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Workshops with Del Brown


Our first workshop with Del was a camera workshop where he explained what is expected from camera operators in the studio. He explained how working in the studio is different from working on our one camera shoots where we'd have time to focus and get the perfect shot and much more movement there is in the studio shows so there's almost no point in wasting time to lock and unlock the cameras or having lots of friction as it works against us when we try to follow people around especially when we had to reframe and keep focus on the subject. Even though we had time to practice our camera skills before the TX day, I still feel like I'd need way more practice to be a good camera OP on the 'live' studio production as I did lose focus a few times and "a good Camera Operator does not 'lose focus' "(2011, Manchester).

We also learned about camera lineup and how important it is to do it so that the images from different cameras would look the exact same or at least as close as possible otherwise "The viewer will become aware if one shot does not match and may invest the content of that shot with special significance as apparently attention has been drawn to it"(Ward, 2000).
We were introduced to the lineup board with white and black scales as it is easiest to tell the differences using these colours.
As well as Barbara aka the picture of a lady on the other side of the board used to see if the skin colours are correct.
Also, a lot of the cameras, including the JVC that I used, have a separate skin detail function that can smoothen the over-contoured skin detail that has been brought out by filters used to make the image look sharper, otherwise it would look unnatural as every imperfection would be enhanced and become very noticeable (Ward, 2000).
Next, we got to try out all of the studio roles so we could appreciate and understand that other jobs aren't as easy as it may look from the first look. After going through all of them I realised I chose my role perfectly as there was nothing else I'd rather do than camera work. I truly believe that the exercise helped us to be more respectful to one another and understand that every and each role counts when it comes to any studio production.

The following week we got to try vision mixing, in particular, cutting to music which was way harder than it may have looked when Del demonstrated before all of us got a go at it. 
We also learned that they don't have vision mixers in Eurovision Song Contest.

 Bibliography:

Singleton-Turner, R. (2011). Cue & cut. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
Ward, P. (2000). Digital video camerawork. Oxford: Focal Press, pp.86-87.

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