Amy Styran's film blog!

Showing posts with label macro lens. Show all posts

It's never too early to start planning, is it?

I should use my summer holidays to go out, party till I can't feel my feet and eat everything in sight, but nope, I can't help myself but to think of more film ideas for my first 3rd year film!

These are all brief and need lots of improvement, but these are my thoughts so far...

IDEA 1:
My mums friend, Sam Briggs (American fitness fanatics will know her), is currently taking part in the Reebok Crossfit Games in USA, and is ranked #1 in the WORLD for women's fitness.
If she wins, she will win the title of 'worlds strongest woman' (and just to think a few years ago she was helping my mum put a fence up in my garden!).

At university, we get taught two main things: network, and use your contacts, so I think this would be the perfect opportunity to use my contacts and get a fantastic film out of it. Let's face it, no one else can say 'I know the strongest woman in the world'.

Audience wise, the primary target would be fitness fanatics, and fans of Sam. Bob Harper (trainer on The Biggest Loser USA) took a picture of himself at the Crossfit games whilst he was watching the events, so you never know, if he's a fan of her, he might become a fan of the film!

At the moment, I haven't decided what the short film will include, and what you'll see. Maybe some staged exercise routines, maybe some creative shots of the food she eats to stay in shape. Who knows? But as stated previously, it's just an idea.

IDEA 2:

Chocolate! A bit of a difference from the first idea, I know. But after seeing the recent Tesco advert of the strawberries and summer, I was thinking about other foods that connect us as a nation, and can make you feel happy.

One of my biggest downfalls in my challenge to be healthy is my love of chocolate. I love it. I love chocolate cereals, cake, chocolate drinks, dark chocolate, white chocolate, all of it. And I know there are millions of people like me. As a nation, we love chocolate! (except the odd fellows who are savoury lovers...weird). So why not make a feel-good film about it?

What would it include? On a recent trip to York, I found a little shop called 'York Cocoa House'. It was stunning: such an old and traditional place with a chef in the back making the chocolate by hand. Everything had a vintage feel to it, including the decor. So when I got home, I googled the place. The person that owns the shop is a young woman who started the business herself due to her chocoholic obsession, and decided to spread her love around! The story behind it is lovely, and so is the shop, so I think I'd like to use her story and the location to narrate my film.

I think this film would be a visually driven film, which draws me to making it. I really want to focus on my cinematography skills and play with different lenses, and this idea would give me the opportunity to do so. But would it make an interesting film? I guess a lot of development is needed for me to say so. But as a chocolate lover, I'd say yes!

So they are my most recent film ideas. They're basic and need some work, but a great starting point and both have outside connections, meaning the production value will be high. I don't know which would be more interesting - maybe I could make both!

Some helpful videos for people learning how to use a camera.

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Vimeo is such a magical place: you can find inspiring shorts, how-to videos and a glossary on terms. I've never seen them before, but once pointed in the right direction, I've managed to find dozens of videos that are helping me learn how to use my camera.

Here's the link for the glossary on terms, including some short films about how to do certain things such as timelapse, frame rate VS shutter speed (which helped me immensely) and more.

Okay, now to Philip Bloom. I was shown a video of him and his friend Andrea, where they give you an introduction to DSLR's. After watching this, I went to his other videos. You can learn about lenses, how to shoot at nighttime, how to change your settings, timelapsing, great accessories and more. They're all short and sweet - around 5 minutes long, and give you a recap at the end so you can write stuff down if you're taking notes. Perfect for my short attention span.
Here's some of my favourite ones (pretty much all of them, they're just so helpful!):

Introduction to DSLR Cameras with Philip Bloom from Vimeo Video School on Vimeo.

Nighttime Shooting with a DSLR from Vimeo Video School on Vimeo.

DSLR Lenses from Vimeo Video School on Vimeo.

Shooting Video with a DSLR from Vimeo Video School on Vimeo.

For the other DSLR shooting videos by Philip Bloom, just scroll to the bottom of one of the films and choose from the selection. Otherwise, you can click the 'Vimeo Video School' link above, where it has a huge variety of other people demonstrating how to use DSLR's.

Another one that helped me - although his voice is incredibly boring - is a man that calls himself '--jL'. I've struggled with the difference between shutter speed and frame rate, and how to change them. This man explains what the difference is, and shows visual examples. I learn from seeing examples, not numbers and words on a board - so this is extremely helpful.

Part 6: Shutter Speed & FPS from --jL on Vimeo.

Although it's not a video, I've had another major help on my process to becoming a DOP. Blain Brown is the author of a book called "Cinematography: Theory and Practice". The book is around £23, but has had a massive impact on my learning. It uses visual references from films most people have seen, and explains things easily. It's quite informal - using chatty language rather than a report styled format, but I find that easier to understand. I'd recommend it to anyone! I take the book with me when I'm practising how to set up lights/camera, and refer to it when needed. It has an easy to understand contents page, so if you want to find something specific, you can!

These are just some of the films and books I'm learning from. I recommend all of them for anyone who wants to know about DSLR's, filming, cinematography, lighting and just films in general. Enjoy!

My new toys, and the results!

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So, remember my post about the things I bought? (camera batteries, big camera bag, macro extension tubes and a 50mm lens)

Well, they arrived! And they are amazing, I definitely suggest them to any photographer/cam op.

Macro extension tubes:

Okay, I'll be honest. When I first put this on, it got stuck on the 50mm lens and I thought I'd broke it. Thank god I was just being stupid! There was a little silver button you had to pull down to release the extension....

Once we got the lens on, and played around with it, we got some phenomenal results! I never realised just how close a macro tube could go, especially a £10 one. Here are some of the pictures we took with the macro extension tube + 50mm lens.

50mm lens:

I absolutely love the 50mm lens. It lets more light in, therefore, the quality is just so much better (in comparison to the 18-55mm standard kit lens). We did the exact same shot with both the kit lens and the 50mm lens - you don't have to rely on completely harsh light, because the 50mm lens makes any surrounding light seem brighter and all around nicer. I don't really know what else to say - it's great value, a really useful lens to have and for newbies like me, a fantastic lens to start with!