Scenarios and Setups

Summer Task: Part B

A. A small documentary where portability is paramount; 

Equipment -

1. Middle ranged SLR + Lense (18-55mm) 
2. Tripod
3. (Microphone)
4. Subject Matter
5. Spare Battery 
6. Slider
7. Barn door portable light
8. GoPro
9. Reflector

The setup for this documentary would be to follow a chosen student throughout their day to capture how much time they must spend doing work, revising and/or just messing with their friends. The day would start "early" morning where natural lighting will be used to capture the morning in all its glory. The only time a barn light may need to be used is towards the evening if the student is still with their friends or studying at home indoors.

Advantages of this set up would be that very little equipment is needed and natural lighting would be a great as my theme is very much the 'real life' of an athlete. Disadvantages would be that the film might look a little armature as I would not be able to carry around a lot of equipment as I follow a person through their day. 

B. 'Talking Head' style interview 

The setup for this should be be fairly straight forward with the camera set up eye level to the subject who would be sat in front of a blank background with a two lights pointed towards them. Advantages of this setup is the clarity and stability, there is nothing complex going on and so less room for error meaning filming should go smoothly.

Equipment - 

1. SLR camera + lense (18-55mm)
2. Tripod kit 
3. Plain backdrop 
4. 3 point lighting soft box
5. Spare battery 
6. Mircophone

Setup - 

1. Eye level camera 
2. 3 point lighting 
3. Subject in front of plain backdrop 
4. Subject central to camera and backdrop 

Pros;

• Clear speech/video
• Focused only on one 
• Operated by one person (plain backdrop ensures that the focus point will not change) 
• Eye level - more interactive 

C. Night time Shoot

Equipment - 

1. DSLR
2. Spare battery and memory card
3. Tripod
4. 18-55mm lens
5. Portable barn light 
6. Microphone

A disadvantage to shooting in the dark is the risk of grainy footage which may not be fixable in editing, this is why you need to ensure that the set up is done correctly. The video above highlights tips that can be used to enhance the clarity of your image even in very dark settings.