Camera shots! Say cheese :D

 Introduction to cameras

"It's easy to take any shot, but not a good shot"

Today we practiced taking different shots using the still camera which was introduced to us earlier on. This was a chance for us to practice and get use to the equipment before we begin to film our very own thriller opening. In order to take good clear shots, we have to make sure that we hold the camera steady, and be aware of the frame and lighting. Here are the shots we took: 

(1) This is a wide shot of an area in our college. It is focused and shot at a good angle which allows you to see the objects clearly in that area.

(2) This is another wide shot of the same area as we took previously. Although the picture is focused and clear, it is taken at a bad angle which makes the shot difficult to look at; however, it does make the shot look more interesting.

(3) This is a bad example of an over the shoulder shot. Firstly, you cannot see Amina (the girl in the black jacket) properly as she needs to move more to the right side in order for us to see her face; otherwise we will not know who the person is approaching or having a conversation with. Secondly, the framing is off as there is too much wasted space to the right side of the shot; this loses the focus of the person being captured.

(4) These are shot taken of Quddus by the window. We purposely did this to see the lighting issues that will arise (unfortunately, the light coming from the window wasn't bright enough to fully show what we mean). Taking a shot by the window isn't a good idea when there is so much light coming through as it makes the shot too bright (like shown on the right hand corner of each shot) and makes the person look darker as they are in the opposite direction of the light.

(5) This is a shot of shoes taken in an interesting way; although, the shot has bad quality as it is blurry and not focused. This completely ruins the shot and takes the focus away from the main thing: the shoes!

(6) These are shots of shoes taken in different ways to make them look interesting. All of the shots below are focused well and some of them are good close-ups which really draws people in to what is being shown.

(7) This is a shot of Shireen that breaks the rule of thirds as her head isn't in the 1/3 (top) section of the shot. Also, the shot doesn't give her enough looking space, instead there is too much extra space on the opposite side which gives the whole shot a bad framing.

(8) This is a tight close-up shot of Shireen's sister. It is focused and follows the rule of thirds as the eyes are in line with the top section of the framing (1/3). A close-up shot is very good in showing the emotion of a character in a film, it can also show the age of the person; for example if the person has wrinkles it would be visible and obvious that the person is old. In this case, she is young.