the second is a looking up MCU of a fighter in his corner during the rounds intermission and the last two is another dirty frame angle but a bit closer to the ring, still having the audience within frame.
I was asked to film this fight by the boxing promoter who made it possible for me to film, so during the fight, i used the opportunity to get more close ups of Mustafa in the corner with his cornermen during the intermission, to see how the footage would look, and confirm what angles i want to go for whilst filming Grants fight.
I thought i'd try and get a close up of the ring lady, using the lights above as a haze/flare effect to softly shine over the ring women softening the overall tone of the footage. Even though these were test shots, ill most likely end up using them if i need to.
This fight at first i was filming to test out the angle, but because it was interesting i continued to film it, and i was luck because i captured a brilliant knockout!! Later i then found out that the fighter was part of the same promotion team that i came there with. So it ended up being useful, however i decided not to film from this angle for my short as it would break the visual framing of my narrative as this angle is non cinematic with the selection of lens that I'm using.
Today me and Andy filmed our Trolling story package. Before we went straight into the package to film it, Andy rehearsed the script a few times to become familiar with reading it. We also tweaked the script a bit more on the day of filming to suite his style of speaking.
We filmed in the base room, but cropped the shot and created a shallow depth of field to make it look like an office type environment, being that our story is about trolling, we thought that the mise en scene would fit the story, as trolling happens on a computer.
The equipment we used for the shoot was
Sony PMW
Wireless mic
Tripod
iPad with TelePrompTer software
Here was our set up
Once i'd set up the Camera, this was how i held the iPad underneath the camera so that Andy could read the script whilst looking towards the camera. I also flipped the screen so that i could watch the camera as i was sitting on the opposite side (as you can faintly see on the window)
Heres how i calibrated the camera
5400K - white balance
25p - 25 frames progressive
1920x1080
Exposure set to E84 - i used the histogram to make sure that the highlights were not over exposed.
I had the focus peaking switched on, to make sure that my shot was in focus.
Here's the rough cut of the package, this is with no graphics of VO's
So far we're 15 seconds over our time allowance, however, this is because there's a lot of pauses in the rough cut and it's not cut down to how it would be finally presented
During this week i got all of my training shots out of the way and done with.
On certain days when lessons were taking place i also filmed the participants with their permission, just to use as extra footage incase i decided to change anything during the edit. This worked out in my favour i believe because where there's a specific part on the scrip that mentions "and bugles calling for them from sad shires"in the literary translation of the poem; it means English counties and countryside from which so many of the soldiers came, and where i have a shot of all of the members of the class including Grant jogging i felt that this shot would better suit the original intention i had for it, even though they were the same idea, however on the script originally i had grant on his own, where as now i had him jogging with his fellow gym members!
Here's some shots from my shoot throughout the week:
"Only the stuttering riffles rapid rattle" shot
"What passing bells for those who die as cattle" shot
With the bag enacting out war ammunition fire / or eve cattle leaving the shed of a farm
one of the "only the monsterous anger of the guns" shots.
With this shot i dirty framed off of the boxing bag to watch Grant from a distance as an establishing shot
With this shot i rack focused while dirty framing off of the boxing bag to focus in on Grant training, using the continuity editing technique
With these two shots i rack focused as the ball went from grant to his trainer Verron
With this shot i tried to get Verrons point of view of Grant throwing the ball towards him
