Cinematography - The Hoovering - final film

This was a nice project to work on and I really enjoyed learning the technique of film making. Its a little dark (literally) so you may need to close the curtains and turn the lights off to watch it in its full glory!



Heres the documentary:



It was a good team to work with and I'm happy we saw this idea through from conception to completion. I have learned many skills from this which will come in useful for animation and film production. As a director, it was a bit tricky at first as there were a lot of people in our crew but I felt more comfortable in this role as the production went on. Good times!

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The Hoovering - storyboards for our short film

I have spent a few hours today designing these storyboards. I think my drawing has improved as a result of going to a lot of the life drawing sessions. The storyboards are for a short 90 second film we are going to make - a horror spoof about a hoover.
If you click on them they will expand..





I think its quite a funny idea.

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Cinematography - notes and reference on shots

We are currently on a 10 week (1 day p/week) cinematography course taught by Frankie Keung. We have been learning a lot about how to operate the cameras, different kinds of shots, lighting, and different roles in production. This is in order to strengthen our animations with a deeper understanding of film.

Below I have posted the notes I have taken throughout Frankies lectures. We are lucky to have him as our teacher as he has worked a lot in the industry and is keen to share his wisdom :)









Here I have posted up a page from a 'how to make films' guide that came free with The Guardian a while back. This page is a very useful and interesting guide to the different shots used in film making.



And a page out of the book: Film directing shot by shot by Steven D. Katz.



Soon we are going to be making our own 90 second films. For this I will be working with Emily, Laurence, Miguel, Ryan, Sasha and Alice. It will be good to have a hands-on experience of making a film.

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Cinematography - experimenting and time lapse

I got out a P2 camcorder from the media desk on Friday to have a good play with it over the weekend..



One of the first things I wanted to try out was time lapse so I positioned it to point out of my window:



Apologies for the funny grey start - they all start like this, it must be the way I exported them out of premiere.

I took the camera down by the beach and filmed my girlfriend Nina walking along the rocks; I know that Pete Langford may have mentioned something about typical student film methods but I couldn't resist..(mmmmm zoooooooom)



Heres a random one I took as it was getting dark. My friend Carl pretending to sit on a bench. Comic genius :D



On Sunday I still had to quench my desire for more time lapse footage so I rushed over to Falmouth Docks before the sunset.



It got pretty cold but it was totally worth it. I learned that: if filming a time lapse over a period when the lighting alters dramatically - its best to work without the filters clicked on. When I turned them off whilst it was getting darker it altered the brightness a bit too suddenly. Next time I will just adjust the iris/aperture gradually.

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