Alaysia Navor
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Storytelling With Cinematography

8/29/2015

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     Hey Everyone! For this week's reflective response, I will be sharing with you a 4 part tutorial series on storytelling with cinematography. Part 1 talks about Composition and Framing, Part 2 is about Lighting, Part 3 on Lenses, and Part 4 covers Camera Movement. If you don't know what cinematography is, it's "the art of making motion pictures", or in other words, how you use camera movement, light and compose your shot, and the settings you use on your lens. I found these videos from the YouTube channel, DSLRguide, with Simon Cade as it's host, and I think it offers excellent tips on each of these elements, and how you can manipulate each element to achieve different looks and convey certain emotions. In the following paragraph's I'll explain more.  

Composition & Framing:

     Just by framing or composing a shot in a certain way, you can be resulted with various types of looks or styles. In the video above, Simon Cade shows you how you can compose a shot in a way so that the audience learns something new about the character, or have the audience pay attention to a specific thing. Of course we all have learned about the basic compositions; the rule of thirds, leading lines, wides, mediums, close-ups, and extreme close-ups, but there are a few things we should also be paying attention to. One of the things he talked about is depth. You can easily achieve depth by having leading lines, or a frame around your subject. I've been doing some research on ways to achieve the "three-dimensional feel", and found this article helpful. As I said before, different compositions equals different feels. If you wanted a flat shot with no depth, that's fine, but you need to make sure it fits the mood. Flat shots can project loneliness, and the feeling of boredom. I won't go into much detail, but he also talks about size, and how the size of an object in the frame can tell more about the character. He mentions about contrast, and how to correctly use it to bring attention to something, but you have to be aware that other things aren't contrasting with your main subject for it to be distracting. He covers balance, which is about the rule of thirds, headroom/lookroom, and level horizons. Finally, distance, to show relationships, and height to establish superior and non-superior rankings.

Lighting:

     Part 2 is about lighting, and how you can creatively set up lighting for different looks. He talks about motivated lighting, where light sources imitate other existing light sources (lamps, windows, etc.). As shown in the video, where you place your light can completely change the mood of the scene. You can get the 'flattering lighting' look, a lonely emotion, or even a scary feel to the shot, just based off of where you set up your lights. Here's an article that explains more about the difference between soft and hard light. In class, we don't really use much lighting equipment, except for the LED lights and the light bouncers. Do not underestimate how much the light bouncer can add to your production value! There are many different covers you can use on the disc, and they each do something different. The white disc provides a fill light source (as they mentioned in the video), which can 'fill light' in dark shadows on faces. You would usually bring this to an interview to remove harsh shadows on an interviewee's face. I embedded this video before in a past blog post, but you can see it through this article by Vimeo Video School, which explains a whole lot on using the reflector. Besides using the light bouncer, make sure that your color balance is on the correct setting! If you're filming under white florescent lighting, make sure you're not on the 'Tungsten light' white balance, unless you want that look. If your footage is looking orange, I suggest you check the white balance. I cannot tell you enough how much that has saved me from having orange looking footage.

Lenses:

     The next element of cinematography is how you adjust the settings on the lens. Normally, we wouldn't really play around with the setting and we'd keep it on AUTO. For me, I find manually changing the ISO and the Aperture tedious and quite confusing. But this video taught me more about the settings like depth of field, or DOF. Personally, I love shallow depths of field, because I think it has more of a cinematic feel to it, and I love the bokeh it can create. I think this is the main reason why I kept aiming to get these low-aperture type of shots, when in reality, sometimes it didn't fit the scene. I also learned more about field of view, or FOV. Usually if I wanted to get a closer, more in the frame type of shot, I would just zoom. I didn't realize that I was actually taking away from the background and its surroundings. If it works for your film, I think actually moving the camera and the tripod closer instead of zooming will reward you with a better look.

