Cinematography - Week 18


13/06/2019


 I managed to render the showreel early this morning and returned my filming equipment to Chris (Blackmagic Cinema camera, Blackmagic card reader, camera lenses, and a V-lock battery charger).

 Ash explained me what the course outline meant by having the slate, bar and tone in the showreel. I just need to put in some text outlining the project like you would for a cover sheet. I was also informed that the bar and tone must have that annoying sound with it, so I had to put it back in.

 There was also some minor typos to fix in the edit. After which, I did another render. We also had to put together a PDF document of our legal paperwork to do with filming our showreel sequences. I didn't have everything like safety plans and I didn't have a release form from Liz Craig because she is currently out of the country and was so when I had the release form modified. The PDF document was put together on InDesign.

 With the showreel (mp4), ungraded genre sequence (mfx), and PDF document completed, it was ready to submit. I had trouble submitting through the normal dropbox because it was full by the time I submitted, so I had to submit it to the alternative dropbox on the Temp drive, which worked successfully.
Justifying things in my showreel

 I used letterbox in my showreel because it's a stylistic choice that I like using in my film and video work and so I used it whenever I can. In addition, the sequences look more cinematic, polished, and cleaner being letterbox compared to filling a 16:9 widescreen frame. Plus, shakiness from handheld look more unnoticeable with being letterboxed.


The only time letterbox didn't quite work in this showreel was when it was applied in some shots in my genre sequence because it cropped out parts I wasn't expecting it would, espeically since I used a 1:85:1 frame guide setting when filming.




I had more blue added to the colour temperature in order to capture a cold and sinister environment that I was aiming for with the product shot. I also applied a similar blue hue to the chase sequence to make it more dramatic and tense.

 What I have not noticed until now is one of the soundies can be seen in the lift's reflection in another shot from my chase sequence as seen below.



There could been more stuff to justify and note, especially things that I thought I missed out in my blog, but it turns out I already mentioned such things before like the colouring in the genre sequence and testimonial.

Self evaluation
Doing the showreel was very time-consuming, more so than other papers that I have been required to work on this semester, so naturally, there have been time management issues in order to balance spending my time between the showreel and the other papers. Being new here made it very difficult to be organised with filming my showreel and everyone else in my class was really ahead in locking down filming dates, so I had to work around those times for filming my showreel sequences.

 Looking back, I would say that I had been better at directing than producing. After going through this paper, I believe I would likely be more organised in preparing the digital filmmaking project next semester. 
It was a really tough semester being my first of studying at SIT. However, I have learned a massive amount of things to do with cameras and lighting in that time. I believed that I learned at least one or more new thing about cameras and lighting each week from doing this paper. I was roughly adequate working with cameras, but still quite not confident with lighting, so being Gaffer isn't a strength of mine when it comes to shooting a film, but still pretty okay with being Best Boy. 

 Working around with cameras I have been okay with, but still can fuzzy with putting together things like a shoulder mount or Osmo. I have been helpful as a grip and can be confident putting together a dolly rig and tracks. However, I still don't trust myself with operating a dolly.

 Difficulties with my motor skills as a result of my dyspraxia makes it hard for me to work with lighting, putting some equipment, and operating a dolly rig.

14/06/2019

I sent a copy of the completed version of the testimonial to Liz Craig's office to see if they are okay with it before I consider putting it up on social media.

 I viewed my showreel again and pointed at a typo in the credits. I accidentally had the song for the music used in the genre sequence as 'Corruption', whereas it was actually only the chase sequence that used that song. Genre sequence used 'Thunder Dreams'.


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