Week 4 : Camera Handling

White Balance Setting

White balance basically means colour balance. It is a function which gives the camera a reference to "true white" — it tells the camera what the colour white looks like, so the camera will record it correctly. Since white light is the sum of all other colours, the camera will then display all colours correctly.
Incorrect white balance shows up as pictures with orange or blue tints, as demonstrated by the following examples:

Correct colour balance

Colour balance too blue

Colour balance too yellow

Most consumer-level camcorders have an "auto-white balance" feature, and this is how most amateurs operate. The camera performs it's own white balance without any input from the operator. In fact, very few home-video users are aware of it's existence. Unfortunately, the auto-white balance is not particularly reliable and it is usually preferable to perform this function manually.

You will need:

• A camera with a manual white-balance function. There should be a "white balance" button or switch on your camera.
  

1. If your camera has a filter wheel (or if you use add-on filters), make sure you are using the correct filter for the lighting conditions.
   
2. Point your camera to a pure white subject, so that most of what you're seeing in the viewfinder is white. Opinions vary on just how much white needs to be in the frame - but we've found that about 50-80% of the frame should be fine (Sony recommends 80% of frame width). The subject should be fairly matte, that is, non-reflective.
   
3. Set your exposure and focus.
   
4. Activate the white balance by pressing the button or throwing the switch. The camera may take a few seconds to complete the operation, after which you should get a message (or icon) in the viewfinder.
   Hopefully this will be telling you that the white balance has succeeded - in this case, the camera will retain it's current colour balance until another white balance is performed.
   If the viewfinder message is that the white balance has failed, then you need to find out why. A good camera will give you a clue such as "colour temperature too high" (in which case change filters). Also try opening or closing the iris a little.
   

Cut Away Shots

This technique called cutaway is a shot that's usually of something other than the current action. It could be a different subject (eg. this cat when the main subject is its owner), a close up of a different part of the subject (eg. the subject's hands), or just about anything else.
The cutaway is used as a "buffer" between shots (to help the editing process), or to add interest/information.
Here is the good example to show of how cutaway shots work.

Task for today

Before end of class, lecturer show us an example video movie made by our senior for this subject tittle "Revenge". Homework for today is, we have to discuss in our group of 3 or 4 to create short movie (about 5 to 10 minutes). For next week we need to prepare movie script. Hmmm what we want to do huh? Give us an ideas...Please! Hope we can do the best for this task.