P3 (a) setting up appropriate equipment

Setting up my equipment correctly was vital in ensuring that I created a safe filming environment but also meant that I could maximise the quality of my shots.

Tripod:

The DV6000 is a sturdy, high quality tripod that was used throughout the production, it allowed me to lock the frame to produce higher quality shots as many of my shots required a still frame with no camera movement, for the purpose of integrating CG objects into the frame. In order to achieve this in the inside shoot I mounted my Canon750D onto my Velbon tripod and placed it at the side of the table with the legs fully extended so to reach the correct height. Because of this I didn't have to risk using other objects to place the tripod higher reducing the risk to the equipment and crew. Being able to leave the camera filming gave me more flexibility when shooting the scene as it allowed me to move props in the shot and change lighting conditions, improving the quality of the shots.


Canon 750D:



- The Canon 750D is the camera I used to shoot ACTION TANKS, the 750D can shoot videos in 1080p at 30fps and gives the users a range of controls in the manual setting mode that give the user more creative control. These settings allow the user to manually adjust the ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed and White Balance.

- When shooting in my indoor location there was little lighting this meant I had to lower my aperture to allow more light into the lens, however this meant having to use a shallow depth of field which caused issues for me. Because I was shooting close ups of miniatures I wanted the entire model in focus, however I sometimes had issues doing this, thus had to find a balance between finding the correct shutter speed, aperture and ISO.



- In the room I shot in the lights were tungsten bulbs, this lead to an orange glow in each of my shots, as this was not the look I wanted for this film so I used the White Balance preset 'tungsten' to correct the orange glow.

- Another great benefit of the 750D is it's compact size, this was a help when shooting the outdoor scenes as it gave me greater flexibility to where and how I could shoot my scenes.


Lens:

Canon 18-55mm zoom f/3.5-5.6 USM mf/af:

In many of my shots I was shooting miniatures, this meant I required a wide angle lens because it allowed me to move the camera closer to the models and put it on the board and move it around. One issue I had was my camera getting too close to the models, meaning it couldn't focus on the subject. This forced me to place the camera at varying distances from the model and adjust the focal length which did impact the lighting of the scene. Although this did create problems maintaining my focal point it did offer the advantage of focusing the audiences attention to the product.

Editing Equipment:

Windows 7 PC:

To edit my film I'm using my own desktop PC that I built for the purpose of editing. When creating 3D content or motion graphics in 3DSmax and After Effects the PC relies on its processor, graphics card and memory (RAM) and a large hard drive is also good. The PC I'm using has 16GB RAM this allows me to preview more frames when using the RAM preview feature. When rendering the final project the processor is combined with the graphics card to decrease render times.