DIRECTIONS: DSLR Camera Workshop

Steadicam

Today's workshop was carried on from Wednesday's with the DLSR cameras. I was slightly familiar with these as I used them in my photography foundation year last year, however I had never filmed on them. I liked the look of them as they are smaller than the Sony EX that we have been using, which in public would be a little less obvious. Ferg explained the pro's and con's to the DSLR's which were that they give a good picture and you can get a professional look and feel with these, however, they don't pick up audio very well.

Hearing about the audio issue put me off them a little and I know the EX a lot better as we've had more practice with these, because of this I think I will stick with the Sony EX.

Today was mainly about playing with the camera and the different instruments we could use with them, such as the fig-rig, steadicam, track and jib. I enjoyed playing with these as it was interesting to see what looks we got with each one and it was good to practice with them in case we wanted to use them. I was impressed with the track and was shocked how smooth it actually is, it also makes the shot look really good. The steadicam was really weird to use, I wasn't expecting it to be so heavy and again it was really smooth, however, I felt like I didn't have much control with it and it was moving where it wanted really. If I was to use this I would need more sessions with it to know how to use it properly. It was impressive to see the fig-rig as you always see these or bigger versions on real film sets and I have always wanted to see what they're like. It didn't disappoint as it made the camera movement really smooth and look the camera up very high. 

I considered using the track but I am unsure until I plan the scenes outside the cinema. I think I may just simply do a wide shot of them walking towards the camera, but to track back with them following the camera would also look good. Learning about the DSLR's won't really affect my work because like I said in the second paragraph I am going to stick with the Sony EX as I know it better, I think I will experiment with the DSLR's in the next project so I can learn more about them and practice using them. However, it was really interesting and helpful that we had this workshop so if I decided to use one, I would know the basics. 

Track/dolly

Steadicam

Fig-rig