Over the first initial weeks of Ways of Making we have been doing experimental exercise with equipment in both a creative and technical aspect. The first exercise we did was with both camera and tripod, filming a simple action. I was quite unfamiliar working with these more technical and elaborate cameras, however I didn’t find it too hard to wrap my head around it once it was explained. I have never learned how to properly use a camera in terms of white balance, exposure and the rest of ‘ATPOWFFFER’, so it was very helpful to learn that initially as so I would be able to capture technically good footage and be able to think more about the creativity of the shot.

For the first exercises my group decided to film the simple action of a boy running down the stairs in a suspicious manner. I really liked how the lighting on the stairs gave such an ominous vibe as the stairs lead into darks and the unknown. The other exercise we did was too film a particular area for about 1 minute with no interference on our part for the ‘action’ component. Our main technique in finding a good shot was to find a nice location that look aesthetically nice, as we found an alley way that lined up with three poles, making it a kind of symmetrical shot. I am quite a fan of symmetrical shots predominantly used in Wes Anderson’s films, as it gives a really clean look to the shot. We were quite lucky in the fact that as soon as we started filming, people starting walking in and around the alley in all sorts of directions, making it look like a very lively shot.

The next exercise we did in class in different groups was again using the cameras to film outside. Myself and Helena managed to stumble across the uni club sign up hustle and bustle and was able to film quite a few interesting shots. In this class I know I tried to focus on camera panning as well as maintaining correct exposure as well as white balance. I found it actually quite interesting to sometimes purposely throw of the white balance so that the shots had an overall coloured hue, as I was able to film a really nice shot of a tree that had a blue hue cast over it from a thrown off white balance.

Another exercise we did was using the microphone to capture sound. Audio is something I would say I’m least familiar with, so would definitely like to work on that. We were able capture a lot of quite good sounds actually, but I think I definitely need more practice with the microphones to nail proper audio.

Our most recent exercise we were able to capture an action in three shots. My group mainly experimented with shot composition as well as panning/tracking techniques. I was very happy with our first three shots as they looked really amazing in the environment we were in with the lightning, shapes and colours. The second three shots were a bit average as we only filmed them in a classroom and were quite rushed (low camera battery).

I’ve been really enjoying the class exercise and am excited to be using the editing suites shortly to experiment with our footage and sounds.