In a Friday class, (I think it was week 9) – we were put into groups and were given the time to investigate something. I really enjoyed my group – the good thing about the subject so far is that I have really gotten to know most people in my class and am keen to work with the (without feeling shy and a bit scared). Although, I still feel a bit timid – but I just need to get over that.

Michael suggested the ‘Vertigo’ zoom (as he referred to it). The Wednesday class was about short little exercises to do with zoom, focus, focal point etc. So that really helped with out investigation. I was really REALLY happy with who I was working with – we were able to bounce of idea’s and have a really good time. For this investigation we chose the ground level hallway to do this. We fiddled around and we ultimately needed a dolly to create a smooth shot (give us the dolly Paul)  – but we made use of a wheely chair and tape. We originally tried a handheld approach – but there was too much human error. We ended up taping the camera to the chair. Tom said on the ground (because we had a chair…) and Gabby and I pulled the chair back, while Michael watched and directed. Henry was on camera – changing the zoom and focus at the same time we moved. This ended up being a physical gesture – he was basically doing the splits. Aria was at the back watching the monitor from the camera (we didn’t bother with audio). We did this shot multiple times, pushing the chair faster, and changing it up each time till we were happy.

We then moved onto Henry’s fighting scenes – where I was DOP and worked with Henry to try and achieve what he wanted. Gabby and Aria were the performers first up – and Henry choreographed each move (which he is great at). The by watching what they did, I discussed the movement of the camera. He wanted a few ways of how he wanted the scene to be filmed – one was just the ‘standard’ and no movement. The other was movement, zooms etc. The next fighting scene was with Michael and Tom – and they really enjoyed it, improvising where they could. But this is when I was able to hold the camera handheld – it got a little heavy so I swapped with Gabby for a bit. But it was all a lot of fun – because we all got really into it. Henry gave me a lot of leeway – as he was more focused on the movement of the performers (not sure if the safety procedures were put into place…) but not one was hurt and it was good fun. I can’t wait to see what Henry (or anyone else) edits. I didn’t know what I was doing, as I have never really paid attention to fighting scenes – so this was really good for me. I learnt a lot – and realised how much work went in with the communication and even trust.

This was probably one of my favourite classes thus far – it was so fun and something that, normally, you wouldn’t get the time to experiment with. So I really enjoyed this. I just need to have faith in something I want to do… While also making it a productive class for everyone.

This exercise turned out to be very interesting – everyone had their own roll and needed to stick to it, while supporting one another.

I unfortunately missed the first groups filming (traffic) – but I made it for my groups. Because I was late, I opted to be the ‘performer’ – as I thought that was fair. I was working along side Gabby (the other performer). We all set out with a plan as to what type of shots were to be done and the time limit. Our group for time was really well – we actually finished all the shots we planned 20 minutes before the end of class. We then had the time to improvise shots, and as Chris said – “Make Paul froth”. So we tried to get a bit more creative, and do shots that we might think would look cool. We attempted a tracking shot without a dolly (let us use a damn Dolly Paul) – with a chair. Which was really fun, we attempted that a few times, obviously not as smooth as we would have wanted it… We also reshot some shots that we thought could have been done a little bit better, performance and frame wise.

I thought this we a good exercise as it quickly enabled us to work as a team and just do what we needed to do.

Editing – I doubt myself in editing. I really enjoy doing it – but I am very fussy with things that I am editing. So far me it was hard to edit this – just because the shots weren’t exactly what I wanted. That’s more about me being a perfectionist. I also tend to get frustrated because I can’t get it how I want it… I also find that when I am not inspired or passionate about something that I have shot, I can’t edit it. It’s the same with my photography – if I am not inspired with what I have made, I procrastinate editing and don’t really enjoy the process. Although, I can do the other extreme where I love what I have done and can’t change it because I feel I will ruin it – and then I look at it too much and become way to critical. I am highly critical of myself, it’s one of my downfalls.

So editing this was difficult for me – I wasn’t left inspired after filming. Maybe that’s also because I had to edit myself on screen and that’s cringe worthy enough. So I did some weird edit which reminded me of a UK crappy tv show with a weird pace… I could be wrong though.