So I'm planning on doing a big post at the end of the month discussing what I've done in Uni this month. (Mainly cos I'm too easily distracted to do it weekly, but that's beside the point) I just wanted to make a quick post with a piece of advice: Plan ahead, plan on time and plan for everything. For one of my modules we've been making a short documentary based project each week, but for this week our director (I shouldn't blame him completely BUT it is his job) didn't have any sort of plan or idea ready. And our new producer is terrible so the idea we came up with on Wednesday fell through. So we've had to chuck something together last minute and hope it turns out for the best. Will let you all know how that goes when it happens.
So I'm complaining about the musical thing again okay?
I finally got it totally finished and exported it today. It took 6 and a half hours roughly.
So I watched it back to check everything was okay, and guess what!! It wasn't!!
For some reason the very last scene had a load of frames dropped from it so it looks totally ridiculous and extremely unprofessional. I have no idea what happened cos every time I watched it in the editor it was fine.
Plus, my other editor won't open the exported file for some stupid reason, so I can't just chop off the end and replace it in there. OH NO! I'm going to have to re-export the entire bloody thing!!! >.<
But that's a job for tomorrow cos I have stuff I wanted to do today.
Never Work With Humans Or Animals (Animals may actually be okay)
So I was asked to film a musical for an old theatre company I was involved with. That was on the 17th of September. I finished the editing last week before I came back to Uni and asked the person that arranged everything with me for a list of the Cast and Crew so I can slap some credits on the end, export it and start burning DVD's.
Three times that person has told me "I'm so sorry I'll get it to you tomorrow!" and three times they haven't. I've now asked another member of the company of the same thing, and they actually sent me a list of the Cast.... But with the names of the actors from the original version of the musical...
So, still no cast list... That second person is hopefully gonna get me what I want soon, but for now the footage is sitting there, fully edited, taking up space on my hard drive... *Sigh*...
So I just experienced a minor miracle/hallelujah moment. For a while now my camera has had a dead pixel (or rather a 'stuck' pixel since it showed up as white not black) and yesterday I was asked to film a show for an old theatre company I was involved with.
During today's edit, of said show, that stuck pixel has been driving me crazy!! Usually it's never been a problem because I've usually shot outdoors where it's obscured enough to not be noticeable. But this time it was squarely planted in the middle of an audience member's back.
So after all this frustration I took to that old friend of everyone's, Google, to see how much it would cost for a repair.... Which I wasn't looking forward to after just shelling out a lot of money for a new computer... (more on that another time)
The first thing I found though was this page, explaining how Canon have a self-repair function for this sort of thing! So I followed the steps and guess what? IT WORKED!! Bye-bye stuck pixel!! (Touch wood)
So if you have the same sort of problem follow that link and you'll be able to breathe easy once again.
So I bought myself a little present the other day. One of the main problems that a filmmaker faces is focusing issues, and especially when shooting DSLR with photography lenses it can be pretty impossible to pull focus accurately without a follow focus of some kind. But with these systems costing maybe hundreds of pounds it can be a bit annoying for someone just starting out who hasn’t got much money to spare.
Then by accident I spotted a possible solution. I was looking through one of my granddad’s copies of EOS Magazine (which he has a lot of, all unopened) and found their shop (www.eos-magazine-shop.com) where they had a small section for “Movies” which obviously piqued my interest. They didn’t have much to offer since other than their range of Cine Lenses and their movie cameras, Canon don’t offer any filming accessories. So I didn’t have many expectations while browsing, they had some standard LED Video lights which I don’t really need and an on camera mic which cost more than my current RØDE one for less quality (although they did have a couple of loupe’s and external monitors I may look into) so I wasn’t too impressed.
They come in different sizes between 50mm and 85mm so should cover most lenses. Quick note if anyone decides they want one, the sizes they offer are not relative to the filter size usually found on the front of your lens. You’ll have to measure the diameter of your focusing (or zoom) ring with a calliper, either that or with a tape measure, some maths and a bit of Pi (not the yummy kind unfortunately).
So now, after all that build up comes the actual product. It comes in a plastic pack, with a ring, a short lever, a long lever and a bit of paper with a product description on it.
