Through-out the start of the project, I was confused on what to do this final project on, I had some small ideas for a trailer or even another music video, but at the time I was super excited to do a small documentary on what I enjoy the most, photography, but not just any ordinary photography.. Virtual Photography. Which is photography within virtual worlds such as video games.

After this idea, I quickly set it up into 4 segments, I had a clear vision of what I wanted at the start, the first part will introduce what virtual photography is and how it became, then I would go into another segment introducing myself, my photos, my development, style. So it being some what of a retrospective. Then the third segment showing interviews from people online in the community, showing off their work and their thoughts on the subject. Then it switching it to a thing I am very proud of. One of my photos went into an actual photography exhibit in Birmingham in the Virtual Photography section, and there were many people who complimented the shots and idea. People from Sony even came in and checked.

After talking with tutors, they thought that the idea was cool, however they said the video doesn’t follow a main story, or even a character, and I wasn’t planning on putting myself in the video. I thought for awhile of what to do, to get an actual traditional  photographer in it and see their thoughts on what it was, to follow a story of a virtual photographer themselves, and it needed a question. Which I thought for so long and by the end I went with “Why Virtual Photography?” which I would’ve hoped that would explain itself in the video. I thought for awhile and that leads me to where I am now.

The video is a short documentary on my character, Cameron and his story of what he has done through-out the topic. What he did in the past, what he thinks of it, how he changed, what made him change, how he found his style by experimenting and showing off some of the photos he has taken and edited. At the end of it he did an interview with a friend about Cameron’s work. He asked him a few questions that proves Cameron’s point.

What I think of the video is that after recording I was super worried. I was worried that it would turn into a big disappointment. Which had me worried for awhile. But when starting to edit, I thought that it didn’t look so bad, I started to like it more and more, although not too much. After doing the first voice overs I was really unhappy of how they turned out, I was super uncomfortable talking about this in the studio and asked Zak if I were able to take a microphone set home to do it there, so that’s what I did. I did it there and to be fair, thinking back on it, I should’ve re done it in the recording studio. The voice quality sounds good, but my tone is very off compared to the rest of the camera footage, but I tried to mix it well and separate the two.

I think that the video is pretty good, I really liked the way I edited it and the pace of each section fitted well with the tone. I like the style I brought to it where I always cut to footage of me. my shots and game play of me taking the photos. It was always constantly changing to engage with people, and after feedback, that’s what it seemed to be, they really enjoyed how it was edited. The issues I have with the video is that the audio really makes it worse, I have tried multiple times to even it out but using headphones doing it doesn’t help it for the computer speakers, so I have refined it as much as I can but although it can definitely be better. Also I have heard that the video doesn’t seem to have a proper conclusion, which I agree on. I really didn’t know how to end the video and I just originally thought that ending it on the interview was the best way to do it. Next time I do something like this. I will make sure to have a proper ending.

The filming itself went good. I had a clear mindset of what scenes I wanted, what I wanted to say, what angles and shots I needed. Then actually coming into it, I wish I did a proper script on it, or that i went off the entire script as I said to myself I will build a foundation script and base it off that while improvising, but instead I couldn’t think of what to say so that’s why I had to cut out a lot of scenes since I was blabbing along, but the footage I did end up using was really good, it was well shot and flowed well in the video.

Doing the production diary went good, I did everything I was meant to add into it, the research log, the inspirations, weekly evaluations, the reflective write ups, the BTS shots and Test shot write up and did them all in good detail.

I wish I did a lot more in terms of the research part as I didn’t do as much as I would like to do, I did enough of it but I think more research and having a better interest in the documentary style would’ve helped a lot.

Saying this now, as I have everything done. I do wish I did a trailer or music video instead, after being the DoP in the Usher music video has made me think about it a lot, and that’s what I want to focus on really. I think that script writing, story telling, all the things evolving around that just aren’t for me personally. Which is also mainly why I did this documentary to see that, it was to go outside of my comfort zone and to see what i am able to achieve other than filming, and although it was fun, I just am not as happy with it like I was with the music video.

Thinking about next time, I will focus on the story aspect much more. I will do a lot more research into it and make it as good as I can.

