For this Blog I will be showing you how I put together the knowledge of everything that was researched throughout this blog to put together a short video which details the ins and outs of using different cameras to create a Hollywood style scene with no budget.
This blog will be an evaluation of everything that was learnt when putting all research to the test.
Firstly, the scene being shot here is a scene taken from a screenplay written by Luke Frewin. To figure out a way to shoot this scene, I had to picture the visuals of the scene for the cinematography. To this I wrote up a shot-list. the shot list consisted of different camera angles, movements and techniques. For example I decided that a Crane/Jib shot would be perfect as a character introduction shot and wrote it down with the corolla-ting segment of the screenplay. This was a great idea as it meant that when coming to shoot the scene, we had already pictured the shot and didn’t need to improvise, making the shoot much quicker and smoother.
Here is the full shot-list below
The next stage was to storyboard the shot list. Now im am no storyboard artist, that would be a professionals role, however these storyboards made it easier for luke Frewin to understand my vision of the scene as he had Visual reference infront of him.
With this pre-production, we set out to film the scene.
For the shoot we had four different cameras, All ranging at different quality values. The four cameras were:
- Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4K
- Canon EOS 70D
- Panasonic AG-HMC151E
- Samsung Galaxy A5
I decided that shooting with four different cameras would be a great way to demonstrate that no matter which camera you have, you can produce an amazing image close to what you see in Hollywood films. The Video Above demonstrates this by cutting the different cameras into their own segments. They all look very similar and in somecases they even look exactly the same. However what was learnt from this was that the different cameras all require different techniques to keep the camera balanced. As you can see in some cases the footage is shaky as the cameras all react differently to stabalizing equipment. for instance
The Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4K was the hardest to shoot with, It was the heaviest camera and didnt fit on the Gimbal or the Steadicam which we had. This camera was the hardest to work with as we had to make the most of the hand held handle which is attached to the camera. This shows that the best kind of equipment, While it looks nice needs big equipment to go with it.
The Canon EOS 70d was the most versatile camera on the shoot, The quality of the camera is all in HD and competes with the Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4K when shooting at HD1080p 25fps and 1/50 shutterspeed. The Canon 70d also fits easily on Stabilizing equipment such as Gimbals and Steadicam’s. However the camera itself is too light which made it awkward to shoot hand held. This caused any Handheld footage to be shaky which means the camera requires stabilizer equipment. While this is a good thing, setting up stabalizing equipment can take up alot of time and isnt always perfect.
The Panasonic AG-HMC151E is the oldest camera used for this shoot. However ironically it was the most fun to use as it made me work more for the shoot. This camera has the lowest quality of the four cameras but it was the nicest to hold because of its weight, despite its cheap feeling plastic shell, This camera ironically proved the point that I am trying to make in this project. You can still use a camera like this one to create an amazing looking Hollywood cinematography. This arguably has improved my experience as a cinematography as it shows that I dont have to rely on a camera such as the Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4K to do all the work for me.
Finally the Samsung Galaxy A5. This camera was the easiest to use as the camera is always set to Auto mode which means you do not need to worry about camera settings. However one of the biggest issues with this camera was the issue I was having with the focusing, The camera liked to be unreliable and constantly switch its focus around, especially on quick moving subjects. This was an issue for this shoot and meant that lots of takes were made with this camera. However with next to no weight from the camera. The camera was easy to set up on the Gimbal meaning that the footage was extreamly smooth.
Gallery of photos from the shoot
DFPR3105 - Advance Specialism 