Cinematography - Week 17



09/06/2019

I ended up not filming the product shot on Thursday because I have unwell since then and I have managed to get a medical certificate from the nurse at the main campus just in case. I did received an email from Craig McKenzie about filming in the G10 building and he is fine with me filming in there on Sunday, and he had the access loaded onto my ID card.

 I met up with my film crew at the Downtown campus at 9 this morning. I thought it was a good place to start and to clear up details with my crew that I would had done if I hadn't been sick since Thursday. We apparently ended up having access to the TV studio at the campus, so I was able to acquire things that I needed that I didn't think I could get. Things like a sound kit, Atmos monitor, Osmo gimbal, a boom pole, shoulder kit, and a round reflector. 

 The Atmos monitor was just something to have just in case like if filming the genre sequence, the natural light made it hard to see things clearly on the Blackmagic's viewfinder. I wouldn't really use the Atmos for filming the chase sequence because of the narrow space we would have with the Soundies (Lukas and Julian) behind me and someone running in front of me (Tim).

 I used both handheld and gimbal (Osmo) for my chase sequence, especially since setting up an Osmo is less time-consuming than setting up a dolly track and dolly rig. Myself and the film crew managed to enter the building with ease, without any technical issues. I am aware that in the first shot that you can see our reflections, but it was something I couldn't really do much about. 


Something I didn't realise at the time of filming the handheld shots with the Blackmagic was that it was much more underexposed than the Osmo. 


I used the Osmo more than the Blackmagic because it was less risky doing backward shots with it and the Osmo provides much more smoother camera movement. Filming the chase sequence went rather quicker than expected.

 A shoulder rig was placed into the Blackmagic for filming the handheld shots.



I took a look outside and realise that the natural lighting during today looks quite similar to golden hour lighting. Perhaps I could pull off it and add more tungsten colouring in post to look more 'golden hour'. Myself and the crew thought we just might as well film the genre sequence since we're all there, and that MetService reckoned that there is a chance of rain during the late afternoon, and I didn't want to take any chances.





We managed to carry everything to Doon Street and film on the footpath on both sides of Doon Street, outside the Water Tower. I forgot my hi-vis jacket earlier, so I went to get it on the way to Doon Street. 

 The first shot of the Water Tower is underexposed because it was something we reckon could be fixed in post and the underexposure provided more texture out of the sky and clouds. 


We moved down the road to find that we still hadn't change the white balance to suit the location and so we changed it. 


I probably should had re-shot the first shot that I did (with the new white balance setting), but I didn't think of it at the time. One of the wide shots took a while to shoot because there tended to be a random person walking, biking, or driving past into the frame. 




I did the more intimate shots with the Osmo. I probably shouldn't had, but I didn't think about that at the time, plus it wouldn't make things awkward filming outside the gate of the Water Tower. 



Some shots (wide, establishing shots) didn't have sound recorded because Lukas had recorded enough ambient sound to get away with and reuse in post. After taking a shot of Tim walking along a footpath in a wide shot, Lukas and Julian recorded their sound take to get a closer sound of Tim's footsteps.




I tried to film the shot I had in mind of Tim's shoes, but the sun direction prevented from doing so because if I did, you would my shadow in the frame. Looking back, I probably could had done it from a different angle, but I didn't think of it at the time.



Ingesting the footage and sound from today's filming went smoothly and I backed up all the files later that night.


Showreel Credits -

Genre Sequence

 Director / Director of Photography
Jerry Westaway

 Assistant Camera
Tim Hohn

 Sound
Lukas Wittorf

 Boom Operator
Julian Hinrichsen
Cast
Runner - Tim Hohn
Filmed on location in
Invercargill, New Zealand

 Thanks
Nathan Gill
Invercargill City Council
Chase Sequence

Director / Director of Photography
Jerry Westaway

 Assistant Camera
Tim Hohn

 Sound
Lukas Wittorf

 Boom Operator
Julian Hinrichsen
Cast
Man walking - Tim Hohn


Filmed on location in
Invercargill, New Zealand

 Thanks
Craig McKenzie
Southern Institute of Technology
Testimonial

 Director / Director of Photography
Jerry Westaway

 Gaffer / Assistant Camera
Tyler Baikie

 Sound
Oisin O'Connell
Interviewees
Dr Liz Craig
Sarah Thorne
Thanks
Susan McNeil
Environment Southland
Landsafe NZ
SIT Productions
Southern Institute of Technology
Product shot

 Director / Director of Photography
Jerry Westaway

 Gaffer
Jerry Westaway

 Best Boy
Cambell Blair

 Thanks
Andy White
Southern Institute of Technology



10/06/2019

I started editing together my genre and chase sequences today in my spare time and did manage to finish editing and syncing up the chase sequence.