There’s no instructions, but to be honest it is pretty straight forward. You place the ring around the area of your lens you want to use it on, and squeeze the jaws into each other until the teeth lock in place and it stays nice and snug on your lens. If you’re going to be using your camera with any sort of stabilisation (tripods, rigs etc.) you’ll want to make sure that the range of movement of the ring doesn’t get restricted.
You then choose which lever you want to use, personally I decided to test out the long lever first as it seemed the most practical to use.
There are two places you can fit the lever, there’s one hole where you can fit it facing forward or back and to be honest I see no point or use for that, it’s more in the way than anything. Or you can have it pointing directly out, which is kind of the point. It’s a little tricky to fit as the rubbery material doesn’t offer much grip and the hole is quite small and tight, but once it’s in place it’s nice and solid.
I tried just pulling focus on some random objects in my room and switching between different focus points and it was sooooooooo much easier than using the lens directly. As you have the lever to hold you are able to fine tune the focus a lot quicker and easier. Also the idea of “up is far and down is near” is a lot simpler to remember than trying to think which way that lense's ring needs to be turned. I found that when I was just using my camera quickly to try it out handheld, that I could control the lever with my pinky and still have the rest of my hand supporting the lens and controlling the zoom. If I had my camera on a set of sticks it would be just as easy to use my index finger to do the same thing so really how you use this thing is totally up to you and the size of your hands. (Also it’s quite fun to turn on the autofocus and watch the lever wave around as the lens adjusts)
Probably if you stuck some tape to the ring and found a mark on your lens body you could probably mark out focus points, but I think it’s easier to just remember which direction the lever is pointing as the ring is a little bit narrow.
Ones other thing is that you could fit the ring to your zoom and use it like that. But I think that’s a bit pointless unless you’re doing a lot of complicated zooms in one shot.
After I tested out the long lever I the thought it’d obviously be best to test the little one too. I doubt I’ll use it again the though, it was more trouble than anything. It was even my more awkward to fit than the previous one and the small size just didn’t seem worth the hassle. I think the only time I’d ever use this is if something like a matt box was in the way, but then again I’d probably have some sort of follow focus set up by then.
The worst thing was that when I went to remove the small lever, after realising I wouldn’t need it, was the fact that the instead of unscrewing from the ring as designed, the thread stayed in the ring and came out of the lever section instead. Because of the size of this threaded rod, it was now extremely difficult to remove it without damaging the threads. Thankfully it was removed eventually and I’m unlikely to use it again. I’ll stick with the bigger lever!!
So all in all it’s a pretty simple solution to a big problem. Is it worth the £15 I paid? For the build quality, not really. But for its purpose and how well it does it’s job I’ll have to wait and see. But I do have high hopes for how effective it’s going to be!
So I’ve finally decided I should get this blog up and running, which means it’s about time I made an introduction post.
So hi there! My name is Gavin, but I’m also known as the Hat Guy or “Oh, you’re that guy who wears a hat!” and put simply I’m a filmmaker. Or at least I’m attempting to be one. I started university in September 2013 to study Film and Television.
I have always loved films and TV shows ever since I was little. I originally wanted to be an actor but after what I call my “Quarter-Life Crisis” I decided that being behind the lens was the best thing for me. Since I only made this transition recently I’m still finding my feet in this crazy world of film and so haven’t got all that many films under my belt.
I do however have plenty of ideas that are bubbling away in far too many pots, and hopefully before too long some of them will become reality.
I usually shoot my films with a DSLR (the Canon 550D to be precise) but I have used other cameras in the past and probably will again in the future. I enjoy shooting DSLR as it means I can be much more creative than when using a point and shoot camcorder but without having to spend large amounts of cash on expensive cinema grade cameras and kit.
I obviously have made some films already, and I’ll probably post links at some point or other, but they were all collaborative works and no original ideas of mine. I’m hoping though that when I (finally!) get my new computer I can start working on some original works and keep you updated with all of them.
But that’s enough of my rambling for now, hopefully I’ll keep myself motivated enough to make sure this blog stays updated. But for now I shall leave you all to it!
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