VFX Camera workshop

On Wednesday 2nd October we had a workshop led by Malcolm Finnie, explaining how to use HD camera's for VFX filming. Here are a few notes I wrote down during the workshop:

Setting up camera (Sony EX1 - Full HD):

• Auto + manual focus (switch to manual focus so orange ring is showing)
• Zoom manual to zoom by dial
• Manual Focus
• Iris same as aperture (manual)
• Aperture measured in F stocks (makes lighter/darker)
• Smaller aperture - greater depth of field
• Gain same as ISO on SLRs (controls noise + gain) - (low)
• White balance

- All reset before beginning
- Monitor volume, turn back up
- Format media - deleting stuff off memory cards
- Video format - HQ 1920/25P
  (P for Progressive, I for Interlaced - for VFX use P)

When filming:

• Peaking - an aid for focusing - coloured line around focused object
• Exposure (what effects it): ISO/Gain, Iris/Aperture, Shutter
• White balance by zooming into a neutral colour

Camera footage to computer:

• Adobe Prelude CC to ingest
• If the footage is not ingested first and you started editing the footage straight from Premiere and gave the camera back, when you go back to Premiere - none of the footage will be there anymore
• 3D camera tracking in After Effects

Animation Script Writing 1

On Tuesday 1st October we had an all-day class with script writer Mark Grindle. Some of the talk was familiar as he visited our class when I was in Undergraduate Animation. Here are some of the notes I wrote down during the day:

storytelling - how we make sense of the environment/people around us.

things to think about when script writing -
story
active questions
tone
theme

Character - 
How to get the audience to understand what the character is thinking?
The character has to need/want something - even if he/she doesn't know.
1 story per character - whose story are you concentrating on, for example, in a film?
All character's stories link to a central theme.
Less is more.
What is the character's desire?

Tradegy - don't get what they want
Comedy - do get what they want

'Poetics' book by Aristotle recommended.

Themes (message/moral) - 
Here is a diagram explaining different themes:

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Task for next Script Writing workshop on 30th October:
Come back with something incorporating elements of today, a short story, told in 30 seconds or about 50 words long, to tell to the rest of the group. It should take around 30 seconds to tell and would make the audience/someone think/do/feel differently (justify with one or more of the elements above).