Filming for Editing: Problems

   Whilst in the studio during the time we were filming footage that we could use for editing purposes and to practice editing techniques like the Kuleshov effect we came across a variety of problems during filming. Firstly one of the problems we soon discovered was that since we were using a small light source as our key light in a darkened room, the backdrop we were using wouldn't be suitable as it was white and would reflect the light too much and overexpose the subject. We attempted to solve this problem by switching to using a black sheet of cloth as our backdrop however this was still too reflective as it created large shadows directly behind the subject which was unacceptable, in the end we found that using black cardboard sheets proved to be a better backdrop as it didn't reflect the light and could cover the entire background of the subject. A minor problem that occurred whilst filming with this cardboard backdrop was that people were required to hold it in place as it was large enough to cover the space behind the subject but small enough that it needed people to hold it in place, and when we were filming it kept moving out of place and creating gaps and shadows which was irritating as we needed to stop and adjust it each time, although eventually we did manage to find a suitable way to keep each piece in place long enough to shoot a scene by holding two pieces of black card at the side of the subject and two just behind to give it the appearance of a completely flat background.

    Another problem we encountered was when trying to film if the camera was left for a certain amount of time it would shut off the preview screen which every time we needed to turn on again and readjust the focus to ensure that the scene looked right before filming, this was more of an annoyance than a problem but it still took a small portion of time each instance where it turned off to switch it back on, it could be easily resolved by changing the cameras settings however so for future shoots one more thing we will need to check before filming is the cameras auto shut off setting so that we don't need to waste time changing the setting later on or switching it back on every minute. One additional issue we had was with the camera tripod, as during the process we needed to constantly readjust it to make it either higher or lower or we needed to move the camera and the tripod was bad quality as even though it was securely fastened it was either uneven or the platform for the camera moved slightly putting the camera off balance which again caused us to stop and fix it before filming as with the camera being off balance it would alter the angle of the shots so again it was more of an annoying minor fix than a major problem.