Saturday, 15 August 2015

Week 3: Filming

I had my script, storyboard, supplies and apps ready to go, now I just have to dive in and film!  I'm sure many people don't like filming themselves but I was definitely dreading it.  My script is broken down into four main parts for filming: person straight to camera introducing the concept, stop-animation of the game play using cardboard and whiteboard + voice over, footage of person interacting with the play mat + voice over, and intermittent bits of animation/high res graphics.

The voice over was easy enough, I used the blanket-over-the-head technique from Grumo Media.

The animation/graphics I have done some of and will complete as I edit the film together.

The stop-animation was interesting to put together.  I found I had to re-shoot the beginning sections a few times as I figured things out.  I started out with a lynda.com tutorial on this so was prepared with an app and a plan.  The first few takes I used a stop-animation app but it looked like it reduced the quality of the pictures and I thought it might compromise the end result.  So, I went back and re-set and took images again just using the camera app.  I then realised it wasn't set out quite how I wanted and third time lucky, re-set and re-shot.  I used a piece of cardboard with a line on it to measure the distance from the side of the cat to the edge of the screen.  I also drew lines on the whiteboard to line up the shot, one under the dots that I lined up the bottom of the photo with, the other I used to align the sun with as it moved.  Here is an image with all my guides.


The next section I filmed was talking straight to camera + the interactive mat.  I ended up with quite a set-up to film the introduction with books on stands to get the camera right and a toilet roll cut out to hold the camera in place.  I also had a large sheet of white cardboard set-up to help reflect light.  


I filmed at least a dozen takes, the first few individually, and then once I worked out exactly where to stand, where to look, when I closed (or rolled!) my eyes, I just kept it running and did it over and over again.

Next stop: editing.

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