Camera Work Lesson.

On Friday the 18th of September, myself and my class had its first camera lesson in the filming studio. Matt taught us how to use a variety of different cameras (seen below) Including the Canon SD, the Sony FS 1000 and the Sony NX5. Matt then showed us how to set them up and work them.Over the course of the lesson we learnt how to set up the tripod. We did this by unlocking and locking the clamps of the tripod and extending the legs of the tripod to a suitable height/length.

We then learnt how to place our camera which was the Sony NX5 (seen on the right) carefully onto the tripod we had assembled, we then slid it into place and then locked it onto the tripod with a small clamp.We then learnt how to bubble the tripod 'bubbling' the tripod (seen below) allowed us to get a stable image through our camera. Matt showed us that to do this you unlock the clamp under the tripod and position it correctly so that the small bubble is in the center of the circle of the spirit level on the side of the tripod. Once it is in the center it means the camera is centered and this means it is stable. The camera must be attached firmly to the tripod so we tested it by shaking it slightly and it was in fact firmly on.

We then moved on to learning about the three rings on the Sony NX5. We learnt that the front ring controlled the focus, the second ring controlled the zoom and the third ring controlled brightness. The Sony FS 1000 also had this feature but the Canon SD didn't as it didn't have zoom so we had to use a tape measure to measure how far away it was to the image so we could use the correct amount of focus on it.

After learning this and playing around with them for a few minutes we learnt how to do a white balance. The camera must be focused fully on a white piece of material or something relatively white in order to achieve true colours in the shot. Once the screen was focused on something white the white balance button is pressed to achieve a better coloured shot.

I really enjoyed being able to explore the different cameras and I have to say I liked the Sony NX5 the most. This lesson was very interesting to me as i have never learnt about cameras in such depth before and I look forward to being able to use my new knowledge in more practical work in Media in the future.

Conventions of a thriller

Here Is a word cloud I made up from certain features/conventions of a thriller with Tagul.

Review of The Gift.

The film I have chosen to review is The Gift. It is one of my all time favourite films. It was written, directed and starred in by Joel Edgerton. It was produced by Jason Blum, who is a well known producer who works within the horror film genre mostly, some of his work includes the Paranormal Activity series and Sinister 1 and 2. The other two stars in the film were Jason Bateman who

played Simon and Rebecca Hall who played his wife, Robyn. This is a relatively new film, released in the summer of 2015. It has gotten a number of good critic reviews and has received a rating of 7.5 on IMDb. The Gift was given an estimated budget of around $5’000’000 to be filmed. It received $11.8 million back on its opening weekend and has so far grossed over $31 million as of August. The film has been critically acclaimed on most internet review sites, such as Rotten Tomatoes, where is received a rating of 93%, scoring it close to films the likes of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. 

The Gift is a film about a couple who move into a new house in a small town in America. The main character, Simon, is confronted by an old school friend of his in a department store. A strange, unrequited friendship blossoms between Simon and this strange man. The man keeps turning up at the couple’s home with strange gifts, supposedly to make them feel ‘welcome’ into the neighbourhood. Things soon take a turn for the worse and the man leaves stranger and stranger gifts and riddles which confuse and disturb the couple before they find out that the man’s true intentions may not be quite so cheerful.

I went to see this film in the summer after seeing an advert for the film on the side of a bus whilst in London. It looked like a good horror film but the reviews said slightly differently, stating that it was more of a psychological thriller, like that of Shutter Island and Se7en. As these are two of my favourite films, I decided that this one would be good to watch also. After reading a bit about the synopsis on IMDb I was truly excited to find out more about the film’s cryptic storyline and I wasn't disappointed when I finished the film for myself.

After viewing the film, I was left extremely enticed by the concept. Joel Edgerton did an incredible job of both directing and starring in the film as the ‘weirdo’ - as he is credited on IMDb. The film is full of fantastic jump scares and some interesting plot twists which left me both intrigued, disturbed and also packed full of adrenaline from the exciting and fast paced storyline; it truly did keep me on the edge of my seat for the entire 108 minutes. For these reasons, The Gift has secured a place in my favourite films list for the foreseeable future.