robyndawncooper-blog

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Web Series

Our Team

Our Team was made up of @laurengausden, @robyndawncooper, @pamelapdm and myself. 

Our Brief

To create a 3-4 minute introductory sequence to an upcoming web series, targeting the specific millennial audience which must be carried out and told through a modern and innovative method of storytelling. The cinematic storytelling must also be within the style of our group’s randomly selected filmmaker. 

Our Project

Our randomly selected filmmaker was J.J. Abrahams, so we decided to follow some of the traits that are repeatedly found within his films, some of these include camera lens flares, handheld camera shots and slow forward camera pans onto the subject, we attempted to corporate these into our introductory episode. In terms the way in which we would tell our story, the platform that we decided to use would be youtube, as many people follow and watch lots of videos on this platform these days. The story would be told by a series of videos which allows the viewer to click and decide what would happen next, this way the viewer was able to interactive with the story and decide on the outcome they think should happen. 

My Role in the Team

Within the team I was in charge of lighting, I recorded sound and I was also an actress in the opening sequence. 

In terms of acting, I took on the role of the main female protagonist in the opening episode of the web series. I struggled a little with this task, as someone who is used to being behind the camera, I found it particularly difficult to be in front of the camera and have to act. In the end I managed to do it and I feel proud that I managed to do so. 

In terms of lighting, when our group was filming, upon setting up each shot I organised the way in which the lighting was desired to look, I advised our filming team members on camera angles and shots that gave us the effect we wanted. 

I also recorded some sound for the project, I did this by using a microphone and recording background sound in a coffee shop and also in a busy street, as we needed to mimic the effect of cars. 

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UNDERCOVER FIRST EP- FINAL (via Vimeo)

The final edited version of our web series opening sequence! 

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The Fundamentals of Lighting

Using different methods of lighting can dramatically alter the style and mood of an image or video. Within this directed study we explore different types of lighting and the different effects it can create. 

Using a Reflector 

The first technique we played with was using 1 light and a reflector in the attempt to dim the shadow caused by the bright light at an angle on the subject. 

Before:

After:

The two images above display the before and after of holding up the reflector. In the first image there is an obvious and rather dark shadow present, whereas in the second image example there is still a shadow but the shadow has faded drastically. In terms of the harsh shadows on the subjects face, they are also alleviated by correct placement of the reflector which allows the light to bounce back onto this other area of the face, this is the same for the shadow in the background of the subject.

We discovered that the correct angle and placement of the reflector was able to, not completely, but definitely alter the depth of the shadow caused by the subject of the photo. The reflector tool can also be used to allow a subject to become separate from the background, avoiding the silhouette effect (when a subject merges with the background). Lastly, the reflector can be used to alleviate dark shadows on subject’s face by bouncing the light back onto the face, to make it appear more evenly lit. 

Using a Spotlight

Using a spotlight allows for a dramatic effect to be made on an image or video. The images above reveal our group playing with a spotlight to attempt to create different effects. We discovered that altering the exposure of the spotlight created different dramatic effects. In the first image the spotlight is bright and overly exposed so it creates a very bright effect, in the second image we dimmed the spotlight and made it less exposed and finally in the third image we dimmed it as much as possible still leaving a gap for some light to shine through. 

3-Point/Soft box Lighting

The above image reveals our group trying studio lighting which consisted of soft box lighting. We discovered that we could light the subject evenly through using the 3 Point Lighting system. 

Using a key light as the main light, a fill light which is placed opposite the key light to fill the shadows created by the main key light and finally a back light to separate the subject from the background and also bring definition to maintain a three dimensional look. 

The use of soft box lighting allows for a calmer, more natural and soft lighting, said to give the look of window light shining through. 

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This is us in the greenroom learning about the different types of light & how to use them. 

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My Web Series Role

For my group’s web series, I have taken on large roles of being co-director and editor. I have edited the whole piece myself as I was the one in the group that had the clearest visual ideas of what we thought would work for our opening sequence. Due to this I also drew up the storyboard & wrote the script.

On the days we were able to shoot it was quite difficult for me to try and direct the group whilst also filming as our group were struggling to know what shots/angles/lighting would look best and would portray what we all wanted to. My solution to this was to film much more than what we exactly needed as when it came to editing it meant that I – hopefully – would have a lot of clips to choose from. 

During filming Eden, Lauren and I all managed to record some sound clips, which meant we had real-time sounds of when we were filming. I felt this was important as it created more realistic sounds for our scenes that were out on the street & restaurant.

For our opening sequence I was also fortunate enough to source music through my brother’s band that was copyright free, free to use and something that fitted our ideas very well.

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Another example of work I like that use a slow shutter speed. 

chalkida, greece.

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I think this is good example of using a slow shutter speed, and how great it looks when using lights. 

i’m actually really happy with how this came out

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Documentary Reflection

Having not looked at my documentary for a while & coming back to it to review what I could've done better, and learn from for the future I definitely have noticed a few things. Firstly, the lighting being very orange toned was something I had planned for and aimed for- however, this does slightly come across as unprofessional which is obviously not part of the aim. To have fixed this I could've edited the colour slightly in the editing stage- however, at the time I thought it was okay. 

I have also noticed the placing of some of the people who featured in my video which seems to have been an issue. Some are totally in screen, others mostly and unfortunate for one half of her face is cut off! This is something again, I should've noticed and dealt with at the time but unfortunately I did not. 

I do however, feel like I did create good and clear sound within my video and you are able to understand everyone even with the music playing. I also feel like I have done a good job and conveying the message and getting -almost- everything I wanted to say across. 

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This is the song that we have used for out web series opening sequence- I gained permission easily as it is my brothers band. I had to edit down the song to be shorter so it would fit into the time needed. 

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmjeCchGRQo)

Another really interesting video that delves deeper into the understanding of dslr cameras.

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNVtMmLlnoE)

A really interesting video that explains Rolling Shutter- due to limitations of my own camera I am unable to shoot it myself. This video really slowed it down and help me understand how to work with the rolling shutter without going out and experiencing it for myself. 

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European fluorescent lights operate at 50HZ, which is something that differs worldwide. This is something that needs to be remembered and considered when filming for your frames per second. I have set my camera at two different rates- 24fps & 50fps. This short video shows that at 24fps there is a flicker, however at 50 there is none. This is due to 50fps capturing -obviously- more frames per second which creates a smooth bit of film, as apposed to the industry standard 24fps. 

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This is during the editing stage of my groups web series, I was having issues of trying to alter the speed of individual clips which caused the video to stutter when playing back.

(at the end of the clip you can hear me giving out a wee complaint about it!)

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Here we were playing about with the lighting in the green screen room getting Lauren to spin around to see how the shadows on her face & body would be affected with the lighting we had on. The lights we had on during this was a dimmable soft box lights that were placed slightly in front of Lauren to her left and right. We also had lights on behind Lauren lighting up the background screen.

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Here, we were testing out the LED lights & using a reflector. We played about with dimming the lights, changing the warm-ness of the lights & how using the reflector affected the shadows & light on Eden. 

The pictures we captured of the lights in use are them at a high setting. This created a bold shadow behind her. In the last image we have used the reflector as we were trying to figure out how to remove the shadow, however we did not manage this. The shadow is less clearcut and is blurred, softer and of a lighter colour. 

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This is us now testing out the built in microphone to the camera. This picks up the most background noise from all three of the mics we tested, this would not be suitable for use in most situations due to this. 

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This is us now testing the Rose mic- the sound is again clear however isn’t as sensitive as the Lav mic, this is however partly due to the positioning of the microphone.