Monday October 26th module

Intermediate EFP
Hands-on part of module:
Dana showed me some great shooting tips to help me prepare for shooting at a convention in 3 weeks. It's less cumbersome to take the boom mic off the pole and kneel down under the shot, directing it toward the subject. It's also easier in this position to direction the boom mic with your wrist in the position of the person talking.
The camera is best off a tripod. I will need to practice this.
I learned how to shoot multiple people by keeping a wide shot and walking in towards the subject for a closer shot and moving out when another person joins into the conversation to a 2-shot. With three people interacting, it's best to keep the shot pulled out on all three.
Dana also taught me the duck walk he used at City TV to follow alongside a moving subject and moving forward and back with a subject. (Dana cautioned that it's best to have someone guide you by the shoulder when walking backwards)
More tips:
-Zebra stripes should be set at 80 for Caucasian skin.
-if you have to use a boom mic on top, do so. The camera mic is too directional and will pick up too much noise
-use a light on top of the camera for fill, rather than key
-close your eyes and listen to ambient noise in the room like fans or other noise makers that will wreck your audio track
-look for backgrounds with a “z” access for visual stimulation
-shoot plenty of B-roll and listen to your subject for good B roll clues.
-practice following people shots for B-roll
-Do establishing shots at the convention location...wide shot, find focal point and pull out, could do tilts, etc. Look for interesting shots like architecture lines and flowers to amp up the aesthetic factor.

Paperwork:
Dana went over the paperwork for doc work with me. A plot synopsis is not needed, but a treatment is important for figuring out what technical elements are planned and given consideration, such as camera shots, music, and lighting. If there are more than two people working on a production during the course of a day, a call sheet is necessary just to keep track of the schedule and the people involved. Dana says there's no excuse not to include a map as well. Google Maps is easy to use. A breakdown sheet is used more for dramas than docs so I don't need to do them. Release forms are important for people talking on camera. Background people are to be treated much the way the news treats them. No special release form is needed. Audio plans are helpful for finding extraneous and disruptive source of noise such as fans and buzzing lights. An audio plan is not necessary at a convention as I won't know in advance where I will be shooting, but I will make a point of checking the audio location before I roll tape. No blocked master scene script is needed for docs. EFP storyboards are not necessary, but it is important to do a shot list in case there is some storytelling opportunity through visuals in B-roll. There will not be a set-up and lighting plan for shooting at a convention, again, this is because it isn't know in advance where the shooting will take place. I will scout the location for outdoor light streaming in and move locations if the light affects the colour temperature of my shot too much. I will also attempt to use a camera light for a fill light instead of a key light. Shoot sheets will be used to organize footage by subject and content, but I will not be individualizing each shot. I may do an EDL but most likely I will use the shoot sheet as I will be editing my own material.

After Effects
I joined the After Effects group after working with Dana. We used the vanishing point tool in Adobe Photoshop to create 5 .png walls that a camera and lights could be mounted and moved around within. I kept having difficulty with the Create Plane tool and found that when you cross the points over and over on themselves, the create plane blue line tool will finally disappear! So much for CTRL Z!
We found that the Edit Plane tool needs to be very close to the wall lines to work well in defining the 3D walls.
To create a second panel angle, we held down Command and watched for the white arrow with a tiny grid to pop up before pulling the point out with a cursor. To zoom in and out of the Photoshop project, we pressed Command and plus and to zoom out, we pressed Command and minus.
Next, we exported from vanishing Point Filter as a .vpe file. “Export for After Effects” under the drop down menu in the top left corner. We opened After Effects and went to File, then Import, then Vanishing Point VPE. We were able to add a layer and add lights (the camera automatically loaded as we used the vanishing point feature.