Today’s session promised to be an interesting one as Carly was going to be coming in later to give us an introduction to one of the camera kits here at the university. Before that however we had some theory work to do, and this was learning about narrative and continuity and how important it is. The intention of the filmmaker is to make the story believable and cohesive, obviously making continuity such a huge part of the process. It would confuse the audience if they see the same thing twice but from different angles due to bad editing. Or if a character took his coat off in one shot, but in the very next they were wearing it again. On bigger budget film sets they have a continuity chief whose job it is specifically looking out for such mistakes and blunders.

After studying continuity, we moved on to sound and why it was important. Obviously that sounds daft, of course sound is important, but the importance of it lies in the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds that lie within a scene. Diegetic means what’s actually happening in the scene (speech, footsteps, rustling clothes), and non-diegetic means anything outside it (background music, traffic, birds and wind). Being conscious of sounds around you when filming is vital so that you don’t pick up to much non-diegetic sound that is ruins your shots as it’s important to remember you can only edit with what you shoot.

Speaking of shooting, after lunch we were given a camera, a JVC Carly the technician gave us an introduction to earlier, and were told to come up with an idea, a script, a storyboard and a shot list and go find somewhere to film. Our group found a spot outside and got to filming, remembering everything Carly taught us about the camera, how to set it up and make sure its level.

This session taught me that I’m not much of an actor, but I enjoyed working with sound and operating the camera and that its definitely something id like to learn more about and do more of.