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Camera work in Documentaries

Because I was responsible for the camera work on our documentary, I researched more on it by reading 'Directing a Documentary' by Michael Rabiger. There was a lot of tips and information with using lenses, but because I knew what camera we would be using I didn't get into that as the information was irrelavent. Notes in brackets were made after the production



Notes:

  • Make 'test and test again' your true religion. (because we knew the main camera we were working with we didn't do much testing, but on the day, while prepping, we found out that the viewfinder was on, although a day before I spent some time figuring out the GoPro as we were using it for the first time)
  • Prepare for the worst (we gave ourselves some time to get to the skatepark which turned out to be great because I slept over and we had to make a stop at the shop to get some batteries, so if we hadn't we would have been late and made the contributors wait. Also, while filming in the heat outside we found out that the camera can overheat and go black (still records sound but doesn't record the video) eventually we solved the problem by keeping it in the shade for a couple of minutes and we got the coverage for that by filming with our phones.)
  • In documentary you often shoot matirial handheld, which could quickly become uncomfortable and hard to keep the shots steady. (For most part we used a tripod, but for some shots I had to go handheld which made me realise that if I actually want to do this in the future I have to start working out, other than that, I tried to keep my hands below my heart so it would be a bit easier on my hands)
  • Viewfinder becomes a neccessity in strong daylight (although our camera had the viewfinder on I mostly worked using the LCD screen because the view in the viewfinder was too small for my liking and I found that it was more difficult to move the camera while using it)
  • Familiarize yourself with the meniu and the switches (as we had many workshops where we used the Panasonic cameras, I roughly knew what button did what, but I played around with it while we were prepping to shoot and found some other functions that I haven't used before)
  • "Practice all your camera’s functions until it’s second nature. This is your concert instrument: practice till you play like a pro." (Although I didn't do that before the shoot, I had many opportunities to get myself comfortable with the camera throughout the year, at least enough to not to forget to do the main things like format the sd card before filming, white balance it and focus the camera, which wasn't easy while filming actuality, especially roller derby as they were skating in circles really fast and I had to keep adjusting the focus all the time)
  • Professional equipment has one unwelcome aspect: it may draw attention to you in the street and trigger exaggerated expectations in some participants. ( while filming our skateboarding sequences and interviews in the park we had a lot of people stop in their tracks and just stare at us)
  • "To make flesh tones look natural in color work, the camera must have a correct “white balance.” This adjustment allows the camera to shoot white objects under a particular light source, and to reproduce them as white, not pale pink, green, or orange." (we had some trouble with it while filming roller derby because of the fluorescent lighting so there's a big difference between the footage from the skatepark in the natural sunlight and the footage from sports centre hall, althoug we were able to more or less fix it in post production)
  • "Automatic white balance is almost a necessity if you must follow someone through several lighting zones. The auto white balance and exposure will probably make all the necessary adjustments with wonderful efficiency."
  • "The camera operator must often adjust focus, especially during handheld coverage. In well-lit surroundings, focus is deep and non-critical with cameras that use small imaging chips. However, if you are using 35 mm type DSLR optics or similar, DOF can be very shallow and focusing during a handheld take can become maddeningly critical." (It wasn't as difficult to adjust focus while we were filming the skateboarding sequences as it was filming roller derby, not sure if it was the lighting or was it because it was so much faster, found that using 'peaking' was the easiest way to quickly adjust the focus)
  • "To restrict DOF use a telephoto lens, or shoot with a wide lens aperture."
  • "To restrict DOF use a telephoto lens, or shoot with a wide lens aperture."
  • "For mobility, camera and recording equipment runs off rechargeable batteries <...> Estimate generously how many batteries you should take on location, and try to work each battery to its useable limit before completely recharging it, which may take between 6 and 10 hours. Read manuals carefully in relation to conserving battery life, since wrong handling can shorten a battery’s “memory.”" (So because on the first day of the shoot I overslept, I ran out of the house without picking up one of the batteries I left to fully charge overnight so ww only had one battery for the day which we conserved by turnng the camera off when we didn't need it and ended with still some "memory" in the battery)
  • "There’s cold comfort here for the under-funded since the budget tripod and tilt head are a dismal substitute for the real deal. They work fine for static shots, but try to pan or tilt, and wobbly movements reveal why professionals use heavy tripods and hydraulically damped tilt heads. Turning on the camera’s image stabilization may smooth your movements, and all camera movements look better when you use a wide-angle lens."
  • "A practiced and well-coordinated human being makes an excellent mobile camera support." (On both days of the shoot I ended up sitting down on the ground and balancing the camera on my legs for the low shots because I found it to be easiest and most comfortable way to get the shots)

  • "When you set up a shot, and particularly when action is taking place, make a habit of scanning the entire frame, moving your eye around the edges and consciously noting the arrangement of visual elements. If you don’t do this, you will lapse into the mental state of an assassin staring fixedly at his target. Unpracticed camera operators set up the shot, then stare contentedly at the subject, immune to changes that might be taking place to the composition as people and vehicles move about in the background." (For most of the shoot our director Lauren was by my side telling me what shots she needed so that wasn't the problem)
  • "The least satisfactory way to frame a human subject is to plunk them bang in the middle of frame. If you divide the screen up into three bands horizontally and three bands vertically, the commonest points for the focus of interest in the frame are the four places where the lines intersect"
  • "When a human subject faces across the screen, either sitting in conversation, or walking, we leave lead space in front of them" (It was a bit hard to keep this rule because of how fast the skaters moved but I tried my best )
  • "OPERATOR’S BODY MECHANICS
     Try always to:
    ● Position yourself during pans so you turn from an uncomfortable to a comfortable holding position.
    ● Halt during a tracking shot in a bodily position that lets you smoothly resume movement onward to the next composition.
    ● If you must kneel, sink on one knee only, or you’ll be unable to rise without jerking the camera.
    ● If you sit down, place one or both feet under you, so you can rise without rolling forward."
  • "Occasionally when making a camera movement, you will alight on an incorrect framing. If so, hold the erroneous composition for a few seconds and then imperceptibly “creep” the frame to its optimal proportions. If you recover too quickly and obviously, the audience will notice the error and henceforth feel insecure." (I used this tip when our interviewees would move out of the shot)
  • "Before allowing the crew to wrap (finish the day’s shoot), cast your mind back over events just filmed and itemize what special shots you might need to enable ellipsisor cross-cutting. Your editing can nearly always benefit from cutaway shots or inserts (sometimes called cut-ins )." (while we were filming in the skatepark I tried to save the time by filming cutaways during the times when we had to stop the interview due to the noise (airplanes, people shouting))

    Rabiger, Michael. Directing the Documentary, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1791317.



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