Major Pre-Production: TV Play

   This week, Mark and I had to create a short video between 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds as a a part of our courses 'TVPlay' Series. Our course leader Simon said put the idea to us that we interview writer of BBC series 'Outlaws' Steve Coombes, and ask him his top 5 tips for screenwriting. My initial idea was just for a simple interview with him with some graphics emphasising his the tips he has given. But, Mark had a different idea to mine which was to film it in the style of an old black and white silent film. The reason Mark thought of this idea was because we were told to make the video fun and unique, and this turned out to be a great way for us to present this. This project would be a good practise to see how Mark and I could work filming together, where we could see the positives and negatives of our working relationship. This is very important as if there were any issues with us working together filming, we could work together and try to find a way to combat the issue. Mark came up with the concept, provided a voice over for the film as well as editing, while I also took part in editing and also focused on the camerawork and what the best shots we should use were.

   This exercise has helped me personally as it has given me a refresh of the basics which was needed after nearly a 5 month break of filming. Also I did make an error with the audio for the interview with Steve. The room that was chosen as the location for filming the interview was big so his voice was very echoey when recorded, and also the volume levels the clip mic was on was wrong for his voice so it was very pitchy and partially muffled in some places as well. This provided me with two valuable experiences, first one being how to correct these errors in the future by correctly setting up the clip mics, the second one being how to correct these errors through post editing, and the third being to think more about how filming in certain locations could affect the recording of audio and visuals.

Major Pre-Production Research: Beginning Cinematography Research

   As one of my main roles is Cinematography, I have decided to look into the job role further to familiarise myself with what is expected of me and what I need to do to make the finished product's cinematography be at the best standard it can be. Researching the role is the only way I will be able to understand what it is fully and clearly, so the first thing I have done is downloaded 'The DSLR Cinematography Guide' curtesy of nofilmschool.com. Mark and I may have not decided yet that we will be using a DSLR camera for filming this production, but this guide has got loads of information on what the role of a Cinematographer is as well as tips and techniques and Cinematography concepts.  The information this guide has will be invaluable to filming our production as it will give me everything I need to ensure the film will have a strong professional look and feel to it, which is what any filmmaker wants their finished film to have. I aim to look into further detail about being a Cinematographer and also research some famous Cinematographers and why they are the best at what they do and how they approach their work to gain tips for when it comes to me filming Mark's and my production.

Below are some screen shots of some of the contents of the guide.