Camera Workshop 1

Last Wednesday, we were shown the Black Magic 4K film cameras and their tripods

You need to use the "your's and mine," rule to prevent the cameras from falling to the floor when you are exchanging it with peers. This is due to the fact that they are very fragile (the lenses are made of many layers of glass) and very expensive. The idea behind the rule is to say "mine" or "yours," when you have control of the camera. e.g. Once i have a grip on the camera, I would say "mine," notifying my peer that she/he can let go of the camera. 

The spirit level is used to make sure that the tripod stand is "balanced," in the sense that anything placed on it will be perfectly balanced. In the same way that a carpenter ensures that a bar is balanced- to stop drinks from spilling, a cinematographer would use the spirit level to ensure that his camera will be 'zeroed in.' This would allow her/him to manipulate shots from a 'zero point', instead of placing the camera on a 12 degree incline, which would make all shots 12 degrees off of their desired angle.

You zoom in by rotating, the front grip-ring (see photo, labelled A), clockwise. To zoom out you do the opposite. To focus, first find your desired zoom amount, and then to focus: rotate the inner grip ring (labelled B) either left or right until the image is crisp.

You need to zoom in to focus before zooming out so you do not need to focus the shot after zooming in. e.g If you know you need to zoom in on one person after an establishing shot, you need to make sure that you have already focused the shot before zooming out to take the establishing shot, so you can zoom in without your final shot being blurry and needing to be refocused.

ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The lower the number the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situation to get faster shutter speeds. The right setting for the ISO on the 4K cameras is around 400.

Shutter angle is the angle in which the camera is pointing. e.g. 45º upwards. The ideal setting is around 180º Shutter angle is essentially frame rate.

White balance is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white on film. Proper camera white balance has tot take into account the ‘colour temperature,’ of the light source which refers to the relative warmth or coolness of the white light source. You can change it by pressing the menu button, going into settings and then adjusting the white balance (WB).

You should always film in colour, so you can edit it post filming. It would be unhelpful to film in black and white only, as you cannot revert it into colour simply. Additionally, you should not film with any effects, as they can all be added on during the editing stage, which is easier than trying to remove them.