In college we did our take on the Havoc video. Along with Tim, Neil and Billy four students were in charge of the equipment; Nick Bennett on the lighting, Sam Sheard on the wind machine, Liam Woodridge in charge of the dolly camera and Abi Cannings pushing the dolly camera. After they were decided we got asked to go into groups of four. I went with Olivia Searle, Charlie Baylis and Sam Shaw.
We left at 10.00 and were told to be back at 12.15 we were the first ones to film our group sequence. This was so that everyone could have time to set everything up, therefore in that time we went to pound land to get the party poppers that we needed. There was a lot of waiting around with this but it wasn't too long and we knew that everybody had to do their own group shot.
We used a lot of top of the range equipment, the equipment that we used was a Canon 600D, a dolly cam, studio lighting and a wind machine. I think that this equipment was the main reason for how successful the shoot was because it was done so professionally. We shot our slow motion at 50 frame rates per second which would then be slowed down by 50% so the action unfolds at 25 frame rates per second and the movement would all be in high definition.
When we went in everything was set, the four of us stood back to back with myself and Olivia stood directly back to back with Sam and Charlie doing the exact same. Myself and Olivia were popping the poppers with Sam and Charlie shaking their heads really fast. We had to go through the shot with just the dolly camera to start with to make sure that it looked good. I think the hardest part of our shot was definately the timing because it was hard to tell when you are in shot and therefore when we were supposed to go. The first time we tried it, it was a complete fail because my party poppers didn't actually go anywhere and I had gone to quickly, however then I soon worked out what my timings were and when was the best time to start.
The second time we did it was a complete success with Abi and Liam on the dolly camera, Abi was pushing Liam at a steady pase so that it wasn't too fast that he wouldn't catch the action but fast enough for slow motion footage. Liam went round us on the dolly camera twice the first time we did our movement but the second time we held it as though we in a freeze frame. I think that our idea and timings worked really well and it came out great.
Due to it being on a tight schedule we knew that our planning and organisation was important, therefore we had planned before we went in what we were going to do, our organisation was important as well because if we were late we would have missed our filming slot which would have put everyone behind which we knew couldn't happen. In our small group shot we practised with the equipment beforehand this was to make sure that everything looked perfect for the actual shot.
The group shot; myself, Olivia, Charlie and Sam.
After that shot we were all told to come back at 2pm. We all came back and we were told to stand between the metal plates with one person stood behind us, this was so that everyone was evened out and so that everyone could be seen clearly, there was 38 people and therefore 19 pairs once everyone had stood behind someone. We had about 5 practice runs where we mimed what we were going to do, we had to do this to make sure that everyone fitted into the camera in the time that we had. It was quite difficult to get the timing of this right because there was so many people and we couldn't actually see when we were going to be on camera. Eventually Liam and Tim decided that it would be a good idea to get each pair a number and make sure that we did our action just after they had called the number before us, this helped so much because it meant that each of us had the correct timings which was the most important part.
There was a lot of similar actions although together they looked incredible. After all of us doing our action we had to hold it for another shot just like we had done in our smaller groups. Once this was all done we had to shoot the transition between the first in front and the person behind. The person had to go right and take a step back while the person behind had to go left and take a step forward. The transition was easy but again it was about getting the right timings which was definitely the biggest struggle. Unlike the previous shot this one only took 2 or 3 attempts to get right, I think this was because by now everyone was used to the timings.
Behind the scenes with the equipment.
Finally we had one more shot, this shot was of all of us in the middle; some people were sat, some were kneeled and those at the back were stood up. I was sat right at the front on the floor. This shot only took one take because it was pretty simple to do. Tim counted us in with the small explosions such as bubbles going first and being held for 5 seconds before the big explosion of the party poppers and floor going everywhere.
The whole group shot.
I spent all morning on the Wednesday doing my edit, the edit I did was slightly different to how I would do one usually this is because I wanted to experiment and I felt like this video was the perfect opportunity to do it. In my edit I mirrored some of the footage, I felt as though this gave it a really unique effect. Also because it was in slow motion I had to slow it right down; the group shots I only slowed down by half therefore I put them on 50% while the smaller group shots I slowed right down to 30% which turned out a lot better than I thought. I also decided to add in transitions after each shot, this was so it would look more professional which I think worked well. I was really happy with my edit because even though it was my first time using some of the affects they turned out better than I expected.
Dolly Camera
It is very popular this because its a great way to create a steady movement which is what is needed in a professional environment. A camera dolly is a specialised piece of filmmaking and television production equipment designed to create smooth camera movements (cinematic techniques). The camera is mounted to the dolly and the camera operator and focus puller or camera assistant usually ride on the dolly to operate the camera
The camera dolly may be used as a shooting platform on any surface but is often raised onto a track, to create smooth movement on a horizontal axis known as a dolly shot. Tracking shots use a dolly camera, an example of this is feet that are walking with the dolly being the same speed as the actors walking speed. This is so that the camera to capture a shot of the feet walking in time. A tracking shot can be used for almost anything depending on how the director uses it.
A push in and push out shot uses a dolly camera a lot because in the push in the audience feels as though they are physically moving with the camera while the pull out is used to distance the audience emotionally from a character, which is especially done when a character has done something bad towards the end of the film.
It is also used for only short movement where characters are sitting and talking which can help pick up the pace of the scene and just in general make it more interesting to watch. Finally it the dolly is used on a more expensive film set they use it as a booming up and down shot, this creates another axis of camera movement at the filmmakers disposal.
http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/photo-accessories/4-uses-of-a-camera-dolly-in-movies.html#b - 29th April
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