(Friday 4th August)

Watching the same content on two different screens; a big screen in a dark room and on our phones individually; are two very different experiences for the audience:

BIG SCREEN OBSERVATIONS

  • immersive experience
  • limited distractions (you’ve dedicated yourself to pay attention i.e. cinema)
  • social experience (reactions are shared)

SMALL (PHONE) SCREEN OBSERVATIONS

  • more accessible to everyone
  • headphones can enhance immersion
  • the image is reduced; details in the film/show can be missed
  • distractions are not limited (text messages etc.)

Overall; we as creators don’t control how our product is viewed, but we can take into consideration the constraints that some mediums come with and what medium our product will most likely be viewed upon.

For example a web series will most likely be viewed on either a laptop or a phone, so it’s important to remember that when creating shots so that the final product appears it’s best that it can on whatever it is viewed on.

We then started discussions about whether we were interested in using DSLR cameras, or the XS (is that what they’re called? I can’t remember) cameras for shooting the web series later on in the semester. There are many considerations into what equipment you use for any production:

  • availability
  • logistics (is it too heavy? can it be taken to the required locations?
  • story demand (a drama may justify a higher image quality, as the cinematography plays a more important role in the mood and tone of the production, whereas a comedy wouldn’t really justify using a specialist camera, with all these fancy settings that won’t be used)
  • Crew ability (what are you comfortable using/ what are you competent using?)
  • Product (where will the product be distributed? a short film, shown in cinemas would definitely call for better quality film equipment, while a web series being published on youtube doesn’t really need that)

Though perhaps we will have to wait for our scripts to make a final decision, it seems we all are in favour of the DSLR.