Oxford

Why Oxford?
Oxford offered a different environment to collect footage in and allowed use to venture out of the comfort zone of Nuneaton.  We where challenged to fend for ourselves on a location and we encouraged to pre plan and organised ourselves before and when we were there. 

The weather wasn't the best but was also not a suveriour issue, as light drizzle was predicted but it never rained. The day had a lot of over cast and was very dull; however i found this to be a plus as is stopped the nautral lighting from being intermissant, so all the footage had the same lighting, this would later come in handy for when editing and trying to keep continuity (even though this is not a problem in new wave films).

Filming On Location

Location: Oxford

Date: 22^nd October 2012

Brief: To practise filming in a location outside of nuneaton; capture the essence of the area and film colourful environments. 

·      Equipment Used

·      Canon 500D

·      Canon 600D x2

·      Fluid Head Tripod

·      Small Lumix digital camera 

·      Boom Microphone

·      Spared, Cleared SD Cards
·      Reflector
·      Umbrella 

·      Experience
      I really enjoy filming in Oxford; it was more picturesque and had a larger variety of environments than those found in Nuneaton. I found the experience to be different filming on location in Oxford compare to filming on location in Nuneaton, as people were more accepting of use filming in the street and they tended to stare more and just carried on with what they were doing. I liked this as we didn't have to waste time explaining to curious people what we were doing, we could just get on with filming and move along. Because the people there were more excepting of use filming it was easier to ask for permission to film in shops, in particular at the Truck Music Shop, as the man who ran it said that he had to go throughout the same experiences when he did a film course so he was more than willing to let us use his shop to film in. 

Problems 
For the majority of the day everything ran smoothly, but we did rub into a few problems.
The first problem we can across was a minor one; the permission sheets we forgotten. However Sammie had the permission slip on a memory stick so we found a library nearby, by looking on google maps in our phones, then we printed one off and photocopied several.
The second problem was an issues as the tripod plate was missing where the camera attaches. at first we  thought that we would not be able to use the tripod, which was annoying as we had found a colourful street that we wanted to get a pan of.  but we managed to secure the camera to the tripod with our college lanyards. Surprisingly this worked effectively and the camera was steady and secure on the tripod, but as an extra procaution we kept our hand on the camera at all times when attached to the tripod.

When we were back at college the next day and reviewing the footage we had collected we realised that our interview with the boom mic was muffled and the gentleman could not he heard, only the music coming from the speaker, which the boom was next to. when using the boom mic, the man was being pick up mores than the music, so we thought that the positioning of the boom was okay. (I will discuss this further in a later post).

Cowley Road 

A - Where Bus Was Parked, B - Cowley Road

Cowley Road was the first location we were going to film; we decides this because it was the farthest location away from where the bus had parked. even though we knew it was far it took longer than anticipated, one, because it was far away and two, because we stopped on more than one occasion to shoot places we came across on the way to the location that looked interesting. These frequent stops did effect our timing schedule, so we didn't have enough time to visit the last destination we had planned to go to - Jericho- but, it did provide us with interesting, useful and different footage that we hadn't intended on shooting.

Firstly when we where walking to Cowley Road along High Street we came across some very colourfully painted building and straight away we were able to cover one of the brief points to capture different coloured environments. This is where we first realised that we did not have the tripod plate and had to attach the camera by lanyards. we could have used hand held camera but we felt it would look better on the tripod. 

Along the way we passed a small alley as decided to shoot some footage here as it was different to anything we had seen in Nuneaton. This footage gave a indication to the place where we were, and i also feel that it fits in with the New Wave themes capturing real areas. not only because of this but also, the people passing by look at the camera and this shows a real environment with real people and not actors. 

Also in the alley we were able to contribute to one point in the brief of capturing colour. we did this by filming the brightly painted houses that were down the alley. 

 

Mr. Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe 

A - Mr. Simms, B - Cowley Street

Another stop along the way was an old-fashioned style sweet shop that was brightly coloured, called Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe. We decided go go inside and collect footage here as we felt the shop offered a vast amount of colour and interesting shoots and lighting. we had to experiment with the white balance as the lighting in the shop caused to footage to have an orange tinge to it. we knew it was the lighting in the shop and no the white balance being off on the camera because the white balance that the camera was set on didn't distraught the footage we gathered outside. We upped the k value to add blue to the footage which made the images look much more realistic and the array of colours could be seen more clearly. 

Screen shot of the footage without adjusting the white value. The colours all have an orange/red feel to them and causes the colours to almost blend in together. 

Aperture: f/22.5, Shutter Speed: 1/500, ISO: 3200 and White Balance: 8000k  

Screen shot after adjusting the white balance to about 2500k. The colours are more defined and vibrant.

We left the aperture and shutter speed the same but changed the ISO setting to 64 and the White Balance to 2500.

Before any shooting we had to make sure we had permission from the store owner/manager and get them to sign the release form. We approached one of the staff members, explaining our project and what we would like to shoot inside the shop and from this we gained permission and had the release form signed as long as we did not film any of the customers that came into the stop. We happily agreed and because the shop was fairly quiet for the most of it it as easy not to film any customers. 

After we had permission we set up the equipment, keeping the equipment we were not using out of the way tucked in one corner so that we didn't trip over it and neither did any customers that were in the shop or going to be. because the shop was fairly small we were very careful of how we manoeuvred around the shop and where we placed our equipment, so not to damage the shop of cause harm to any of the people in the shop or ourselves.

