Filming your movie 1

The filming stage will be a lot easier if you’ve followed the planning guidelines first.

Shooting simple films

If you’re just shooting a record of a place or event you might not need to follow a storyboard or script. But you must have an idea of what you’re going to film, even if it’s just a simple shot list. Make sure you get a variety of shot sizes: extreme long shots to show the place, long shots and mid shots of people, and plenty of close-ups of people and things.

Ten shooting tips for beginner filmmakers

Are you ready to start filming?

You need to set up each shot carefully. You may need to move the camera to a different position to get the framing, the light and the background right.

•Check the framing. Make sure you don’t cut out anything important, and that you don’t include anything distracting or confusing.

•Check the light. Look at the shot in your viewfinder or on the screen. Does it look right? If it looks too bright or too dark, can you change the exposure? (set it manually or use exposure compensation).

•Check the focus. Is the shot sharp? If it’s a shallow focus shot, is the right part of the scene in focus?

•Check the sound. Get everyone to be quiet, then listen for half a minute. Can you hear anything that will come out on your film? Is there anything you can do about it? If you can, check the sound on headphones.

•Check that everyone’s ready. Say ‘Standby’ or just tell people that you’re about to start filming.

Getting everything you need

With actors or presenters, you’ll need to rehearse the scene a couple of times before you film it. Get them to run through the scene a couple of times, making any changes to their positions and performances. Then start to work out where to put the camera for each shot. This process is called blocking.

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