Ballet Rotoscope Film James Stothard

My latest animation, I've been pretty busy with freelance work so I'll start updating the blog soon I promise.

HD-DSLR 101 - An introduction to getting a good exposure with your shots

What is a DSLR

A Digital Single-Lens Reflex camera is a camera that has a mirror inside of it positioned in front of the camera’s sensor. The mirror directs the light to the viewfinder and means that what you see through the viewfinder is almost identical to what the sensor will capture.

Also on a DSLR you can change the lenses depending on what you are shooting. This opens up creative options and the ability to change focal lengths. The focal length of a lens determines its angle of view, and also how much the subject will be magnified. Wide angle lenses have short focal lengths, while telephoto lenses have longer corresponding focal lengths.

Aperture, Shutter-speed & ISO

Aperture, Shutter-speed & ISO are terms that you will hear a lot over the course they are the three elements that affect the exposure of an image. A good exposure is one that retains detail in the highlights and shadows.

         Underexposed Correct Exposure     Overexposed

Aperture

This is how open or closed the Iris is, the iris is a metal diaphragm consisting of several metal blades that will open or close. The wider open the iris is the more light it allows in. The iris/aperture can be opened in increments called f-stops. A wide aperture on a lens is useful for shooting in low light situations or if you want a small depth of field. The depth of field is how much of the subject is in focus. 

If you are shooting portraits outdoors you might want a blurry background this requires a wide aperture like f/1.8. If you are shooting a landscape or building you will probably want the whole building to be in focus and sharp so you would need a higher f-stop number so a more narrow aperture of f/11.

Here’s an example of how the f-stop affects the sharpness and focal point of an image.

Shutter speed

In front of the sensor in a camera is something called a shutter this shutter opens and closes at fractions of a second. In doing so it allows light in and stops it once the image is captured. This is another way of controlling the exposure of the image but also affects how much motion blur is in the image.

This example here shows how a slower shutter speed and a fast moving object creates a motion blur effect. It can be used to creative effect but it won’t suit every situation.

Motion blur will affect the sharpness of your image and if you are taking photos of sports events or even your kids running around  with a slow shutter speed you’ll find your images to be unusable.

If you want to capture fast moving objects you need a faster shutterspeed, for sports it needs to be 1/500th of a second or faster.

To create a motion blur effect or light trails a very slow shutter speed is needed of anything slower than 1/25th of a second.

ISO

ISO is a term that goes back to when film was the main medium of photography. The ISO is an indicator of how sensitive the film is to light. The higher the ISO the more sensitive it is. With digital camera’s we of course don’t use physical films but you can adjust the camera sensor’s sensitivity to light and this too is called an ISO setting. 

For shooting in a studio with flash you would use ISO 100 or on a bright day  ISO 200-400 and at night you would use anything from ISO 400 to 1200 to increase the sensors sensitivity to light. There is a consideration to make however. If your ISO is too high it will introduce digital noise to the image and this noise will affect the overall quality of the image.

An example of digital noise.

Balancing for Exposure

It is always a balance of Aperture, shutter speed and ISO to get a good exposure. You can’t change one setting without having to change the other. In Aperture priority mode and Shutter priority mode the camera will adjust the other setting to compensate but you will need to set the correct ISO for the situation first. If you are in manual you will need to adjust all the settings yourself. Below is an exposure triangle If you move one setting towards the outside of the triangle in effect you would need to bring one or both of the other settings in towards the centre. 

You should always make your settings decisions based on what you want from the image. It’s important to think about what you need from it. So an example of that would be shooting a sports event, you want to capture the runner as they cross the finish line it needs to be sharp with no motion blur. We have seen that to eliminate the motion blur we need a fast shutter speed of at least 1/500th of a second but that reduces the light entering the lens and we don’t want to open the aperture too much because we want it to be sharp so we need to increase the ISO. To help make these choices you can use a light meter or an exposure calculator. A free exposure calculator can be found online at http://www.calculator.org/calculate-online/ photography/exposure.aspx there are also free exposure calculator apps for android and apple.