After having some feedback, a lot of people have said basically the same thing, that the pace is good, that the audio is a bit off and needs working and that the video didn’t have a proper conclusion to it. Which I agree on all of them,  which next time I will make sure to improve on them all. I will focus more on each part other than the camera shots and how it will be laid out as I think they were the best aspects of the video.

In this I will be explaining the journey of the editing process, what I had in mind originally, what changed half way through, what was constantly on my mind and how what I wanted it to look like through-out the process.

As always, I will be going through a 3 step process, the beginning, the middle and the very end. Just to show how far it’s come, if anything changed or if I kept the same thing through-out.

So here we have a rough 2 minutes of the video, this is where I just put all the clips together, in order while I was going to add everything else in afterwards. Right here I was thinking that it’ll be very organised, pretty quick cuts, from pictures, to game-play footage, this because of the shots I did record of myself weren’t really all that exciting.

Here you can see I started to add pictures in, just to give it more evidence of how bad my original shots were, the way the clips are edited seem to be all over the place, but that’s just to help me separate different clips and combine them into one.

At this point I was still unsure what kind of music to add to this. I made sure to do that at the very end or at least around the end.

|Here is a very zoomed out version of how this looks halfway, there are many pictures still missing as I was too busy sorting out the audio for the whole voice over part, which is the audio in the almost top right of the editing table.

I am still thinking the same as before, to not have too much of me but to have other stuff involved as well, just to really show what I do and how I do it, and to give a better example of how the actual photomode itself works.

I still have a lot of stuff to put in here, but all the clips are sorted in order, there are a few stuff I decided to cut out because they felt unnecessary to what I am trying to point across, it also felt too long or boring to even add as this is already a bit longer than I thought it would be from the start.

Okay, so here we have the final look of how it looks, as you can see I have added all the pictures, videos and other mini clips into it and it looks confusing. The clips of me are still in order, as it felt unneeded to move them around. In changed some of the picures and cut some out to make them longer, after some feedback, I was told to add more gameplay in for some parts as I spoke about the game but only showed images instead of clips, so I made sure to add those in. I was also told to cut images to make some longer as they went by too fast and it was hard to focus on that picture, so that’s what I did.

Now, for music… it was hard to pick a song to go with this, I wanted an instrumental of a song but not sure of what, I went into YouTube looking for any background music, but then it didn’t really feel like it fitted with the video, so I decided to look at some Gorillaz song’s instrumentals, which are allowed to be used. I looked through a bunch of songs, shown in the picture below, I made a few drafts with what different songs sounded like;

I got three final songs for my video, I liked them all but really liked the El Much song in the background, it felt very subtle in the background and didn’t feel unnecessary to have. It sort of sounds like elevator music but of course it isn’t. I gave some people to watch it with the music and they thought it fitted with it and it didn’t sound out of place.

And although I am still 100% happy with the music, I can’t find anything else that would seem to fit into it.

With the actual edit itself, I liked how it turned out, from the start, I wanted it to have quick cuts, to not show a lot of me and that;s what I did, and although there is a fair bit of me in this video, as it should be, it’s sort of toned down a bit with all the other clips involved. The length is a bit longer than I thought it would be but that’s completely fine. I decided to cut out the parts with the interviews as it would’ve made it longer and I already had a little too much voice over in the video, so I just left it.

Overall, I am happy with the edit, it’s what I imaged it to be and didn’t change a lot, I think it flows pretty well although there may be a few little issues with the audio as some parts may be slightly off putting or even louder/quieter than others. And I spent a long time trying to get it to that, it’s hard.

So, for next time editing anything like this, I will make sure to focus on the audio mix even more, to make it as good as it can be.

BBFC –

The project can’t exceed an over 15 rating, which means I need to research into the BBFC principles and what they allow and don’t allow.

I went onto their website for my own research, and read a few case studies, one major one I found interesting was that with Deadpool 2 that came out in 2018, the film is a 15 age rating in the UK with a lot of gore, language and inappropriate content for vulnerable people to see. So the studios made a PG-13 version of the film following the laws and instructions by the BBFC to make sure kids where able to see it. They cut and censored all the gore-y parts that had to be in the film in terms of context for the film but added new footage too, the footage has nothing to do with he actual film itself but because it’s Deadpool and the context doesn’t need to be there, it worked out for the film and was able to be shown to younger people who wanted to see the film.