Camera Movement:

     Camera Movement is another element you can use to enhance your video. Most shots we take are static, meaning non-moving shots, just on a tripod. Our class recently bought a DJI Ronin, which is a 3-axis handheld stabilizer! I've tried it out once, and although pretty heavy, it can produce really smooth shots. However, there are other ways you can acquire cool camera movements by just using a tripod! You can watch that video from Vimeo Video School here. Yes, camera movement makes the shot more interesting and visually pleasing, but you must keep in mind the reason why you are moving the camera. Do you want a more suspenseful feel? You might want to try using a push in shot, or a dolly slide. Are you revealing something? Try a crane/jib effect. Are you showing emotion? Whatever the reason, there are many different types of movements you can use to get it. Some of them can even be done without using the expensive cranes, dollys, or the Ronin, so check out the Tripod Trix video (the one I linked above) and maybe those tips can help you!
     Well, that is it for this week's reflective response. My apologies for it being so long, but I really do hope these videos helped you, whether you're creating a short film, or just any kind of video in general, and you're hoping to improve it's production value. If you're interested in cinematography, some jobs you might want to check out are cinematographers or DP's. DP's are the Director of Photography, and they are in charge of framing, costumes/makeup, lighting, and they work along post producers in color grading and color correction. To end, there is no "correct" way to film; with or without depth, camera movement or a static shot, shallow or deep DOF, etc., whatever works for you and the video you're creating. Play around with it, have fun, and use what you think makes your video better. Thanks for reading! Bye!
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Project Update #1: "MosArt"

8/29/2015

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     Hey Everyone! As we get closer to midterms, our first quarter projects will be due soon! Speaking of deadlines, our scripts are due next week Friday, and Kirra and I are already 4 weeks out on our radios! For this weeks constructed response, I will be sharing the first project update of the quarter on our feature story on Moses Hamilton. If you'd like to read more about him, you can visit the First Quarter project page here.  In this blog, I'll be writing about where Kirra and I stand in terms of the schedule and due dates we wrote in our planners at the beginning of the year. Kirra and I are on track with our first quarter project for several reasons. Three reasons why I think we are on track are because we finished our TIAS, shot and transcribed all of our interviews, and we are currently working on our script.
       The first reason why I think Kirra and I are on track is because we finished our TIAS and our 5W's. This was the first thing we had to do for our project. It was pretty easy to do since we had already done our research on him. On Moses' website, he had linked a bunch of articles and a video about him. This was very useful to us because we didn't have to spend too much energy searching Google researching about him. All of these articles really helped us create our TIAS and our 5W's. We posted both of them on our blogs on time. The articles also helped us create our 5w's and our interview questions, which I'll talk about more in my next point.
       Another reason why Kirra and I are on schedule is because we shot all of our interviews. The deadline to be done filming interviews was August 24th, this past Monday. Last weekend, Kirra and I went to Ching Young Village in Hanalei to get all of our interviews done. We interviewed our central character, Moses Hamilton, and also his parents, Cherry and Hawk Hamilton. While we were there, we shot a bunch of b-roll, too. I think we got really great sound bytes that could tell a great story and message when arranged correctly. He went into a lot of detail about his art, his struggles and obstacles he had to overcome, and his gratitude and humbleness. His parents also talked about his journey in conquering his struggles to become the successful person he is today. Moses also talked about all the life lessons he's learned, and still lives by to this day. After filming, we immediately transcribed all the interviews. I transcribed Moses and his Mom, and Kirra transcribed his Dad. Transcribing the day gives you more time to start on your script, leading me to my next reason.
     Finally, Kirra and I are on schedule with our project because we are working on our first draft of our script. As I mentioned earlier in this blog post, Scripts are due next week Friday the 4th! It is really essential that we get this done on time, so that we can get constructive feedback and change it for improvement. Since scripts are the main structure of your video, it's important for it to be the best it can possibly be. In the last paragraph I stated that we finished transcribing as soon as possible, which gave us more time to start on our script. We first highlighted key sound bytes to fit our 5 points. This took us some time because we had to choose the best sound bytes or else our script would be too long. We've organized the sound bytes into our script, and are now working on creating the Voice-Overs and filling in the b-roll sequences. The last reason why I'd say Kirra an I are on track is because we are working on our first draft of our script.

