Test Shoots

Throughout this unit, we were given the opportunity to engage in a multitude of test shoot opportunities, all of which proved to be advantageous in developing my own knowledge of news, but also of equipment I'd previously used, as well as gaining familiarity with new equipment. As well as the prescribed Workshops offered by the University, I also engaged in some extra-curricular work, identifying areas that I knew I wanted to learn more about.

Gillingham F.C. shoot

At Gillingham, we were tasked with trying to develop a story, told in a way that fit the generic news formula. This was the first time that I'd used the new Blackmagic cameras, and it was a marked improvement when compared to the Sony XD's in year one. The adjustments that could be made to the camera, i.e. ISO, iris, white balance etc. were all neatly and easily accessed on the touchscreen format, making for a more user-friendly experience that didn't mean twisting and turning the camera around to find the button that you wanted! The monitor itself was also of a higher quality and larger size than those that we used last year, which was another welcome addition. I'm tripod-phobic, (Sorry Kat) but I did make an active effort to use the tripod in the outside areas of the stadium, practising pans and tilts that could be used in edits. I also tried to familiarise myself with the tripod more during this location shoot, as I felt as though I should be able to fluently manage to put up, and take down a tripod with relative ease, instead of fumbling and trying to figure out what's gone wrong.

A7 night test shoots

For the 'Sleep out' news piece, we were conscious that we were going to be outside and due to the time of day, might be presented with particularly dark conditions. Being unable to set up lights meant that we needed a workaround should we end up filming in low-light conditions. It was because of identifying this problem, that we began to get some practice using the Sony A7. We set up in the green-screen room at the Studio and filmed comparison videos between the light when turned on, and then off; it was immediately clear that the low-light capabilities of the camera were astonishing! Upon replaying the footage, it was genuinely difficult to tell the difference between shooting in complete darkness and with the light on, and even at an incredibly high ISO, (I can't recall exact figures) there was no marginal drop in the quality or issues of noise on the footage. Unfortunately, we didn't remove the footage for these test shoots from the camera, so I'm unable to offer them here. I have however attached an example below of footage from the same type of camera.

The Sony A7 was used on one of our shoots as a secondary camera and offered some high-quality footage. We were lucky that we had light for a good amount of time after arrival, so shooting in low-light conditions was not an issue we had to face, but I'm nevertheless glad that we did some preparations for this to ensure that we would have got good footage had the conditions not been so favourable. 

Working on these test shoots allowed me to develop my knowledge greatly, working with equipment such as our Directors stabiliser and camera, as well as new options offered by the University meant that I experienced a breadth of different options, all of which I recognised to have different strengths and weaknesses and therefore different practical applications. It was exciting for me to see quite how significant the change in equipment can alter the final product, and this was more apparent to me than before. I had a similar experience in documentary when moving from the Sony XDCAM to a smaller compact DSLR, similarly in this unit, working with the Directors Blackmagic made for the most noticeable development in my technical work thus far and I'm excited to continue familiarising myself with the cameras that I've worked with, as well as branching out and continuing to develop my knowledge of what options are out there available to me that I'm currently unaware of.