Short of the Week - Margo Lily

Ok so I wan't planning on doing something like this but I watched 'Margo Lily' directed by Dane Clark & Linsey Stewart, on vimeo and I thought this has to be shared. The acting in this short is simply beautiful and its such a moving film I literally cried. Yes its melodrama but beautifully done. This one follows a sensitive subject, about loss and unity through adversity.

Margo Lily from Dane Clark & Linsey Stewart on Vimeo.

More beautiful Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera footage

So the release date for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera has come and gone and while Blackmagic announced shipping had begun in august it must be in a trickle because the expected flood of BMPCC test footage hasn't come. In the meantime for those still waiting here's some clips of the best/only BMPCC footage out there just now.

This footage was shot by Phillip Bloom, head over to his blog to get more information and access to some great reviews. This home footage was shot with a vintage cine lens by Angenieux. The film grain was added using the excellent Film Convert software. The s16mm sensor and vintage glass lends itself very well to the film aesthetics.

a pocket home video from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

This next clip is from BMCC.tv and they're video while not technically perfect (they're own words!) does test a host of vintage lenses on the camera and is worth checking out.

Blackmagic Pocket with Vintage Lenses from bmcc.tv on Vimeo.

The next two are both from Phillip Bloom, the first of which really shows the blackmagic pocket cinema camera off to its best.

Hiding Place from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

13 stops down the canals of Venice from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

This video is by Takafumi Kato and uses a panasonic mft lens. There are some nice shots in there and some low light stuff that looks good too. I don't think the clips have had a lot of grading as some look flat in color.

Animal Test from Takafumi Kato on Vimeo.

I've added this next one simply because its the BMPCC on a Defy brushless gimbal. The video itself isn't particularly exciting. Unlike the adverts for the Movi gimbal its not nearly as polished.

BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera Flying with Defy Brushless Gimbal Stabilizer from ProCinemaTools on Vimeo.

The last video to show is one by David Dominiquez. A short clip of skateboarders, with some on a slider, certainly looks nice.

"The Day of America's Downfall" - blackmagic pocket camera from David Dominguez on Vimeo.

As more footage becomes available I'll be sure to post it here on the blog.

Screenwriting How to: PART TWO Writing Convincing Characters and Dialogue

Screenwriting How to: 

Writing Convincing Characters and Dialogue (Part Two)

So in part one we went over what 'on-the-nose' dialogue is and how using subtext and understanding your character helps you to write believable, interesting dialogue. In Part Two we're going to look at the use of character diamonds and character dynamics layers as tools to help us achieve that great dialogue we're after.

Traditional character development requires huge amounts of back-story and mostly irrelevant personal style information such as childhood idol or favourite colour. The character diamond approach requires you to decide just four traits for your character and to decide how that effects their responses and actions. It's a quick and easy way to forge consistent characterization in your work. The rules are simple any action or line of dialogue that your character performs must display one or more of their traits.

So a trait is distinguishing personality characteristic such as secretive, gullible/naive, enthusiastic, imaginative, daring, optimistic etc. You select a trait for each point of the diamond, but just the trait on its own wouldn't be enough. Once you select your traits you need to write a brief bit about why the trait developed and how it affects them. 

So as an example our character is naive, she has always been protected from the outside world by her father, now she is having to cope alone her lack of experience in the real world makes it easy for her to believe and trust others to her detriment. At times even the most fantastical story can fool her. Her other traits are on the image below.

So with that figured out we can start to get a picture of her character and we can also see how she will react to events in the story. Now if I placed Claire into a situation lets say a homeless person approaches her and asks her for spare change for a bus we can get the responses from the character diamond. Well she's Affable so she'd listen to what he says and being naive she would most likely believe him but no sooner does she give him the money then he enters the nearby off licence and buys a can of cider. At this point her response is to get all sensitive and to question herself even blaming herself for not helping him in a different way.

Refer to this diamond whenever this character is in a scene. Ensure that each line of dialogue and action is influenced by one of the traits. If you have a character arc planned then create a character diamond for each time the character's personality develops and changes during the story.

I hope hat this will be of some help. The link to the free PDF character diamond template is here.
DOWNLOAD FILE

In part three we will look at how to develop great interactions between the characters using a character dynamic layer sheet.  