      In conclusion, we are on schedule with our first quarter project on "MosArt" because we finished our TIAS, filmed and transcribed all of our interviews, and we are working on our script. Hopefully we will finish our script soon, so that we can get going with our project! Being that we are on track, we need to make sure that we don't procrastinate so that we stay on track. Well, that'll be it for this weeks constructed response! Thanks for reading! Bye!
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Challenges!

8/23/2015

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     Hey Everyone! Hope you all have been enjoying these first few weeks of school. As the third week of media has just gone by, we have been bound to be faced with a few challenges so far. However, do not be alarmed! It is only the start of the school year, and as one of my favorite quotes goes, "A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor". This basically means, it's all about perseverance! Being determined and persistent, and learning from your mistakes. For this week's constructed response, I will be sharing with you some challenges that I had been faced with over these 3 weeks of school. Some challenges I've been faced with are doing my blogs, starting our first quarter projects, and keeping up with deadlines.
      The first challenge I've faced was ironically, blogs. It is only the second week of doing blogs but for some reason I'm kind of slacking off with them. It's been harder for me to just write and it's harder for me to think of ideas. This of course leads to procrastination, and we all know where that takes us. I hope I can get back into the blog routine soon, because I somehow keep forgetting about them. Since I've joined media, I've never missed a blog, and I would like to keep it that way! I'll be sure to try harder, and start earlier on my blogs so they won't be posted at the last minute. When you tend to rush, the quality of the work isn't at it's best, so by starting earlier I can produce greater content with my blogs!
     Another challenge I faced within these few weeks of school was starting our first quarter projects! As you probably know, for the first semester of the school year we are required to create a news or feature story on a topic or person. My partner, Kirra Carvalho and I, are working together on a feature story on a painter named Moses Hamilton who paints with his mouth. The reason why this was a challenge is because it was a quite a challenge to get in touch with him to schedule an interview. Kirra and I had to keep calling and emailing back and forth but luckily we ended up landing an interview with him! After this, we had to create questions. This also was a complication. We had too many questions for Moses, but too little for his parents! Also, wording the questions was pretty difficult. It was a sensitive and touchy topic, so we didn't want to word our questions wrongly, in a way that will present us as rude or inconsiderate. Starting our first quarter projects was a challenge for me.
     The third challenge I faced was keeping up with deadlines. The quarter is moving quickly! Only three weeks in, and our interviews should be done and filmed in a few days! Being that the deadlines are at full speed can cause lots of stress for everyone. For example, this weekend everyone decided to film their interviews! There was no way there was enough 60D's for everyone. We had to buddy up and share equipment with other partner pairs. Kirra and I shared our equipment with Kaycee and Mia M. We both had to sort out our schedules so that all of us could use it. I know of some people who shared with 3 pairs of partners! It was a pretty hectic experience that I think we should all take away the message of not procrastinating and waiting until the last minute. Currently, Kirra and I are on track. We created our TIAS, 5 Points, and we filmed the interview with Moses and his parents. While we were there, we got a decent amount of b-roll, too. I'm a prerty big believer on transcribing the same day you've filmed, so we just have one more interview to transcribe until we can start working on our script! Scripts are due soon, so hopefully Kirra and I will stay on schedule! The last challenge I faced was keeping up with all of the deadlines.
     Overall, we all have had to face some kind of challenge over these 3 weeks of school. For me, I was challenged with doing blogs, starting on our first quarter projects, and keeping up with deadlines. The important thing though, is to put to use what you've learned as you beat the challenge. I'll definitely be putting more effort into my blog, and refraining from procrastination. How about you? Well, that's it for this weeks constructed response! Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day!
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Alt-J: Breezeblocks

