This week we were supposed to carry on with the things we learnt about camera settings in the last workshop. Moreover, we were introduced to the Picture Style “Prolost Flat” which is often used by Vincent Laforet, Phillip Bloom, Jason Wingrove and many other filmmakers. To film with this certain Picture Style, it was necessary to start with a “Neutral” Picture Style and adjust the sharpness (to 0), the contrast (all the way to the left) and the saturation (two notches to the left). Now we were ready to go out filming!
I have to admit that I did not notice a huge difference to the Standard Picture Style we used the week before. It was raining when we went out filming, so we mostly stayed inside the University buildings and filmed some clips using the “Prolost Flat” Picture Style. Afterwards, we went back to the room and started editing our videos.
In the previous workshop we had focused on importing, selecting and cutting our footage, so this week we could primarily focus on creative editing. We experimented with reversed speed, zoom and different layer effects. I enjoyed having the freedom of just getting to know Premiere, but I would have preferred more guidance from our lecturer. I had only used Premiere CC once before, so a little help and instruction would have been prolific.
When we finished editing, all our short films were shown in class. I didn’t feel too proud of our work when I saw what the other groups had come up with. Their films had a concept, a short narrative and were produced using a tripod. I wasn’t aware that we had to come up with a story, so I felt a little bit ashamed of our random footage. It was obvious that the other students were much more experienced with both the video camera and the editing programme. If I had to do this workshop again, I think I would choose to be in a group with more experienced people – I am sure it would have resulted in an increased knowledge.
All in all, I really enjoyed the two weeks of the Digital Cinematics workshop. I was introduced to the basis technologies and aesthetics of cinematography using a large sensor DSLR. I found it very interesting to learn about video theory as well – from lenses, camera movement and frames rates to sensor sizes and pictures styles. The screenings of other artist’s short films have given me inspiration for my future work. The post-production processes using Premiere were also highly fascinating for me – I had no idea how powerful this editing software was!
Documentation of MEDI512 "Experiment" 