Screenwriting How to: PART ONE Writing Convincing Characters and Dialogue

Screenwriting How to: 

Writing Convincing Characters and Dialogue (Part One)

Screenwriting is lets face it incredibly competitive. The Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting received over 7000 entries last year. The BBC received over 2000 in its short opening window this year and I can't even guess at how many unsolicited scripts from over eager but raw writers a studio like Warner Bro's received. Most of the time screenplays aren't even read especially if they're sent unsolicited. If one of your screenplays even gets looked at there's a sure fire way to tell how experienced and credible a writer you are.

Dialogue and Character.

Yes of course the plot and theme are important, a bunch of very well crafted characters sat around talking is not going to make for a blockbuster movie (in most cases.) but I think it's safe to say that it would be easier to place those characters into a plot and story with the audience able to believe their behaviors and actions.

If you haven't thought your characters through properly then they will appear to behave without reason, lacking continuity and will talk with on-the-nose dialogue. On-the-nose dialogue by the way is when a character says exactly what they are thinking and feeling. It almost always looks and sounds amateur and doesn't reveal character in an interesting way, in fact it tends to be very boring and flat.

An example of on-the-nose dialogue: 

DAKARAI and EMEKA stand on a ridge beneath the shade of a tree. They both stare out over the valley they can see the thick heavy smoke rising from what was once their home village.

DAKARAI: Are we going to stay here and do nothing?

EMEKA: We can't go, it would be too dangerous, something might happen to you.

DAKARAI: But people are dieing.

Dakarai tightens his fist.

DAKARAI: I feel so frustrated and angry we can't do anything.

So as you can tell its not too interesting, it really leaves nothing to be discovered or interpreted by the viewer. We know from this dialogue everything about Dakarai's feelings and his motivation but how dull. Here's a version that uses subtext, it doesn't explain everything but I hope it is more dynamic and interesting. The character's show they're feelings and they don't explain them, its up to us as a reader or an audience to interpret them.

DAKARAI and EMEKA stand on a ridge beneath the shade of a tree. A small herd of goats feed behind them. They both stare out over the valley they can see the thick heavy smoke rising from what was once their home village.

DAKARAI: When do we leave?

EMEKA: They didn't want us there Dakarai.

DAKARAI: They're dieing.

Dakarai tightens his fist. Emeka places a calming hand on Dakarai's shoulder, he looks around to him.

EMEKA: Come, we have much to do.

DAKARAI: It can wait.

Emeka walks away to tend to the goats. Dakarai looks back out over the valley. Another fire elsewhere in the valley has begun it too floods the horizon with thick black smoke.

Being able to write dialogue that uses subtext and shows character requires planning, you need to know your characters, what motivates them and how they would react to most situations. There are many books and websites out there that encourage you to create full biographies with information about a characters childhood, their school experience, their first date, favorite music and colour etc. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be worth knowing but I'm not certain it's all necessary especially if you never intend for music to be an important plot point.

I've found several ways that make a lot more sense and are far more accessible than trawling through pages of biography. The method I'm going to explain was one I found in the book 'Creating emotion in games' by David Freeman. So yes its a book about game design and writing for interactive media but Freeman really knows his stuff and a lot of his techniques can be adapted to screenwriting. He talks a lot about an approach he created called 'Emotioneering'. This book is well worth reading and I can't recommend it enough. Also check out Freeman's website here.

So how do you improve your dialogue and characterization? Using two new tools a free PDF character diamond form and a PDF character dynamics layer chart. Jump over to part two to download the templates for free and an explanation of how to use them properly.

Vivid Pocket - The latest Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Footage

John Brawley has just released more beautiful footage from the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. Having gone to the Vivid Sydney event he decided to film it with his Bmpcc and upload it for the rest of us to drool over. We can only hope that Blackmagic are able to ship this amazing little camera for July as they hoped.

Here's the latest video and below the last few test videos from John Brawley on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. You can also follow this link to John Brawley's blog for more information.

Vivid Pocket from John Brawley Tests on Vimeo.

Pocket in Kurnel from John Brawley Tests on Vimeo.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera - Market from John Brawley Tests on Vimeo.

Now having pre-ordered my own Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera I can only hope there's no production delays. I'm crossing my fingers.