Camera Workshop 1

 In todays workshop I learnt about how to set up a camera and tripod in preparation for filming our opening sequence. 

We were shown the camera which we will be using, called the Canon XA11 which comes with a battery, lens and memory card. When handling these expensive cameras, it's important to use the 'yours'/'mine' rule which ensures that someone has a firm grip on the camera when handing it around your group. 

 Here is the camera box and battery.

When we were setting up the tripods, it is important to make sure the camera is level and straight once it is slotted into the tripod. The spirit level is a small circle which you level with a dot in the center of the liquid bubble before screwing it in. 

To set up a tripod, you take it out of the bag and open up the legs and pull them out on each leg. Keep the center post vertical and perpendicular to the ground. To ensure the weight of your camera is evenly. Ensuring that your tripod is in a stable position will also help prevent it from toppling over and damaging your camera and lens.

When you start filming, it is important to use the focusing wheel to get the subject in focus and the zoom to get a closer shot of something far away. The best way to ensure your subject is perfectly in focus is to zoom in as close as possible to the subject and focus the image, and then zoom out until you have your perfect shot.

There are shooting modes on the camera screen. Certain settings for the climate/location, whether it's indoors, outdoors, in the sun or cloud to make sure the white balance is correct and that the colours are as realistic as possible. Finally, to adjust exposure of the shot, you turn this blue nob which will change the lightness and darkness of the shot.

Here is images of the camera screen to select the colour balance and exposure wheel.

This was my group shooting indoors using the camera and tripod we had just set up.