Photography Task
The photography task required me to individually produce a collection of 6 photographs based on different themes, I decided to use nature.
The 6 had to demonstrate we can complete a long exposure shot, reflection, frame within a frame, forced perspective and a shallow depth of field. I took most of my photos in and around the museum gardens as it attracts nature. One thing I took into account when completing the risk assessment is the public as the gardens are normally busy with people. As we were obtaining still shots, we did not require any wires so that made things easier and safer for the public. Also starting the project in the early morning meant the gardens were less busy then it would be at mid-day.
The biggest challenge I faced was trying to capture the long exposure shot. This is mainly because with capturing pictures of nature you have to have good lucky and timing on your side as well as patients. I managed to get my long exposure, I used to the motion of water drops falling while a goose stayed still.
I found the post production quite challenging, I had not used photoshop for a number of years and I had to relearn it again. There is so much you can do to edit the photos it becomes a bit overwhelming trying to settle on one thing, for me this was the hardest of the four artefacts.
The interview and lighting artefact required us to interview a Student Union candidate using 3-point lighting and radio mics. The video had to be 50-60 seconds long with PR captions and we had to use a York St John logo.
For this artefact the candidate was required to sign a contributor release form, this was so they understood how their contributions will be used and also so we complied with the ‘Fair Dealing’ rule 7.1 of Ofcom’s broadcasting code: “avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals or organisations in programmes.
I set up the 3-point lighting which consisted of a key light, fill light and a backlight. I discussed with the rest of the crew whether to use colour gels, we decided to use with grey gel on the fill and key light which the candidate was also happy with. We decided not to use a GOBO.
We had to make sure the candidate was using self-contained answers as they needed to address the audience directly. I did this by asking fixed questions such as “what is your name and what are you standing for?” this allowed her to answer without the audience hearing me ask the question.
I used different interviewing techniques which I learned from the workshop, I made sure the candidate didn’t start the interview cold by getting her to spin on her chair and wave to camera, then started her on the easy questions and made sure no one interrupted.
This artefact required us to create a 60-80 second video suitable for a story post on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
We had to choose a particular theme and decided to do hobbies and interests. Our video was about Phoebe and her being part of the cheerleading society at York St John university. When we discussed the pre-planning for the video, she had recently when a to a competition and had some footage we could use so we wanted to use her voice over the top of it and split the screen horizontally so she is addressing the audience.
As the video needed to be suitable for social media story platforms we were required to use phones or tablets to record the footage. We used a iPad as it was easy to use and everyone had used one before, this allowed us to get footage at a ratio so it could be watched on phones, tablets and laptops on social media.
The 72-hour challenge artefact required us to work as a crew to produce a 4-5-minute short film over a fixed number of days.
We were given the task brief on May 3rdand we had time that day to discuss different ideas and decide what roles everyone wanted. I decided to be the producer because I liked the responsibility of working in all of the aspects of the role, such as the planning and co-ordination, working with the writers, director and the editing.
Before we started filming I made sure everyone was happy with the script and that the plan was in place. Ed was the writer but Phoebe also had some good ideas she wanted to feed into the script so we allowed for that. I completed the equipment booking form and risk assessment for filming at The Grand Hotel, we knew the health and safety requirements and we were at no risk of being interfered with the public.
On the days of filming I worked closely with the director to make sure he was happy with the room, the shots, the lighting and the sound. I did, with help, manage to fund some props to make it more aesthetically pleasing. The studio day was the biggest challenge, despite the pre-production planning and everyone knowing their roles, I noticed that the while the sound said it was coming through on the Tascam, the volume input was on 0 so essentially, we had no audio. At this point we only had 15 minutes to do a complete reshoot, we managed to get what we needed but not all the angles we had planned.
I learned a lot about the importance of pre-production, without the planning and communication our crew would of panicked in the studio. The task also taught me a lot about how integral it is to work as a team, if someone was ill one day or did not do their role well, we simply wouldn’t of completed it as we had a limited crew.