LO5: Evidence of editing and cinematography effects

When editing clips of the two thrift stores, I knew that an important visual element of these clips would be the colour grading. I looked through all the different creative effects and settled on using "Fuji REALA 500D Kodak 2393". I feel that this is fitting because it gives the clips a retro vibe which fits with the idea of thrifting.

 When editing the clips which are of the Rana Plaza disaster, I wanted to make them black and white as I noticed that the quality of the clips looked bad in my offline edit. I used the creative effect "SL NOIR NOUVELLE" as I believed that this would improve the look of the clips and also add more of an ominous vibe.

 I added titles to my short film, using the same font for all. I wanted there to be continuity though out the short film so I made sure that all graphics I added were in the font "Vogue". I believe that this made my film look more professional.

I applied transitions to much of my documentary. The one that I used the most was "film dissolve". This one looked really effective when transitioning between the questions and the clips from the interviews. The screenshots show how this effect looks when put into my film. I really like the way that the text is still there for a moment at the beginning of the next clip.

I believe that the post-production techniques which I have used such as the way that I applied colour grading and transitions to my work has helped to create meaning within my cinematography. The effects I have chosen for my colour grading links with the genre of the shirt film, portraying the indie nature of thrift stores. The transitions I have applied  compliment my short documentary film as they support the graphics which I have added with the questions that I asked during my interview. Overall I am happy with the finished film I have created and believe that my cinematography through was strong due to the research that I did and experience that I gained throughout filming and editing my own short film. 

LO4: How meaning was created through the use of lighting and camera settings

The short documentary which I created starts dramatically at the start in order to show the devastating impact that the collapse of Rana Plaza had on Bangladesh. I managed to create this through the way that I used sound within my short film. After the title though, the film becomes happier as it focuses on the things that we can do to change the fashion community in a positive way. I symbolised this through my use of music along with the camera and lighting settings that I chose. 

Within my documentary, I used a three point lighting system in order to make sure that my interview scenes were well lit, making the audience focus on the person who is speaking, the manager of Thrifty Store, Bally Johal. The way that my shots were well lit meant that it created a profesional look to my film. Due to the way that my shots were clear from a combination of the lighting techniques and camera settings that I used, meant that the audience can focus on the main person who is being interviewed. By creating a more personal connection with the  interviewee, it means that my audience are more likely to engage and therefore listen to and take into account what Johal was saying. I believe that the profesional look to this interview also did this as it meant that the audience believed that what Bally Johal was saying was something serious that needed thinking about.

I used a tripod to keep my camera still during the interview, however I did use the zoom tool on the camera to get a variety of medium, medium close up and close up shots during the interview. This gave me a variety of different shots when I was editing to keep my short documentary engaging. By keeping the camera in one place for the interview, it meant that the lighting stayed the same throughout the clips creating consistency throughout the interview within my short film. I used natural lighting with the right camera setting when filming the shots of the store itself as I needed movement within these clips and therefore couldn't use the static lighting which I had set up.

I believe that the lighting techniques and camera settings which I used within my short film were successful as they matched what I wanted to portray through my documentary which was professionalism. This is because I wanted my audience to engage with what Johal was saying as the information within my short film was important and I believed that the visuals needed to be in place to back this up.

LO4: Reflecting genre conventions

LO4: Applying cinematic lighting and Manipulating Camera Settings

This is an image of me setting up my camera to shoot on.  The equipment which I used when creating my documentary was a 4k camera, tripod and microphone. These were the pieces of equipment which I believed I needed in order to make my footage look professional and meet the industry standards.

Here I am setting up the tripod which I used in order to film my interview. A tripod was useful for this as it meant that I could be stood behind the camera asking questions without having to try and hold the camera steady. I set the tripod up both before the day I was filming and also when I was as well. I set it up so that I knew that it worked, meaning that each leg extended and the camera sat on the tripod, being secure so that it didn't fall off and break.




I did not take any images of me setting up the three-point lighting system as I was under time constraints when it came to me record my interview with the owner of thrifty store, however you cans see from clips within my documentary that I managed to get the lighting right, keeping the overhead lights on as well as the store was quite dark and I knew that  my footage would need to be bright due to it being an interview. I did a good job of making sure that the footage was not too overexposed from the use of extra lighting however. This screenshot is from the offline edit of my documentary, showing what the interview scene looked like without any effects and just from using lighting techniques.

When filming, I tried different camera settings in practice shots before hand as I knew that it would be important to maintain the same setting for the entirety of my documentary so that there was continuity between the clips. Also I wanted the footage from the interview to be easy and not staged so ideally when shooting I did not want to have to record this more than once as I believed that this would cause the answers to seem too practiced. I did play about with camera settings when it came to filming clips in and around the shop. I could not use my three point lighting set up when filming these shots as I was not using the tripod and was moving around whilst filming. This meant that it would not be appropriate to use these. I relied on the natural light as well as the overhead lights when filming these shots and I made sure to take multiple clips with different camera settings such as making the aperture higher to let more light into the shot. The use of manual camera settings was something which I believed really benefitted the outcome of my clips as it meant that I could have control over how each clip looked. After doing research into the right apertures and ISO to use, I decided that it was important for me to use a smaller ISO. Originally I decided that I wanted a smaller aperture when shooting the interview so that Bally Johal was in focus and the background was out of focus however when I did this, I realised that the shot was too dark, even with my lighting set up. The only way that I could have corrected this was by turning up the ISO and I recognised that it was most important to make sure that the shots were clear. If I was to turn up the ISO it would have added grain and texture to my shots so I decided that it was most important to compromise and have a clear shot rather than creating a shot where then background was out of focus. I did do a lot of experimenting before I found the right camera settings as there was some source of light so I did not want to make the shots overexposed. I think that the natural lighting worked really well within these shots due to the camera settings which I filmed with.

LO3: Storyboards