Technical Challenges

During the course of the module, I encountered many technical challenges that required specific knowledge in order to overcome.

The first technical challenge was operating the HM100 camera and recording the actual piece itself. This process took the longest to achieve as several hours is needed to set up the camera, set up and dress the location for the shots, choose the camera angles and physically shoot it. This challenge was made increasingly more difficult by the fact that for a large majority of the sketches, I was on my own which required me to set the camera up on a tripod, focus, and press record and stop myself. This only added to the time it took to shoot the sketches. The general set-up that the camera requires before shooting are as follows:

First you need to set the white balance by holding up a white piece of paper and using the white balance button on the side of the camera until the colour of your shot looks the same as it does with your naked eye.

Then you need to set the focus to manual and adjust the aperture. This is achieved once a small symbol of a hand with the letter 'F' appears on the display screen.

Once the shot is set up, you then need to adjust the zoom and focus. This is done by zooming fully into the object you wish to film, pulling the focus with the focus wheel on the camera, then zooming out again.

After practicing the shot, you are ready to film. Allow five seconds either side at the start and end of the shot for editing purposes. It is also advised to shoot a master shot which is a wide shot of the entire scene as a backup just incase the scenes do not cut together in the edit.

The second technical challenge came in the editing process. Learning and using Final Cut Pro was essential in order to edit the footage and cut it all together to create the final show. Being a complicated programme, it took an induction workshop and several hours practice to get to know how the programme works and how to achieve your desired effects such as slow motion and fade outs ect.

The final technical challenge came in operating the projector itself. As I desire to have the show filmed then projected onto a giant screen, almost like a cinema, knowledge on how to install, set up and operate the projector was essential. As I had never operated a projector before, assistance was required in installing and working it. Placing up a suitable screen for which to project on was also needed and required assistance.

Overall, amongst all of the technical challenges encountered on the module, specific knowledge was obtained in order for progress to be achieved as I did not know how to operate a camera, edit film or install and use a projector before the module started.