Footage Analysis

Off Tilt Camera 

       For most of the shots that we tool in Mr. Simms we ignored the rule of thirds to emphasis the subject's symmetry. This worked for the mostly and the symmetry was seen, however the camera was at a slight downward tilt to the right. This could have been down to the camera being attached to the tripod by lanyards, but if we had noticed at the time (which i didn't until the next day, when reviewing the footage) the tripod could have easily been raised on the right side to even the tilt out. When a symmetry shot was taken without the tripod there was no tilt and the symmetry was clear.

This is a screen shot that shows a downward tilt to the right during a shot. this tilt is made more noticeable because of the symmetry within the shot, which was meant to be even.  This shot was taken on the fluid head tripod.

Here is a screen shot that shows an hand held shot with no tilt and the symmetry is seen and can be appreciated. 

     

The above clip shows the slight tilt that was on the camera

       We did purposely take a shot that was completely off balance. this gave the footage a dream like appearance as well as the pastel colours that were in the shot, and help to fit one of the New Wave techniques of unusual camera angle. 

Colours 

Pastel Colours 

Bright Colours

We gathered a vast scale of colours when filming in and around Mr. Simms. Inside we were able to capture light pastel coloured scenes and one the other end of the scale vibrant bright colours. and when we ventured outside the colour where duller, with browns and greys. 

Also when we went outside and crossed the road to get some footage of the front of the shop the grittier side to oxford was seen; this was only about twenty metres from the picturesque scene. Here social realism can be seen. 

We eventually made it to Cowley Road after multiple stops and shot a small amount of footage in 'grittier' street and got some lovely shots of a large wall of graffiti, providing brilliant contrast to the earlier footage of the day. 

A few seconds past the wall there was a very colourful bench; this would not only help to fulfil one of the briefs criterion of capturing colour but I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to get footage from a different angle (this off angle shot is hep to meet a New Wave technique of unusual camera angles).  We used a small aperture, f/22, so all of the shot is in focus.  As for the positioning of of the bench, I feel that the bench is nice and central and the set up of the bench  drowns the eyes and focus in.

Truck Music Store

After this we headed straight for the record store that we had intended to go to in the first place, once again we had to ask for permission, which the shop owners were more that happy to give, and after a short explanation of what we intended to do we began setting up. We also took this opportunity to ask the manager if would like to take part in a short interview which gave us chance to set up and make use of the boom microphone ( I will disgust this in more detail later on). 

The Turf Tavern 
From here, we went on to find The Turf Tavern, a small famous pub situation off an alleyway in the heart of Oxford, and again got permission from a member of staff to film there and proceeded to get some beautiful shots of the very picturesque location.

We got some shots of fire, as this was a new kind of footage that we had not obtained before. Also we introduced a character in to our footage so that we did not just have random clips from different places within Oxford  the character will allow us later to edit the footage together and create a narrative. 

Overall  In  the end, I feel that the day was a success; helped by the planning done the day before. We managed to collect footage that was on the brief as well as extra footage that we did not intend to film.  because we capture more footage from other unscheduled areas of Oxford I am not to concerned that we didn't manage to make it to Jericho. 

New Wave Conventions Checklist

·      Hand-held ✓

All of the footage that I filmed I did hand held. this was mainly down to the fact that to attach the camera to the tripod I would have to waste time trying to tie it to the tripod head; and as we had a limited time in Oxford, I didn't want to waste any time with that when I could just hold the camera (and as hand held footage is an aspect of new wave I wasn't too concerned with using the tripod).

·     Long takes/tracking shots ✗ 

·     Youthful iconoclasm ✓

I feel that this was capture in the record shop, and showed the difference between the youth of Oxford and Nuneaton. 

·      Political and/or social troubles captured ✗ 

I feel that there were not that many obvious political or social problems. unlike the area we visited in Nuneaton  the areas of Oxford were in better condition, with no litter visible on the streets, and the little litter I did manage to find was in a open drainage system that was hidden away. also there wasn't any vandalism, like graffiti - even though there was a wall of graffiti it added beauty to the area rather than ruining it. 

·      Homemade accessories/innovative camera movement ✗  

There were not any opportunities to practice this new wave technique. the only one that we would have had would have been a long tracking shot on the bus, however the windows did not open so the reflection and glare off the glass would have been visible in the footage. 

·      Documentary feel ✗ 

Personally I feel that we achieved this, somewhat. All the people in the clips were not actors - even thought they seem used to the camera's, maybe because of the high tourist numbers in the area. Some of the by passes look directly at the camera, this i feel helped with the documentary feel. What also adds to the documentary feel is the interview we conducted in the record store. CLIP

·      Friends used to act or as crew ✓ 

We introduced Jack as a character  this was done to help with future editing and give a narrative  but also helped to fit this new wave criterion of friends as crew and actors to keep a low budget.  CLIP

 ·  Unbiased and personal realism ✓  

(In this case the realism was unbiased, as we did not completely know what to expect when visiting Oxford. We where fortune enough to be able to catch both sides of Oxford; the side that attracts tourists and the realist side, of graffiti and dying businesses.  

·      Real locations/ environments ✓ 

As the main brief was to film the streets of Oxford, this was checked straight away; we also managed to shoot in real locations of shops (something we had not done before)

·      Improvised dialogue ✓ 

During the interview with the record store managers we did a Q&A session to create spontaneous dialogue. 

·     Take the audience out of the film/direct address to the camera ✗ (

·      Establishing shots ✓

We only took a few establishing shot and they were from ground level and captured the essence of the area. An establishing shot that we took of the building across the street, not only check the new wave point of establishing shots but also tick the brief by capturing colour. CLIP

·      Rapid movement ✗

·      Unusual camera angles ✓

This was done in Mr Simms Sweet Shop. (Explained more above)