Catch up camera workshop and part two of the same workshop down, and wow was that a thorough workshop, it was cool to have my hands on the EX3, it’s very similar to the FS7 in many regards, Sony definitely like to maintain their continuity across their products. One thing I took away from this that I had genuinely no idea was that Zebra patterns can be set to percentages and that 70% is generally acceptable caucasian skin exposure. Who knew! Also love the easy way to check with colour bars (of course this is only helpful with cameras that have a colour bars function, and zebra for that matter) definitely cool.
The Miller tripods are fantastic and super easy to handle, I’ve worked with a couple of broken ones in the past and have found them a little frustrating. I am surprised at how much of a step up the kit is from the cameras we were using in Media One however I am still undecided as to whether I should choose to shoot with one of the EX3s or borrow the FS7 from work for my final genre sketch.
We also got to take a look at the Sennheiser shotgun microphones and boompoles that can also be borrowed from the illustrious tech humans and received some really great training on how to properly operate a boom. What I took away from this is that when it comes to boom operating, there are really not that many rules other than:
- Don’t use it side on, point it down
- Move it when someone talks
- Try actually be comfortable at the beginning of the take, don’t try moving half way through.