Camera Workshop with Fergus

Today Fergus gave us a session on how to use the cameras. For the first part of the day we practiced rack focus. This is when the camera pulls the focus from one subject to another forcing the spectator to focus on the sharper subject. I found this particularly challenging at first as having never used a camera before i was unsure of the correct buttons and dials to use. The camera we used was the "Sony PMW1 XDCam".
This was difficult to use as we were un able to fasten it to the tripod due to the design and a missing piece for the head of the tripod. We completed the task using "hand held" technique filming the people in our group. I wasn't very confident when holding the camera and didn't understand the buttons enough to complete the task successfully. 

We then moved onto creating a story using a range of shots. We used a different camera this time which was the "Sony PMW EX1R".
This was much more user friendly as the functions were clearly displayed and i felt more comfortable holding it. The activity we needed to carry out was to use a range of at least 5 shots to create a story including two actors and a bag. In my group we decided to include the bar at the back of the studio and use it to form the location of our story. The story was about a bar tender cleaning and a drug dealer came in with a bag, clearly a pre-arranged meeting and using the camera we created a sequence displaying that the bag was of "dodgy business" without using sound. I enjoyed this activity a lot because it allowed me to see and get an idea of how to create drama and expression through the camera in a story. I feel that this workshop has helped me to prepare for my story telling project because i think i have gained more confidence in using a camera and feel that i would be able to control what i want to shoot in focus, with a range of different shots. When talking to Fergus afterwards he inspired me to "use my eyes as the camera before picking up and shooting with the camera" as it allows you to direct your actors through rehearsal and find the unique shots by moving around the set to frame and focus on what you want to shoot before you do. I really liked this feedback and found it very insightful.

Here is what we produced as a group: 


I had some trouble with focusing and also matching the frame sizes together in editing. To improve this I will ask for a tutorial with Fergus on how to make these problems clearer, improving the overall quality of my work.

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