Introduction to Video Camera

There are many operations and functions that are avaliable to you with a camera. Things you need to check before you start shooting a scene is the timecode, which tells the camera man how much time is already used up in hr, min, sec, frames per second. Something very important to make your scene look realistic is the white balance, this you create by holding a piece of white paper in front of the lens and press the button saying 'white balance' after which you again press down the button next to either A or B. If you look into the camera and see zebra stripes that is a sign that your camera is over exposed; you can fix that by turning the third wheel on the lens ferthest from the object you're filming. The second wheel on the lense is there to focus on the object! You need to zoom in on the subject and then focus with the wheel, after which you can zoom out. Before you focus you should place you rcamera onto the tripod, aafter setting it at whatever height you want it to be at you need to bubble the platform, which is done by leveling the platform closely watchign the yellow bubble on the right, waiting for it to stay int he middle of the circle.

After you have set up your camera, white balance, focus etc, you need to start getting your shot set up. At this point you need to thing about your shot, and camera movement. There is a variety of different shots you can use for example the extreme wide shot, the very wide shot, the wide shot, mid shot, medium close up, close up and extreme close up. With movement you can think either of panning, tilting and tracking, all of these allow you to follow or move along with a person. Try to keep in mind the rule of thirds, and head space, looking space, and movement. The 180 degree rule is a very important rule to keep the audience inside the film, as confusing them, by jumping over the 180 degree rule would ruin the effect you are trying to achieve.
One good thing to keep in the back of your mind is to rehearse the scene before you shoot, as this way you will save battery and film.

There is a lot of terminology used in films, e.g before you shoot the director needs to shout 'stand by' which is then replied by 'standing by' to show that everyone on set is ready. After this the director sais 'trun over' to get the camera man to start the camera- to let the director know the camera is rolling he will say 'turning over' after a short wait, known as the lead in, the director will then shout 'action' at the beginning of the sceen and 'cut' by the end of the sceen after a short lead out.

I really enjoy the use of film camera and once you know how to use it, it's very simple to use. I enjoy using it as you can capture so much more than with a simple still camera.