8/22/2015

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      Hey Everyone! For this weeks reflective response, I'll be sharing with you a video I found pretty interesting and unique. It is a music video for the song, "Breezeblocks" by the band Alt-J. I highly suggest you watch the video first before continuing on reading. 
     Anyways, I thought it was a pretty intriguing music video, and I hoped you liked it too. You could probably tell, the whole music video was in reverse. I think the term for this in cinematography is 'reverse motion'. It's when the action in the video is played backwards, which when used correctly, can add lots of suspense and anticipation. I think this video is a great example of just that. You start off with a shot of the dead lady in the bathtub, and as the video progresses, it reveals what actually happened. Reverse motion caused me to make assumptions that I found out at the end of the video, weren't true.  Initially, I thought the man was brutally attacking the woman, but I found out that it was actually self defense. I thought this because that's how it plotted out. It showed the woman running away from the man, and she looked scared. But then, we actually realize that the woman attacked him first. I think this video was really structured well, in a way that added that twist in the end. The composition of shots really helps tell the story. For example, they strategically used close-ups, to show emotion, but to also set up the story. There were close-ups of faces, like of the woman in the cupboard who you could distinctly tell was upset and afraid. But there were also close-ups of hands. There was a shot of the lady in the tub, and a shot of the man's hands, and a shot of the woman's (who was in the cupboard) hand. What I took away from this was that the man and the kidnapped woman, were married, because there were several shots of their rings. However, the dead lady did not have a ring on. There were lots of shots of the man's ring, which means the director really wanted that to be clear. Also, if you were wondering what "breezeblocks" meant, it's basically the British way of saying "cinderblock". The breezeblock was what was used to kill the woman. I really liked the shot of the glass bottles breaking. It really looked cool seeing all the shards get put back together. Not only was it compelling of them to use reverse motion, but I did like the fact that they slowed it down. If it wasn't slowed down, it would be hard to tell what was going on, and it wouldn't convey much emotion. Slowed down, you can really feel the mood on the actors faces, especially at 1:24. I thought the actors did a very nice job in getting emotion across. My favorite shot overall though, would have to be the last shot. It's a really nice silhouette of the man 'leaving' his apartment. The keys and the light switch really help too. I do enjoy how the light switch turning off is synced to the beat. If you're interested in seeing the reversed version of this, you can watch it by clicking here. Well, that is it for this week's reflective response! Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Bye! 
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Sawyer Hartman: Hawaii

8/16/2015

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     Hey Everyone! For this week's reflective response, I will be talking about a video I really enjoyed called "Hawaii-Thru My Eyes". This video was created by Sawyer Hartman. Some of you might know him from YouTube, but if you don't, he is a filmmaker. You can check out all of his films by clicking here to be directed to his online portfolio. Anyways, this is from his "Thru My Eyes" series. This series is full of videos of clips of different places from around the world, captured 'through his eyes'. The one I will be talking about today was actually filmed right here on Kauai, Hawaii! You should watch the video below first, and then continue reading!
     I hoped you liked the video! The reason why I liked this video is because of it's great cinematography. As you could probably tell from watching the video, there were a lot of aerial shots taken with the DJI Phantom 3 Pro, which is a drone. Having a drone was probably very useful in getting shots of the ocean or the mountains because it allows for a different perspective than your normal static shot. It also give you the opportunity to shoot different kinds of shots that you'd normally couldn't get. An example of that is the shot of the man swimming with the turtle. Sure, maybe it would have been possible to bring an underwater housing, but I think the aerial shot worked best in that situation. Also, having the drone meant more camera movement, and that makes the video more interesting to watch, like in the shot where the camera was moving out of the cave. Overall, I think my favorite shots would have to be of the fire dancers, especially the ones in the beginning. I love how you could only see the bokeh in the dark at first, but then it slowly rack focused into the lighting of it. The lighting of this scene really added drama to it. Being that it was fire moving rapidly, also made it really nice for the bokeh. The last thing I'd like to talk about was the music. I did like how each shot were timed to the beat of the music, especially the first initial ones of the lighting of the fire. The music filled the video with a soft, calm atmosphere, and the mood stayed consistent throughout. However, after a while I got kind of bored of it since it was really repetitive for the whole 6 minutes throughout. That is something to be aware of when adding music to your videos. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the video very much. I think that living here is something I far too often take for granted. This video opened up my eyes and made me realize how beautiful and breathtaking this island really is. I hope you liked the video also! Well, that will be it for this week's reflective response! Thanks for reading! Bye!
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New School Year!

