Hardware

What I have used• Canon Powershot SX220 HS • Apple Mac Desktop • Puremedia SD Card 4GB• Torches• iPhones• HP Laptop• Webcam on HP laptop• Inkjet Laser Printer• Sandisk 16GB USB

Canon Powershot SX220 HS 

• Although my college's media department have cameras to hire out, I chose to use my own as I didn't like the idea of having to wait until one became free. Also it makes everyone else hiring them out a lot more relaxed. 

• The camera I Have used is the Canon Powershot SX220 HS 

The Specifics on the cameraProduct Type

Digital Camera – compact

Sensor Reduction

12.1 Megapixels

Optical Sensor Type

CMOS

Total Pixels

12,800,000 Pixels

Effective sensor reduction

12,100,000 pixels

Digital video format

H.264, MOVE, iFrame

Max video resolution

1920 x 1080

I used this camera for my filming, although the sound quality isn't great as can be told from my raw footage. The footage I managed to get was of a high quality. There were issues with the camera as it wasn’t compatible with the college’s tripods, however I managed to conduct my video without the use of one. The issues I had with this camera is the difficulty of the battery life, I had to charge my camera mid way through my filming when it was fully charged before hand. This became problematic and slowed down the process for me and my actors. If I were to this again with this camera I would definitely buy a spare battery pack, and therefore when one battery died I would have another handy in order to simply replace it and continue to film. On the other hand I found it to be a very reliable camera and the fact that I was able to use it whenever I felt like it unlike with the college provided cameras, which I would of had to book out and hand back in when I had finished. It enabled me to be spontaneous with when I was filming.

Due to my training on the Mac’s from last year I was able to be rather efficient on the college suite Mac’s. This training allowed me to be able to understand how to do certain things on the keyboard, even the basics as copying and pasting.ProblemsBecause I do not own and have never been on a desktop Mac or even a MacBook I found the different settings rather confusing. Although I only used the Mac in order to edit my video I found navigating around the Mac system to be rather time consuming. In particular, I found the mouse very frustrating as you have to keep your mouse moving at all times.

Apple Mac Desktop 

Good points My progress with the Mac’s developed and I was then able to navigate around the Mac’s rather smoothly after around a week of using it. This enabled me to take full use of the Mac’s and I was then able to explore more advanced methods of editing on final cut prod because I understood how the actual hardware worked. Therefore this is a vital component in my Advanced Portfolio and my finished products. ProblemsThere were issues to do with the college supply of Mac’s, this meant that my data was unable to be transported onto another, therefore restricting me to only one Mac, this only proved to be a problem when my Mac was in use by other person.

Puremedia SD Card 4GBThis is what my SD card is, this was used to store my video clips before the editing process. I would put this card into my camera and then simply record my footage. Good PointsI found it very easy to use, especially since it was compatible with the Macs. This therefore meant the transition between my SD card and the Mac desktop was very smooth. ProblemsThe SD card was very reliable and managed to go without a problem. The only issue I faced was with the memory amount of storage I could have as 4GB’s of data didn’t last for a lot of the filming, I therefore had to either import the clips onto my laptop mid way through the filming of the night, or I would have an extra one on standby when this became a regular occurrence. What I would do differently If I were to do this differently I would definitely consider getting either a larger SD card or getting multiple SD cards in order to be able to switch them without disrupting the recording and therefore wasting precious filming hours.

Torches

Good points I found using the torch extremely easy, whether it was for the strobe effect or just for lighting the faces I found it very simply to use as there was simply an on and off button which controlled it. It also gave a very good aesthetic when working with the camera, this was because it was the only source of light. I also found that the battery life was very good, although I bought extra batteries (also on my budget and expenses post) I did not need to use them, which made my filming a lot more smoother. Problems Although it was very compact and small therefore easy to move, the issues where when I was filming, I was unable to give a certain light effect due to the fact that I had the camera in my other hand. Therefore it was essential to have another person help me with the lighting as opposed to me doing it all myself. Also, because it is so small in comparison to the other lighting I could of used (around 5 inches long) the torch seemed to go missing whenever I put it down, therefore I had to search for ages in order to recover it (although this could be down to my high levels of disorganisation). It also proved to be a restraint on my filming because of the size of the torch this meant it gave a slight spotlight effect, which was great when I was doing close-up’s however, when I needed a long shot this torch simply wanted enough and created problems for me whereby I had to scrap footage because of this. A significant shot (Smashing the TV) was put into jeopardy due to this lighting and lack of instruction on my part. What would I do differentlyI would certainly need to have a more powerful source which was bigger to enable me to get a different amount of shots at different distances away. Although I would continue to use this, I wouldn’t use it for long shots or medium shots.

When filming my music video I had to find a source of lighting. This was because of the type of

light that I wanted (as previously explained in my planning an

research). I wanted a variety of different effects, so therefore I started to use a very small but

powerful torch. Although I do not know the name of the torch brand

I can say that the quality of the white light is very bright and

exactly what I wanted.

What Would I do Differently? I would ensure I have an emergency battery pack for my phone, (you can

by them on Amazon). This would allow me to continue to use my

phone throughout a 3 hour long shoot.

I would also place less emphasis on them by using a professional light as

opposed to using iPhone torches, although they are good, I simply

didn’t have enough hands to hold them all which became very

frustrating.

On many occasions I used my phone, this was mainly for the light when the torches weren’t very good (long shots and extreme close ups). They tended to provide me with less focused light which balanced out the spotlight effect that the torch gave me. I also used it for the music when I was filming, this enabled me to get the lip syncing very accurate because when I was filming I had the music on for the actors to lip sync to. This gave me very solid footage and made it much easier and professionally looking video at the end.

Advantages It was handheld so the ease of holding it was very good. It also gave off a lot of light. Especially when I used all four iPhones (Mine, Liams, Nazarenas and Mollies) in order to film a shot. This gave me a good block of light and helped with filming to make the footage less grainy.

Problems Because I was constantly playing

music on my phone the battery went very quickly, and as we were outside this became rather annoying. When I

had 4 different phones in my hand I couldn’t hold the camera as well so I

had to make sure I always had another two people behind the scenes holding light up for me.

iPhone 6

You may have noticed that I didn’t use a tripod?

This is because I felt as though the indie genre is best reflected by the amateur nature of the

genre, I decided to film all of it handheld, this enabled me to explain and stay in line with

conventions of my genre as many other videos have shown (Lana Del Rey’s – Video Games/ Born

to Die) I also felt that because I am not doing shots which need to be stationary at all times I

would not need one as I looked at in my storyboard.

Conclusion

As I have already explained the pros and cons and what I would do differently throughout this presentation, I feel as though if I were to do it all again as a whole I would rather have a group of people as opposed to just myself. I feel as though professional lighting is much better than me trying to film without it, and

although my end product is of a good standard and looks professional it would of made the filming of it much more easy and less pressure on myself to direct and film and light the

actors.