In this week’s class, we did a whole practical exercise on audio.

Microphone Input Panel

There are two channels connected to camera, channel 1, the silver left one and channel 2, the black right one. When connecting them to the camera, hit status, and scroll to audio, adjust the audio level, channel 1 to -10 and channel 2 to -20, and choose audio select manual and audio in external. Choose line instead of mic on camera when connect audio.

Front Panel Controls

Adjust fine control button to PK, and you can adjust the course button to make the audio level between -10db to -6db and hit 0db but not over 0db. Switch it to center when recording. When you connect boom to the mixer, you need to twist the button to ST. Switch it to RTN when connecting it to camera. Switch it from mic to 1k can do the test tone, and you can adjust it on camera about audio level. There is a BATT button that can check the battery. We usually use it till it goes flash. When plug the head phone in, the side with line go with the left ear.

Then we had a go through about audio settings, when you have some camera movements, a good way to do it better is look for the spot and move camera around before the real shooting to get a good sense of it and to make yourself feel comfortable and confident about it. When hold a boom, to avoid recording the noise outside, you lean the boom a bit to avoid recording more noise.

In week3, we went out to shoot still frame videos about a place. After shooting we need to write down all the parameter of each 30 seconds’ shooting. For our group, we chose to get some footages of Old Melbourne Gaol or something near it. Finally we get four footages, the shot of the gate, the wall with door and window of the gaol and the open window that is blocked by a tree and with a view of far distance building. We felt that a place can be so different and beautiful than we thought when it’s on a frame. I think recording a place without any sound, and putting some music or monologue is one way to make a documentary film, at least I think so by now.

The aim to write down all parameter is to get an awareness about lighting (I think). Gain, white balance, colour temperature, f stop and ND filter, all these parameters are about lighting and colour. Paul said that he prefers to call white balance colour balance. There are several kinds of colour temperature, 1600k-candles (very yellow), 3200k-film lights, 4000k-fluro, 5200k-sunny, 5600k-cloudy, 6000k… Gain is usually on ‘low’, and white balance is usually on ‘A’. When there is not much sunshine, ND filter is not that much needed. ND filter is like a sunglass to the camera. When we do this we paid attention to lighting, choose the spot where there is a good light, and do the white balance there. And we did lots of thinkings on framing, we are trying to get interesting composition, for example, the one with shooting through a window. Also we actually removed something from the frame to make it look better. When I did the shot of jail wall, I used my phone to frame up and found that it looks better for me to shoot it at a flat level.

When we doing the shots, we worked like a team, a director, a director of photography and a camera assistant. Director is the one who comes up with ideas, DOP is the one who operate the camera as the way director wanted, camera assistant is the one who helps DOP.

In this week we document a place for 50 seconds. Before the shooting, we went through exposure, focus, and how to set up cameras on tripods and some safety rules. Based on what I learned last semester I am pretty familiar with these settings and rules. Here are some new things that l learned, when setting up a tripod, it is better and more convenient to use the first joint. When setting up the tripod, it is more like a one-person’s job, when there are two people there they might pay attention to different areas, and hands might get chopped badly. We kept shooting, we went to the basketball court and documented some events over there, like people sitting and chatting, people playing basketball,etc. Different from drama, the shooting of documentary is more like recording what is there without any rehearsal or staging. We are just recording this place, what are people doing here. So when we shooting, we are trying to find more interesting angles to show the place more to viewers. For example, one of us was shooting people sitting and chatting neat the basketball court, when she shoot this, she want to put the tall building with scrawl on it in the composition. We went out to record six different sounds to show what kind of environment you are in. We record the sound of coffee machine making coffee, the sound in an elevator, the sound of beeping at student hub, the sound of people walking and so on. All of those sound are like the symbol of different places, different environment.

When we look at the work we’ve done, we found that frame is the thing we can improve a lot. It seems like there is a basic rule for framing, tight it up or make it wide, and it depends on the objects that you focus on somehow. One thing about audio, the lead actor or the interviewee is always on channel 1. And when you do an interview, always record the interviewee’s answer first because this is unknown. The interviewer’s questions can be recorded anytime after the interview because it’s prepared and changeable.To find the nice frame for shots, we can check the location in advance and use our phone to make the frame. A mobile phone is a very convenient and good tool to do that. We can easily carry it from any angle we want.