Casting | Self Portrait Development

I have decided that I wouldn't cast any actors or actresses to be in my self portrait video and I would be in it instead. This was chosen because it is a personal video and I felt that the video wouldn't be as personal if there was someone else playing me.

There is no dialogue in the video, and there isn't a story that is being told, which means that I won't need to learn any lines. I'm also not planning on getting too many face shots as I want it to have a slight POV look to it, without doing a direct POV shot.

The video itself will be a montage of the setting and myself, so I will not be present in all of the shots, meaning that I can direct from behind the camera and tell my camera operator want I want the different shots to look like.

Location | Self Portrait Research

One of my ideas for the self portrait video was to film on a beach. I decided to go location scouting and find a location that would suit the idea.

I wanted a stony beach instead of a sandy beach because I think that stony beaches are more relaxing but still fun. Whitstable has a stony beach and there are many different areas that I could use within my video. The place is quiet and relaxing and it's a lovely landscape. There are sail boats placed on the stones just before the stones near the water, and they add to the environment of the place.

Whitstable is a small tourist attraction, so it means that some people may recognise it and others might not. This adds a personal tone to the video as it's not a massively popular place to visit but some people may know the area. If the sun is out when we are filming it will make for a lovely landscape image and will add to my interests as my favourite season is summer. There are a few benches on the stony beaches that I could film myself sitting on and I could experiment on the natural lighting.

 

This location will be a good setting for my self portrait video and I think I can experiment a lot with the different colours present as well as the lighting.

Natural Lighting | Workshop

For this workshop we split up into individual groups of 4 and we picked a lighting look from a booklet, that we were given, and we tried to recreate the look ourselves. I worked with Nisserin, Sammi and Imogen and we used one of our Lecture rooms to try and recreate the looks but with natural lighting. 

For the first shot, we used the window as the main lighting source to try and achieve a more realistic natural look. The light coming from the window was very bright and it made the shot look very over exposed. Due to it being natural, we weren't able to adjust the location of the light and we weren't able to decrease the light, so we had to use some gels and other pieces of material to help diffuse the light. We started by clipping a Gauze onto the blinds and rolling the blind down half way. This still didn't diffuse the light as much as we would've liked so we decided to add a ND Filter to the blind. This helped diffuse the light a lot and made it look a lot more realistic and natural. We then changed the aperture and ISO in the camera to make sure the colour was right and looked natural. The camera was set at F 6.7 | Shutter 1/100.

 

 

We then chose a picture from the booklet Fergus gave us and tried to recreate the look. We started by pulling down the blinds so we could work with the lighting rigs, as the natural lighting was very bright. In the original image there is a plant in the background that has been reflected through a shadow on the backdrop of the image. We wanted to recreate this so we used Imogen's coat and place it on a stand. We then added that into the background of our shot and placed a light on the far left hand side of the camera that would reflect the shadow of the coat onto the wall. This light is called the FILL light.

Then, closer on the left hand side of the camera, we placed another light that was directed to the table where Nisserin was sat. On this light was an ND filter to diffuse the bright orangey red colour. This light is called the KEY light.

Our third light was placed on the far right of the camera but it was behind the table. This was directed to the table, opposite the key light. Like the other light we added an ND filter to diffuse the colour and to decrease the brightness and overexposed areas that were occurring. Once we got the lights correct we adjusted the camera to F 11 | Shutter 1/50.

We then decided to see what it would look like with two people in the shot. So I joined Nisserin in the same set up to see the result of a  two person shot. My face isn't well lit, while Nisserin has some overexposed areas on her face. Due to the time restrictions we didn't have time to adjust the lights and make it correct, but we did discuss what we would do if we had the chance to. We said, we would close the barn doors a little more and maybe re position the lights so both people were being lit up.

Mood Board | Self Portrait Research

As part of my research I have decided to collect some visual reference material and place it into a mood board in order for me to create the tone and pick some of the shots I want to use in my video. Some of the shots I have collected are scenery shots that help to create the atmosphere and they will be useful when I'm trying to set the scene. These type of shots will most probably be used as an establishing shot in my video. Some other photos show the type of colour tone I want my video to look like. I want to it to have a desaturated type of look while also showing some of the stunning colours coming from the sky and the sea.

 

In my video I want to have a few shots where you can see a group of birds flying across the sky, and these images help to portray what I want to achieve. The colours in the image on the left are the sort of colours I want to create through the editing of the video, but with a little less colour and contrast. The last image is of a shot that I want to try and recreate in my video, but it will be slightly different. The model in the image is sitting down, whereas I will be standing up, but I would like to create this sort of light and shadow effect.