 However, the chase sequence didn't come out as long as I expect. It ended up being roughly 30 seconds long.



11/08/2019

Tonight, I filmed my product shot and decided to film it in my room at my flat rather than doing it on campus. I waited for it to be much really dark outside before I started filming my product shot. One of my flatmate's friends, Cambell helped out as Best Boy by holding and moving around the lighting. 

 Technically, I had no plan of attack, I just made it up as I went along and we did a lot of experimenting, in which the filming was done in over half an hour. Filming the product shot with just the flashlight on my phone provided professional results that you would get from a Kino Flo or Mini Flo. I had my water bottle (prop) placed on a bedside table, which I had cleared off for filming and got another beside table to place the Blackmagic on for a steady, stationary shot. Most of the shots for the product shot are handheld.

 I occasionally switched lenses (18-35 mm, 35 mm) to see if they were to provide different perspective to the shots. Myself and Cambell switched positions over the course of filming tonight to try out different angles. I directed Cambell to just orbit the light around and above the product, and see what results we get from doing that.

 I was very satisfied with the footage of the product shot. My intentions were met with the product shot, which was to apply a sinister, dark look.











Filming location for product shot


Lighting plan


12/06/2019

I spent the day making an effort with completing the showreel. I managed to ingest the footage from last night of my product shot, get all the editing, colour grading, and music selection done, but not without a setback.

 When I removed the Blackmagic card reader out of the computer I had been using, the computer thought I had removed my hard drive as well, which confused Premiere and caused it to mix up the sound files. As a result, I will have to sync up all the sound for my showreel again, which could take hours to do.



I tried to keep the colour correction settings the same to keep it consistent, but wasn't an option because the white balances aren't consistent. So I would have to adapt the colour correction to what I had in mind with the white balance that the clip provides.

I continued to apply the same colour correction setting to the rest of the footage for the genre sequence, but was ineffective with the last clip because of the green in the grass.


 I wondered if adjusting the saturation and vibrance (without adjusting the colour tint would have the same result; it did not, it just made the image more greener.


 Using the same colouring settings from the previous clips for the genre sequence, but also adjusting the shadow and highlight tint to yellow colours seem to work.




With sorting out this underexposed clip, I tried to make colour correction adjustments, in which I managed to fix the exposure and colour to an extent.
After spending many hours straight, doing post-production. I took some time off from doing post to clear my head for syncing up the sound. Like the chase sequence, the genre sequence didn't come out as long as I expected or required it to be. However, the product shot came out to the correct duration.


I don't think my bars and tone slates at the beginning of each sequence for the showreel came out right. I have never had to do it before, so I wasn't 100 percent certain, but I did manage to put in the timecode.

Later that night, I was going to take the time-consuming, old-fashioned ways of syncing up the sound again, but then I got a lucky break. I figured out that I could just replace each sound file that I needed to be synced up again individually, which would be done automatically (Replace Footage). This really saved a lot of time.

 When listening to audio and playing back the edit, I had to rely on the computer's speakers because I forgot to bring my own headphones and it would take me a half an hour to go my flat and back for my headphones. Using the computer's speakers didn't disturb anyone because I was the only one in the classroom, but now I understand why other students use the edit suites.

 As a final touch, I added a subtitle stating the location and time in history, similar to how it is shown in the research included in my video essay.


I have managed to complete my entire showreel by tonight. However, it's getting late, so I just export the ungraded genre sequence tonight and leave exporting the final showreel tomorrow. When exporting the ungraded genre sequence, I couldn't get it to 8 bit because it wouldn't let me go any lower than 16 bit.

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