Today’s Plan:
- Review Worklist #3
- Introduce Worklist #4
- For Friday: Read Schroeppel, Chapter 6 “Montages”
Review Work List #3
Base Criteria:
- These videos should be 30-45 seconds long
- Shots should be 5 seconds or less
- Try to include title text for the video
- The videos should include a music track (and I will cover this briefly on Monday)
Composition Elements:
- Is there camera jiggle?
- Are shots framed using the rule of thirds?
- Is there space in front of faces?
- Is there enough head room?
- Lighting: Are there (non-intentional) deep shadows on the subject?
Formal Elements:
- Contrast (brightness?)
- Angled / provide depth?
- Lines lead into subject?
- Alignment
- Contain backgrounds free from distractions?
Required Shots:
- Opening or Establishing (We will talk about establishing shots on Friday)
- Wide
- Medium
- Close Up
- One Reversal
Work List #4: A Simple Interview
The 4th Work List assignment asks you to shoot a simple interview. This is a two-person project (two-camera) project. Camera number one will collect A-Roll and Camera number two will collect B-roll–before, during, and after the shoot. While the origins of the term “B-Roll.” are complicated and technical, its contemporary usage is pretty simple: it is complimentary video footage laid over the sound of main footage (A-Roll) to provide context. Or, more simply, it is cutaways. So, before and after the interview, you should let the camera run while setting up or talking afterwards. We will talk more about montages on Friday after you’ve read the Schroeppel.
The second camera will be set up at two different angles to provide an alternate shot of the subject. This will allow us to jump to a different angle of the subject speaking. To pull this off seemlessly, you will obviously need two cameras with tripods set up at different angles. We will then manually sync the b-roll with the a-roll in Rush. This will be tedious, and will make you appreciate Adobe Premiere more when we start working with it next week. To help with the sync process, you are going to want to start the video with a loud CLAP once both cameras are running. Make sure to CLAP again when you move camera #2–those claps will give us easy-to-identify cues in Rush to sync up.
- First, a short video on different interview camera positions. For our A-Roll, we are using the “just off” set-up.
- Second, . Remember you need to capture two different angles for jump cuts
- Third, this video focuses on single camera techniques, but emphasizes a bunch of different angles.
We’ll talk more about potential ways of collecting B-Roll on Friday as we discuss montages.
Homework
Read Schroeppel’s short chapter on Montages.