Lighting | Workshop

This workshop was our first introduction to learning about the lighting. We learnt about how to set it  up and what different filters and objects we could use to defuse some of the over exposed light. When setting it up we set up a camera as well so we could see what it would come out like because it looks different when you look at the set compared to looking through the camera. We were put into groups and given the task to experiment with the lighting and use different materials to give different effects on the lighting directed towards the model. I was in a group with Nisserin, Laura and Ellie, and we took turns operating the camera, operating the lights and being the model.

We experimented with the angles of the lights and the barn doors on the cameras to see how it would change the look of the scene and how effective it would be. As a big group, before we split into separate groups, we experimented with Ida as the model and changed the angle and position of the lights. In the first image we used one light which was directed to the left side of Ida's face, and the light was on flood lighting to make it spread across her face. In person the light looked very orange and had hints of redness in it, which doesn't make the model look natural. The ISO settings in the camera were changed and was white balanced to make the colours natural, which then made the lighting look natural and well lit. We then closed the barn doors to make a slight open which can be seen on Ida's face. We wanted the light to be shining on her eyes, specifically, so it looked like there was a line of light across her eyes. This was a little hard to do and we ended up using a few pieces of black card to hide some of the light and keep the focus on the eyes.

We then split up into groups of 4 and experimented with the lights ourselves. At first we experimented with just one model and we decided to see what it would look like if the light was behind the model at an angle. We placed the light behind Ellie at a far distance and kept the barn doors open with the spot light on. We then made sure she was behind a black background as we wanted the contrast between the dark colour and the bright light to be visible. I like this lighting look as it reminds me of shots they do in the X Factor when they are introducing the next act in the final shows, but also it makes me think of celebrities and how they are usually shown.

 

We also then tried with two models; Ellie and Laura. We moved the light further round to face the side of Ellie and we added another light in front of Laura on her right. We added an ND filter to the light on the left hand side of Ellie and saw that it made the colour more natural and less intense. We then experimented with different coloured filters to see what effect they had on the lighting. I liked the blue filter gel as it creates a natural colour but also gives a nice amount of blue light on the models.

 

I found this workshop very useful and I enjoyed learning and experimenting with the lights and finding different ways to create natural light.

Canon 7D | Workshop

This workshop was all about learning how to use the Canon 7D cameras so we could have a choice between whether we want to film with the Canon cameras or the Sony cameras. I have my own DSL camera and have used others, so I already knew how to use the cameras, however I did learn a lot about colouring and the white balance of the camera.

We went through the different buttons on the camera and learnt about what they do and how effective they are. When it came to white balancing with the camera, we went through the steps on how to make it effective and natural. First you must make sure the aperture, ISO and shutter speed are set correctly and then you need to take a picture of a white screen/piece of paper. Then once that is done the white balance must be set to custom and when the camera is switched to video mode you need to set the white balance from the image taken through the menu page.

Once we had learnt how to do this and how to make the colours natural, we were given the task to create a music video with the canon camera. I worked with Nisserin, Laura and Ellie and we decided to recreate the first minute or so of the Adele "Hello" music video. I starred in the video and we filmed both outside and inside to experiment with the aperture levels. We filmed some behind the shoulder shots to make the tone of the video sad and emotional. When editing the video we added a black and white filter onto all of the shots to make it similar to the original music video.

We then learnt a little bit about the sound in a canon camera and we were told that it's not the best quality. So we were advised to record the audio on a external microphone and sync it with the video on the editing software.

Director - Atonement | Workshop

In this workshop the first thing we learnt was blocking and how useful and major it is to block out where every crew member will be within a shoot. It's the directors choice to place the crew members in specific places in order to get the right shot. The first thing you should do, before shouting action and start filming, is make sure everyone is present and put them in the places they should be. Once that is done, the director must make sure that the lights are where they should be and that they are on, the actors are stood or sat where they should be, the sound people are ready with the boom mics and the camera is in the correct place.

Within the workshop we also learnt about the different type of two person shots you can have; we experimented with these and saw how they looked through the camera. We tried a tight behind the shoulder shot as well as a wide one and saw how the difference could effect the tone of the scene. We also experimented with the different directions the actor could come in and what camera shot it should be. Through this we found that every angle and direction the actors are sat or come into the shot from could change the tone of the scene.

We then watched a scene from atonement and analyse the way it has been filmed and what tone the different shots created within the scene. We were then given the task to recreate this scene and we would take turns to direct it in the way we wanted. I worked with Nisserin, Ellie and Ellen and I was the camera operator for Nisserin's video and the model for both Ellie and Ellen's videos.

When it came to me directing the scene, I decided to pick several different camera shots and film the whole scene in every shot. This was done so when it came to editing it, I could watch all of the shots and choose which ones I wanted to use and where I wanted to place them in the sequence. I made sure that every shot was different and that they the audio matched up with the mouth movements.

I'm happy with the outcome of the video and I found this workshop very useful in learning the skill of being a director.