Elementary rules for filming. video art

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Elementary rules for filming

video art

Frame is what you captured between two presses of the "REC" button on the camcorder, from "record start" to "record stop".

To understand the meaning of the concept of a FRAME for a video camera, let's draw an analogy with the literature: FRAME = PHRASE. For example: "The bright midday sun illuminates the towers and spiers of the ancient city." If, after reading this phrase, you close your eyes for a second, then imagine the corresponding picture, right?

Let's take a closer look at it: here are the houses under tiled roofs, the curves of cobbled streets, along which passers-by are leisurely walking ... and in one of the open windows ... Is your middle finger ready to press the zoom button on the video camera and zoom in? Wait, let's figure out why this house has such crooked walls, and in general it seems that the whole city is spread on the slope of a rather steep hill!

Oh yeah, you still don't know the most important rule of filming with a video camera, it sounds like this: "HOLD THE STICK!"

This exclamation is heard on the set when a novice cameraman, exhausted by the need to simultaneously monitor focus, aperture and everything else, forgets to align the position of the video camera relative to the horizon and "fills up" the verticals. True, the horizon itself is usually not visible, unless you are shooting a seascape with seagulls. The position of the video camera should be verified along the vertical lines that are sure to be found in any frame: a lamppost, the corner of a building wall, the masonry of a hanging window curtain, etc.

In your case (view of the city from the hotel window), for example, be guided by some kind of tower-type building (there is an exception to this rule in the Italian city of Pisa) or at least by the same lamppost that sticks out so inopportunely right in the middle of the frame .

Composition

Any frame tells (according to the above analogy with literature) about one or more video camera objects: how they look, how they relate to each other and to other secondary objects in the video camera lens. If all this is "readable" in your frame, then it "looks good", that is, it is correctly composed. Therefore, before pressing "REC", determine the object or objects of shooting on the video camera, otherwise it's not worth shooting.

The subject of shooting on a video camera is the "protagonist" of the frame, it should attract the attention of the viewer in the first place. How to achieve this? - First of all, the viewer must be able to see it properly, so the object must be in the focus of the video camera and well lit.

But what if there is not one object in the frame, but several? - Determine for yourself which of them your eyes (or the lens of the video camera) stopped in the first place, it is this object that you need to shoot as the "protagonist". However, most often it happens that other, secondary, in your opinion, objects also fall into the "field of view" of your video camera. - How to deal with them?

So, we are faced with the task of arranging the subjects in the space of the frame. Strictly speaking, the main subject of shooting should be located - in the center of the frame, since it is the center of the frame that the viewer pays attention to first of all.

How much to shoot

In a month and a half, I filmed six and a half hour and a half tapes on a video camera, that is, about ten hours, or about six hundred minutes. If you subtract the days of arrival and departure, as well as the days of tropical showers (one or two per week), it turns out that on average I shot less than ten minutes of film on a video camera per day. - And this, I repeat, with the richest, exotic nature!

I didn't save tape, honestly, and I'm not such a lazy person. - So what's the deal? Just the rest of the time (from ten minutes a day) I was looking for good points, interesting angles, the right shooting modes on the video camera, waiting for juicy natural lighting, rehearsing each frame several times ... - As a result, I got video essays with a total duration of about one hundred minutes, that is, the ratio "products / raw materials" 1/6, which is very good for a documentary film or video.

Also, I encourage you. - Seeing something interesting, do not "shoot" immediately. "It" (interesting) will not run away (unless it is an animal of Animals and in general any wild creature needs to be shot immediately, adjusting on the go. The main thing in such a shooting is that "it" does not bite you). Remember where "it" is and what is around "it", and then go on calmly. Think about how "it" is best to compose in the frame (how large to take the object itself, what will be next to it, what is in the background, under what lighting "it" will turn out better, etc.). Then come back, walk around the subject, refine your "frame script" and only then shoot. - I guarantee that you will "succeed" in this shot!

How to shoot outdoors

In general, the term "nature" refers to everything that is not a special scenery for filming on a video camera, there is also such a term as "nature with completion" - this is when in a real house the walls are partially broken or repainted in the color that the artist and director likes , and in the forest some of the trees are uprooted and transferred to another place, in accordance with the operator's scenario. But all this applies to cinema, and here we will talk simply about filming with a video camera in nature, in the same forest, using the example of the New Guinean jungle.

Surprisingly, the forest in the frame on the video camera usually looks like an inexpressive motley mass of different shades of green. Mysterious thickets and bushes on the screen literally turn into an incomprehensible brown porridge, and the idyllic edge, from which you can even write a picture, looks like a monotonous palisade of tree trunks with twigs. Why? - The fact is that the video image on the video camera does not convey the volume, and we, having stereoscopic vision, are used to seeing the world in volume. The conclusion suggests itself: when building a full-scale shot, it is necessary to emphasize this volume, to work out all the available depth plans for the frame.

The objects of the first, closest, plan should be a little blurry, but recognizable (the trunk of a tree closest to you, a branch, a bush, stems of tall grass). The background should not be dense and uniform (wall of trees), try to find a point where this wall of trees will not be solid, but with gaps through which distant trees are visible. The background should also not be sharp, use the special "PORTRAIT" mode for this, or manually set the camcorder to a large IRIS value (aperture) and a small HIGH SPEED SHUTTER (shutter speed).

Natural lighting of the scene (the sun) - best of all, if from the side - this way it will illuminate the shooting scene in relief. If the sun is behind you, then in the frame there will be a motley mess of cheerful shades. Fog is very good on outdoor shooting, it amazingly emphasizes the depth of the composition, the volume of the frame, therefore, on the set of a real movie, distant plans are often "blurred" with the help of special smokes.

Yes, what are we filming? - Place meaningful, "working" objects of the natural frame on the "second layer" of the depth of the frame, then they will visibly be "inside", between slightly blurry objects of the foreground and the background (also a little blurry).

One last thing about filming on location with a camcorder: you will most likely be able to do this while on vacation. I must warn you - it may turn out that the video camera will induce you to change the style of your holiday to one degree or another, because it is (I repeat) not a "soap" camera, which is good for what? - First of all, the fact that it works on the principle of "Once - and it's ready!" - You lie on the beach, you notice a beautiful girl and then, almost without changing your position, - click! - "There will be something to remember..."

I hope that everything you read in this book has at least somewhat convinced you that if on the same beach you have a video camera at hand instead of a photo-soap dish, then you will at least have to get up, and then ... in general stand up, walk around this girl, composing the frame, kneel down - and only then (maybe) you will get a real, full-fledged video frame, and not a lazy slob. - Hence the conclusion:

The camcorder is a tool for outdoor activities.

Author: D.Sinetsky; Publication: videokam.narod.ru

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