Media Stuides 2009-2011

Most modern day video cameras can do everything for you, all is required of you is to aim at what you want to shoot then press record, alot of the time this is ok, however they do have serious limitations, if you are more serious about using your video camera and making things look perfect then you would need to learn how to use the manual video settings to adjust things to just how you want them. The first manual feature to explain is Zoom, this is used to make it look like your camera is moving closer to the focus, however the further you zoom in the harder it is to keep the camera steady, it is necessary to use a tripod for zooming. The next feature is Focus, auto focus is often used by amateurs, many people find manual focus very challenging. Professional cameras usually have a manual focus ring at the front of the lens housing. Turn the ring clockwise for closer focus, anti-clockwise for more distant focus. White balance – this means colour balance, this function tells the camera what every colour should look like, if it can distinguish white then it can tell what all the other colours should look like. Virtually all consumer-level cameras come with built-in microphones, usually hi-fi stereo. These work fine, and are all you need for most general work. If possible, try to keep the background (ambient) noise level more or less consistent. This adds smoothness to the flow of the production. Of course, some shots will require sudden changes in ambient audio for effect.

Firstly when you are thinking of planning your shoot you will look the purpose of the video and the audience which you are trying to target as these are very important factors. The purpose of the video will influence many aspects of the film for example locations, in a promotional video you are looking to pick out the best aspects of the location however if you were making a video for a childs fundraiser then you would be trying to pick out the places which make the area look as run down as possible. When looking at the target audience you could look at age groups, when shooting for children then you need quicker and less fluid with more moving camera angles and more camera movement.

Where and when: when preparing for a shoot, you would often find that those which are best prepared will send out location scounts to the various possible locations for the film, there is many things to take into account such as having enough power to power all your lights on the set also things like parking for the many people which will be working on scene, you

There are various reasons for why storyboarding is important, firstly because it helps you to organise your chosen film and focus on the invidiual and main events which are going to occur. It is also good because you can make changes to it at this time if something doesnt work well so you can save time later on when you are producing your media, this could also save you alot of money which is an important aspect to making your specific media. Storyboards help reduce confusion when going through the latter processes, this could be because they give a idea for the mise-en-scene which needs to be used, eg colours of room, what the people are supposed to be wearing. Story boards can also help your crew communicate during the development process. Overall it is a way to just make everything run in a smoother fashion and helps everybody work out what they need to know to create the atmosphere which the director is aiming to get.

Wordpress is a programme which is used for blogging your progress throughout the media course for when you complete a certain task then your teacher is able to view your blog to see how much progress you have been making etc. Wordpress is online therefore you can access the site using your web browser which means you can add content from any computer, anywhere in the world. The site is fairly complicated to work your way around if you are only visiting it for the first time however after spending a little while on the site you can soon learn your way around making this site very useful.