We started this tutorial by looking at my group’s edit from the scene we shot last week. I was satisfied with it and Robin was too.
I agree with Robin’s feedback that the close up towards the end of the scene seemed a bit strange. I tend to think in extremes – in this context, that means either fully close up or fully wide. The one shot that was a medium wide shot – not fully wide or close up – was a good step forward for me, and something I’d like to keep working on.
Another group who had more of a conversation in their prompt did a great job at setting up the shot and reverse shot, like that same group had done in a previous exercise. I think the dialogue-related experience they got from this exercise would have been quite different to the one that my group got. I would like to eventually learn how to effectively film a shot and reverse shot, and to know how and when to break out of that pattern.
The last group got the same prompt as my group. Their interpretation was quite different, and a lot more straight on – either facing the front of both characters or the back of both characters. With my very mathematical and non-creative brain, I feel like this a the kind of coverage “trap” I tend to fall into. The straight-on angles can work well, but it’s not something you see every day, and it’s not something I’d want to overuse. I’m happy I got to try out a few angles in my group’s interpretation, and I’d still like to learn more about choosing the angles at which to shoot a scene!
We went on to learn how to use zebra lines on the camera which I was very glad to finally learn about. Just by looking through the viewfinder, I never have any idea what exposure is appropriate for the edit – the surrounding light so often affects what you see on the small screen. It’s like how I have to turn up my phone’s brightness to see it when I’m in bright sunlight! I’m very glad to now know how to use the zebras as a mathematical guide.
I had been told by people in the past that zebras highlight anything from a certain level of brightness and higher, which I found lately to be not the case. I think having the zebras at only a specific luminance (such as 70) is much more useful, and can allow me to be more precise in picking my exposure. I was also glad to learn how to turn off the double zebras which been seriously confusing me in earlier tutorials.
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