Learning different aspects of Videography

This week we learnt about the essential rules for videography.

1. Objective/theme- this is the simple idea of what is going to be shot in the video.
2. Set up a scene- this includes setting up the entire scene, the background etc.
3. Establishing characters and camera angles for the scene- what camera angles would be used and how the characters would be portrayed.
4. Elaborating the activity- this would be focusing directly on the subject after the scene establishment.                                                                                                                                                  

Apart from these four points, other prerequisite for shooting include Camera movements, camera angles, shots and composition. 

Camera movements are of two types; Stationary and Travelling.

Stationary moves are when the camera is fixed on a tripod. These also include Pan, Tilt, Zoom and Boom e.t.c. Travelling include movements like for e.g. on a horizontal pathway like dolly, craning, tracking e.t.c. 

Camera angles I think play a very significant role in establishing a characters perceived view. For instance if I would want to show my character as a very dominant one, I would rather prefer shooting his view from a lower angle so that they are contemplated as a having a very superior, prevailing personality.

Some of such camera angles we were taught about were the Bird's eye view, High angle, Normal angle, Lower angle and The worm's eye view.

These camera angles are complimented by different camera shots like Long shot, Extreme long shot, Medium shot, Medium long shot/ Full shot and Extreme Close up.

Since the camera was available, my partner and I decided to experiment with these angles and shots by taking each others pictures.

Different angles that we experimented:

Bird's eye view

Worm's Eye View

Human's eye View

High Angle

Low Angle

Macro shot

Composition is one of the most important aspect to be kept in mind while shooting. Rule of thirds, Head room and Lead room are the rules of composition that we learnt about today. 

Rule of thirds stresses that we keep our object/subject off centre by dividing our frame into nine boxes- this would make it easier for us to decide where we want to place our subject.

Head room is the space that is left between the top of our frame and top of the subject's head. But this does not mean that the space left looks abnormal, like for instance if I am shooting a man standing in a room, I would not leave so much space that from the top of the room, the fan is visible but the man is only shown till his waist. Rather, we would shoot it in a way that the man is visible as much as the frame allows us after leaving only enough space above his head. 

Lead room is leaving space in the frame in the same direction where the subject is looking.

I did not know until today that the space that is left out is called negative space.

Picture is following all three rules

Rule of videography that we learnt about today were180Degree rule in which camera is                                               placed exactly at 180degree axis between two people (axis of motion: invisible line created when the object is moving). Over the shoulder, Reverse angle shot and Jump cut.