"Some brief notes arising fron the ICT Advisory Team & the
Humanities Education Centre Digital Video Project "
I would like to begin by pointing out that the following
notes should be taken as a series of personal observations.
There are many who would disagree with my suggestions: Andre
Bazin the great granddaddy of Film Theory and champion of the
long take to name one, Brian Henderson author of the charmingly
entitled “Towards a non bourgeois camera style” to
name another.
Read the manual! It may not seem very cool but most
DV cameras come with a manual full of guidance on using the cameras various
features to get the most from your DV film.
Generally speaking you will be using the camera in auto mode but
you will want to change different aspects of the image: lighting, focus,
framing etc so that your viewers respond in the way you want them to!
Lighting
You can use supplementary light sources such as lamps or reflectors (make
your own) to highlight the important elements within the frame.
Experiment with changing the AE settings. Now that you can see the effect
of changing the Automatic Exposure immediately on the LCD screen you will
find it useful, sometimes to do so! Simply press the AE button,
use the dial to increase or decrease the aperture and assess the effect
on the picture. When using supplementary light sources make pupils aware
that some bulbs get very hot.
Focus
Encourage the pupils to use the W (wide angle) and T
(telephoto) zoom facility sparingly and mainly to frame the shot
before starting to film. Excessive zooming will result in blurred images
and completely nullify the effects of lighting and composition in directing
the viewers’ attention.
Auto-focus will set the focus on whatever is in the middle
of the frame. If you want to focus attention elsewhere you may
want to auto-focus on the required centre of attention, switch
the auto-focus off and reframe.
Sound
Use an external microphone on a long lead wherever possible
as this will cut down on background noise and allow you to capture the
sound you really want. Remember it is much easier to get the sound right
in the camera than to do so afterwards using movie editing or sound software.
Always use headphones so that the camera operator hears what the
microphone is picking up (e.g. if the microphone is switched on) and
not the natural sound.
As a general rule use a tripod and film everything from two different
angles preferably simultaneously using two cameras. You will also find
it very useful to take some stills!
