My first attempt at filming and editing

We recently completed our first task - filming someone come in through a door, sit down opposite someone else and exchange a few words of dialogue. It was more challenging than I had originally expected but a lot of fun and left us with lots of room to be creative.

I had never used the DSLR's before so remembering all the things that had to be done with them was quite challenging - checking the white balance, zoom, manual focus etc.

White balance is used to make the shots look the right colour in different lights e.g. natural sunlight looks slightly blue onscreen compared to artificial light which looks slightly orange. White balance is used to stop this happening.

We also use ISO to control the amount of light that is let in by the lens, a high ISO would increase light sensitivity so you can capture video in lower light environments without having to use a flash, however the picture can appear grainy if the ISO is high. It is better to stick to a low ISO if possible to make the image as clear as possible.

We didn't use aperture in this scene as you can tell because everything's in focus. The aperture of the camera allows us to adjust the depth of field in the shot; a small aperture puts everything in the shot in focus however, a large aperture would have allowed us to bring the things in the foreground into focus whilst blurring the background. This would add a professional feel to the film and is something I would be very interested in using in my final opening scene.

We had to remember not to break the 180 degree rule (to make sure the characters are always facing the right way) and to make sure we had good continuity - not changing the way we sit or position of the props. We also had to look at the composition of the shot and where the characters were placed, foreground, background, centre. This made the filming process quite long as there was a lot of things that had to be set up and decisions that had to be made.

As well as using the cameras for the first time, I had my first experience with a tripod. I really enjoyed using it as it allowed us to get a steady shot (something I had never achieved in previous short films) The only trouble we had with it was getting the shot straight as the camera was on a 'ball' on the tripod to allow it to be moved around, however this made getting a straight shot level more challenging.

We also adjusted the lighting in the room using different light combinations to try and get a good colour however, we also shot in the corridor outside the room which had more natural light without adjusting the white balance causing there to be a difference in the colouring of the shots.

We also did a 'shot-reverse-shot' to establish the position of me and Jenny in the room, however I think we positioned Jenny too far left in her shot creating a large expanse of background to her right that is dead space. If I were to shoot this again I would position her more in the centre of the shot.

We also had some confusion over when the camera was actually filming so had quite a lot of wasted footage that became quite difficult to sift through in the editing process. When we film again we need to have a clear 'Action' and 'Cut' in order to be as efficient with the time and film as possible.

Unfortunately, we actually missed a shot from the scene, one of Jenny sitting down. Therefore when the scene plays through she just appears at the table opposite me. In the future we must make a track of what shots we need and possibly even tick them off as we've shot them to ensure that nothing gets missed which results in a break in the continuity of the scene.

We decided to have our scene set in a café where one character is late. To create an 'on edge', hectic feel we created a montage of shots flitting between the character waiting, a clock and the character rushing into the room.
We did a mid-shot of me sat at the table so you could see the character and the background to try and establish the setting for the audience.

We decided the close-up of the clock should be slightly off centre to create a feeling of unease and foreshadow that something was wrong.

We also decided that the shot of Jenny coming down the stairs should have just her feet to exaggerate the fast pace of the scene.

The fast movements of the rushed character greatly contrasted with the very slow movements of the waiting character, this symbolised how the late character was in control, they are putting the waiting character in a position they clearly feel uncomfortable in which reflects the rest of the scene.

I really liked using Final Cut because I found it easy to use and it was actually quite exciting to see the scene come together as you drag the pieces of film into the timeline.

It would definitely be easier if we had more footage that we could use rather than having the bin full of outtakes which are time consuming to sift through.

I also had to be careful when editing the work in the conversation between me and Jenny because when I cut between the two different angles we had moved our hands in different ways and I had to make sure they didn't go from being on the table in one shot to at my face in the next. This was to ensure I had good continuity.

I also liked how I could see the preview of what you were editing on the screen, it really helped give me an idea of the final cut and made it clearer to see the shots I was trying to edit together.

I didn't get the chance to look at titles and different things you can do with the shots but I'm hoping to be able to play around a bit with final cut to find out the different things I can do.

Once the footage was in the bin I found it relatively simple to edit it into a scene however I found the more technical bits such as uploading the footage and exporting (or sharing) it more difficult and confusing. This goes for the camera as well, I will definitely need a recap on how to set it up to film because the technical elements of camera work and editing come less naturally to me but I will definitely put a lot of effort into trying to learn as I would like to do something in this industry (such as broadcast journalism) as my career.

Overall I've really enjoyed my first experience with filming and editing. I found the creative elements - choosing what to film and editing it together - very fun and the more technical elements challenging but I'm also hoping this will improve and come more naturally to me as I go through the course. I am really looking forward to doing some more projects like this further down the line.