Film shoot 3 : how did it go?

In my third film shoot I filmed the master shot and some panning shots at the main location. One of the shots is a long shot of the buildings, that when edited, will zoom in slightly. The other shots are long shots of the side of the buildings and a panning shot from the side of the building around the corner to the main row of buildings/rooms. These are the shots to set the theme, nature and location of my trailer/film.

What went well

- Filming equipment :
To film the main long shot of the row of rooms/buildings I used a large adjustable tripod. This was very useful as I was able to adjust the height at which I filmed, and to what angle I needed the shots. I filmed some shots at differant heights to see what worked best, and I found that the shots at eye level worked well. 

I also used a Steadicam to film some shots ( a camera stabilizing mount for motion picture cameras that mechanically isolates it from the operator's movement - Wikipedia). I used this equipment by attaching the tripod head/holder for my iPhone 4s, then setting the weights of the steadicam in a position that balanced the camera on the top (as shown in the picture below). This worked very well as it meant that the panning shots were smoother than if I filmed them by holding the camera, therefore making the shots look more visually appealing and professional. 

- Lighting / weather :
I filmed at 3.30pm because it begins to get dark at around 4.00pm. This worked well because it was still light when I filmed, meaning that when it comes to editing, it will easier to turn down the brightness of the shots rather than having darker filmed shots and then adding brightness to them. The weather was also overcast, meaning that the daylight was not too bright. Shadows and contrasts were therefore created, which adds to the spooky/unpleasant nature of the trailer/film/genre.

Because the weather / lighting was good, this mean that the quality of the shots were good. Editing therefore will be easier.



This is a Steadicam similar to the one I used. The camera screws on the top and the weights are adjusted on the pendulum like arm on the bottom to balance it. 










What didn't go so well

On the day that I filmed, it was quite windy, which made it difficult to film some of the shots using the Steadicam as it knocked it off balance. I therefore had to wait a bit so that the wind was not as strong. Whilst waiting for the wind to slow down I filmed the other shots as these shots required filming on the tripod, which was unaffected by the wind as it is standing from the ground and I could hold the frame so that it didn't fall over. Apart from this, everything went good.