P4 production material & techniques for an audio/visual unit

P4 Production Material and Techniques for an Audio/Visual Unit

Setting up appropriate equipment;

As a student at Kent College, I have access to the equipment available to media students. I used the Canon 7D DSLR. I have used this camera before and I am used to its settings and features. I feel confident using this camera. I like the 85mm fixed lens because in many of the scenes I played with aperture settings to create shots with different focuses. 

The 85mm lens is not made for zooming in and out of a subject, it is made for altering the focus. Aperture is the control of how much light enters the lens. A larger f stop means a smaller hole, which means less light is entering the camera, which means there will be a large depth of field. 

This shot, for example, was created by using a small f stop. It keeps the focus on the actor and not the long stairs he is sitting on. Although the background is not invisible, as it establishes where the actor is and how he is surrounded by people even though he is alone, it is blurred out. This keeps the attention on the actor and also further shows how he is lonely and focused on the presents he is getting rather than the world around him. The equipment you use can help you create shots like this, establish mood, and say things that words alone cannot properly say. 

I also used the Velbon DV-6000 video tripod. This allowed me to keep the equipment safe while also providing steady and consistent shots for the various scenes in the film. 


Use of pre-production material as reference;

Meaning and Purpose;


The meaning and purpose of this task is to demonstrate what we used the pre-production material for and how effective it was when developing my video. This section shows what the storyboards, script, booking sheet, production schedule and shot list were used for. These image below show how we compared our storyboards with our shots and tried to capture shots as close to what we intended. 

During the filming process , it was very helpful to have the storyboard and script to refer to when determining what the next shot was and it tells what needed to be done next.The use of this pre-production material helped us to plan the next step and know exactly what we wanted to do and achieve for the 'next' scene/shot. 

For the beginning of the video,the storyboard tells me what to do.Because of the schedule shows the filming would takes 2 days and  the shot list would provide me with step-by-step instructions on what I would be filming, in a particular order. 

After the first day filming in the track,we went to the bus station,and according to the planning (storyboard and shot list),I took a Medium Long shot for them waiting for the bus.

According to the storyboard,I took a medium close up shot for this while they sitting in the bus.

The second filming,I took boy running in the track again,but this time,I decided to do a extreme wide shot.

According to the storyboard,I put the prop at the side of the track and direct the boy to do the movement.

According to the storyboard,I put the props in the exactly position.And gave it a extremely close shot to make sure people would be able to read the note.

For these part,according to the location planing,we found a route where there is usually not many people.This would be really helpful for us to filming.

For this part,I put an advertising slogan at the side for the main project (Ferrero Rocher).

Production Schedule;

When filming, we referred to a production schedule that we put together, to help us determine what we were supposed to be filming of which day and in each location. This made it easier for us to produce the film and allowed us to operate efficiently as we knew all the time what the next step was for us to take. 

Shot list;

This pre-production material was very useful during the production process. Referring back to this piece of work helped us to gage what the next shot we needed to create was. Using this along with the storyboards, we had a very clear idea of what we were trying to capture from each image and shot. We wrote in the shot list, everything that wanted to be in the shot which during the filming process helped us to work effectively, reducing the amount of time wasted when not filming. 

Following safe working practises;

The risks we identified were either low or moderate risks. Nothing in the project was high risk. Still, we didn’t want to deal with any issues of health and safety or equipment damage, so we followed our plan precisely to ensure no one got hurt and no equipment got damaged. 

To make sure no one got hurt, we informed the people around us that we were filming to the best of our ability. This made people aware of the process and encouraged them to stay away from it. We were also very obvious in our filming as we had a camera set up and were repeatedly doing the same task. 

We checked the equipment each time we took it out of a bag. We made sure everything was there so that we did not get blamed for damaged or lost items before we started filming. We did the same thing when putting all of the equipment back, making sure there was no damage and nothing was left behind. We made sure that the camera was always safely secured into the tripod so that any movement would not knock the camera over. We also made sure we had a flat surface for the tripod so that it did not get knocked over itself. 

Although we needed to film at a time that there was other people around, we made sure our actor was comfortable with running and we made sure he had an empty area of track to run along. This way, we made sure that he didn’t get tired or sick from the scene, and also that he did not injure himself or anyone else. We also made sure that the track wasn’t too busy by using it at a lunch period instead of after school when people were using it or during a class. 

Following production process:

Day 1:
We started off by checking the area, to scan whether there were any health and safety hazards we needed to be aware of.The first shot was in the track,therefore we began to shot after school to ensure there are less people to help us easier to film.

The second shot is the bus station.We choose one of the bus station normally with less people and during the filming process,we followed the risk assessment to take care of the incoming cars to ensure the safety of all the crew.

Day 2:

To start the filming next day,we went to the track area again to take another shot of the boy running on the track according to the storyboard and we make a lot of following shot and during the filming process,we ensure that taking care of the equipment and take care to avoid slip over.

There was another shot that the boy picked up the Ferrero around the track according to the storyboard.Therefore,I prepared the the bottle of water and Ferrero (according to the prop list) and put at the position where I wanted to be in the film.

Then we went to the last location to film the most important part of the video.

There are a lots of reaction shot , close shot and over shoulder shot.But the storyboard help me to film it easier because it tells what is next step and what shot shall I take for each part. And it's easier for me to direct crew to do what they need.