Production Skills #3

This week we looked particularly at cameras. I have some pretty hefty notes for this lecture so bare with me. I'm just going to jot them down as I have in my notebook, in note form, not full sentences. Why? Because...

https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ain%26039%3Bt-nobody-got-time-for-that

Canon XL1 

• M= manual (dial on camera). ON. Shoots in 4x3. 
• Exposure= amount of light (iris control). Gain standard = +0db. Makes more sensitive to light. Can degrade quality. Shutter speed= 50i, button behind iris control. 1/50= standard shutter speed. F.__ = iris. The higher, the less light goes in and the shallower the depth of field. F5.6-8 standard. Neutral density filter (NDF)= on or off. Sunglasses for camera.
• Stability function= for handheld camera. Reduces shake but not all of it.
• AF button- focuses in one push
• White balance= next to gain button. Light bulb= indoor. Sun= outdoor. Triangle, square, triangle button= fix white balance. Use white sheet of paper to correct.
• Audio 1, left - mic plug in. 'line' = mixing desks. 'mic' = microphone
• Canons= no phantom power. Use rode mic. 
• Gain= increasing sensitivity. Audio and video gain. Background hiss.
• Zoom. W- wide. T- telephoto. The closer, the more shake. 
• Eye piece= near and far settings. Don't trust in built monitors. 
• Use record button on SIDE.
• Lower the lens, the wider. 25mm= stretches perspective. 50mm = observer. 100mm= tighter crop and foreshortens perspective. 

Panasonic 3CCD

• Gain= low/med/high
• White balance= tungsten and daylight settings. AWB button- use white paper.
• ALWAYS ON MANUAL. Manual iris, next to gain option. Do not want it 'open'. 2.8= safe.
• More control of NDF filters. 
• Zebras= exposure range. 85% for white skin. 70% for black skin. 100% overexposed. Striped lines.
• Shoot in 4x3- aspect conv. option in menu
• Progressive= filmic but tears and ghosting if movement too fast.
• Interlace= fast action and can fix tears but can cause artefacts/blur.
• 50htz refresh rate (double the frame rate)

Phew I think that's it! We then filmed a tech demo of one of the cameras. We got given the Panasonic and we had to talk about setting up the audio and the white balance.