Planning: Mic Test

Before Joe and I began to film, we decided to do a short mic test too see which location of the mic would work the best when editing. From this, we can have a clear understanding of what to avoid and what to do for definite when we come to film our final.

Here is the short mic test:

Camera and Sound: Amy

Analysis

Test 1: We decided to place the mic above the camera to see how saturated the background would sound. Here you can immediately see that the background voice is very corrupt and grainy which puts the audience off hearing what Joe is actually saying. This would be something we would try and avoid in our final as it makes the documentary unprofessional and sound very bad quality.

Test 2: This is where we decided to place the mic slightly above Joe’s head, just out of shot. As you can with this one in comparison to the last shot, the background noise isn’t as bad as it was in the last shot, however you can still hear the muffled background noise. Although this mic test was more successful than the last, I still would avoid this in our final as again, it makes the whole documentary very low quality.

Test 3: We then decided to place the mic below Joe, this was directly below his face but again out of shot so nobody can see. The volume of this shot is automatically very loud as it is the closest the mic has gotten to go. Although again, this is more successful than the other two, you can still hear the grainy background noise. I would say that this was the most successful angling with the mic however we still need to practise to get this right.

 

Planning: Test Shot Evidence

17.10.16-> filming our test shots. For this, we used our initial shot set ups to try and get a successful conclusion. (test shots will be uploaded at a later date)

Camera and Sound swaps between Joe and I- each specific will be on each blogpost

Things that went well:

• Organisation 
• We communcated really well-> we saw the weaknesses and made the necessary improvements 
•  Timing ->didn’t spend too long, got on it well
• Responding well with feedback

Things to improve upon

• Space that we film in- had to move stuff around and change the spot in which we was suppose to film in
• Questions and prompts could be more specific 

Evidence 

Here a slideshow showing proof that we was filming and showing the set up we used:

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We changed the way in which we filmed throughout the whole filming process, however I decided to film a short time lapse showing some of the filming process of which Joe and I was sorting out the camera and lighting.

The time lapse

 

Planning: Test Shot Set Up

17.10.16 – Today Joe and I will be filming our initial test shots for our documentary.

Prompt list:

1. Talk to me a little bit about your childhood (prompts, where you grew up, key memories, family)
2. How was your childhood different from childhoods today (technology, safety, influence, freedom)
3. Talk to me about how you think relationships have changed since you were a child (for example- marriage, parents and children)
4. Social constructions of age
5. Stereotypes
6. Two possible ideas how life has changed from when they were a child or their position in society now

Set up

• shot set up 1: 

Here we have our first set up, this mainly focuses on a mid shot with the lighting based around the camera to set up the shot. As well as a side lighting to focus on facial expressions.

• shot set up 2:

Here we have our second set up, this mainly focuses on a extreme long shot with the lighting based all around the person being interviewed, the side lighting to focus on facial expressions. This may be one shot we use in our interview when the interviewee begins to talk about sad or meaningful subjects.

 

• shot set up 3:

Here we have our third set up, this mainly focuses on a close up with the lighting based around the camera to set up the shot. As well as a side lighting to focus on facial expressions. This shot is fairly similar with the first one however we wanted to see the difference with placing the lighting further away.

Test Shot: Experimenting With Lighting

As lighting is a really important factor when it comes to a documentary, we have done some shots in able to show the difference the lighting can make. Although the shots we have got aren’t the best, the importance of lighting is defiantly shown when taking into a counter what looks best.

Due to this not being up to standard, I have put together a few what went wells and what can we improve upon in our final in order to make our documentary a success:

(*KEY- GREEN IS WHAT WENT WELL, RED IS WHAT CAN WE IMPROVE ON*)

What went well

• The variety of lighting we used
• The shot types
• I personally really liked the effect the distance makes when looking at lighting

What can we improve upon

• Composition of shot
• Shakiness
• Grainy
• Level of tripod
• White balence any shots that have white backgrounds