8/14/2015

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     Hey Everyone! It's finally the new school year and I am officially an eighth grader! Wow, these past years have gone by really quickly. But I am very excited to make this a great year. Last week was pretty eventful, being the first week of school and all. But it was also busy in the media class. We learned who our partners were, had our pitch party, and got to meet the new students of the CKTV Ohana! For this week's constructed response, I will be writing to you about how my first week in media went. My first week of media went well for three reasons. First off, the morning announcements ran smoothly. Secondly, my partner Kirra and I have our topics selected. Finally, I got to meet all the new students and see my friends again! 
     The first reason why the first week of media went well was because the morning announcements broadcast operated well. Unlike last year, advisory is in the morning. Yep, that's right, the schedule changed back to how it was when I was in sixth grade. Since we didn't have our weekly teams formed yet, our broadcast team consisted of all eighth grade returning students. Granted, it is expected to go well being that most of us are 3 year students. I was the director for the week, so I had to tell my teammates when to switch, fade on the titles, etc. For the whole week, the broadcast was good. We got to practice a bunch of times which was essential since "Practice makes Perfect". Now that advisory was in the morning, I think it changed the mindset of the team to focus more. Last year since advisory was in the middle of the school day, people could just say "Oh, let's just come in for recess and practice." But now because of the schedule change, I think it'll help the broadcast team stay on track and not mess about. That was one reason why I thought my first week of media went well.
     Another reason why the first week of media went well was because my partner Kirra and I have our topics for our 1st quarter projects selected. Unfortunately, Kirra was sick for the first week of school, so she wasn't here for our pitch party. Basically, a pitch party is where the whole class 'pitches' or throws out their idea and Mr. M gives us feedback. On the behalf of the both of us, I pitched out a feature story on an inspiring man named Moses Hamilton. After Moses got into a car accident in 2002, he became a quadriplegic, someone who is paralyzed in the arms and legs. While he was in the hospital, he learned how to paint with his mouth! He is now a very successful artist of his business, "MosArt". If you're interested in learning more about our project, click here to read our TIAS. Anyways, we have our topic set, and now it is time to get started! It'll be a long, stressful process but the end result is definitely worth it. Kirra and I just have to make sure that we stay ahead of the game, and not procrastinate! Last week went well because my partner and I have our topics set.
     The next reason why the first week of media went well was because I got to meet all the new students and see my friends again! I missed everyone during the summer and it was very nice to see everyone again. It was also really great to meet the new students! They all seem nice and I'm excited to be spending this year with them. I'm really terrible at names at first, so I apologize in advance! But don't worry, I promise I'll get them down! Please don't be afraid to ask me questions! I am happy to help! I really like how this year we have lots of bonding activities. I think it's an awesome idea! This media class made me discover the great people I am proud to call my friends today. We're all a family here, so I hope we can all get along! The first week of media went well because I got to see my friends again and meet the new students!

     Overall, the first week of media for me was good for three reasons, the morning announcements broadcast went well, Kirra and I have our first quarter project idea set, and I got to see all my friends and meet the new students of our class! Sadly this will be my final year in CKTV, so I'm going to try to do my best work! I hope that this year will be full of success and lessons for all of us! Let's make this year a great one everyone! Well, that will be it for this week's constructed response! Thank you so much for reading! Bye!
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    mr.m's blog topics

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    Hi! I'm Alaysia Navor, a third year student in the CKTV Media Productions class. I'll be publishing 2 blogs each week, posted to the left. You can also check out the tabs, "Inside Scoop" and "Projects" for some of my other work.

    "A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor"

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  • Home
  • About Me
    • CKTV Media Productions
  • Blog
  • Inside Scoop
  • Projects
    • Quarter 1: Quadriplegic Painter
    • Quarter 2: Need For Foster Families
    • Quarter 3: Tumbling Towers PSA
    • Quarter 4: Media For Dummies
  • Resources
  • Archive
    • 2014-2015 Projects >
      • Quarter 1: Colored Placards
      • Quarter 2: Lanakila Kitchen
      • Quarter 3: Anti-Smoking PSA
      • Quarter 4: Music Video
      • STN 2014-2015
    • Past Inside Scoops