What I learnt is that they watch films and whilst watching them they go over many lists of what the film includes, so if the film has any language, violence, sex, nudity, death, drugs then that’ll factor in the rating. but also not all films with all that doesn’t exactly have to be a 15 or 18 since if it isn’t shown in detail or as little detail as possible and works in terms of the context of the film, then it will be within the targeted age rating.

They are an independent regular which means they can’t be bribed or bought off from companies, it is totally legit and don’t mess around and have been doing this since 1912.

The age ratings are; Uc, U, 12/12a PG-13, 15, 18 and specialist.

They have two main principles, one to make sure to protect children and vulnerable adults from the potential harmful or offensive content. And the other to make sure children know what is right for them and to not be forced to watch offensive content, example would be adult cartoons like Rick and Morty or Bojack Horseman, they’re cartoons but contain a lot of adult topics and is definitely not for children – but if it didn’t have an age rating on it, then people would just assume it would be for children.

I did a task in a group, which was to conduct primary research into the BBFC and how its used within film – here’s what I found in my written words;

“BBFC always explore why a certain film has that rating, or why they have to be cut or banned.” I wrote this because I found it interesting that they had to cut films or certain scenes in order to make it that rating, it must be annoying for the filmmakers themselves to either have to re shoot it or have it not in that rating.

In a group again, we looked into a Harry Potter film and give our primary and secondary research in what we think of the rating. The BBFC rating was 12 and from watching the trailer, I can see why, It is not overly violent, it doesn’t contain strong language, no drugs, no sex and it does seem like the film had that 12 rating to it.

Although I am not really worried for this for my documentary as it will not contain any language, sex, drugs, violence or anything along the lines – but it is very important to look into for research purposes and also future purposes whenever I do another thing with all that in.

Virtual Photography –

It is best here to actually talk about what Virtual Photography actually is. It is a new type of art form that is very very new. It has only been around since about 2014, well that’s when the community really started to grow. Virtual Photography is the exact same as real life photography but with a few different stuff included, one being it’s not a real life world, which includes it’s own advantages and disadvantages. The content we are photographing are all owned by the game companies themselves, which could deal with copyright issues but the companies themselves have even given permissions for people to share their game in people’s own creative mind. One thing people argue about too is that why would they even add a built-in camera into the game if they wouldn’t allow it? Which may be a topic I cover over this documentary.

People take their own photos in virtual worlds, can be from numerous amounts of games that normally contain a photo-mode (in built camera) to really make it the same as real photography. The photo-mode contains normal camera features such as, ISO, DoF, some include shutter speeds. But although it’s very similar, there are a few differences too, it doesn’t work exactly the same as a camera. The fact that when you take a photo, everything freezes, which can give you a lot more freedom in the composition process, giving you time to find the right angle. Of course once you’re done with the picture in the game, you can edit it afterwards, really giving it a special look or style to your shots. Some people like to edit photos compared to how the game is, if it’s a pretty simple game then there would/could be simple editing, or with the really out of world games can include some weird, cool edits. It’s all about experimentation, to think outside the box and to have fun with different ways to take photos, just like in real life.

Documentary Modes –

I learnt about the many modes within documentaries, the three specific ones were’

• Grierson “Voice of God”
• Cinema Verite
• Direct Cinema

Each three having different formats, of course. The first one being that there is only voice over of the filmmaker present, so for example would be the nature documentaries where there is only the footage and voice, explaining what it happening, or making it seem like they’re the one telling you what is exactly happening, there isn’t any way you could make them think about anything else while watching.

The second being that the filmmaker is present within the video, them following a story of someone, going to locations and asking questions or talking, or telling the story themselves, while being the director of the video and the main character.

The third one is direct cinema, showing no filmmaker or their voice, they edit clips together and tell the story through those, it could either be archive videos, videos they filmed themselves, animated videos, anything that will add to the video.

Out of all these three, I originally was planning to go for the first one as my plan fitted that, but after thinking and getting feedback, I realised that it isn’t the best way to handle this subject, I need to follow a story while having a person there. So I am doing the Cinema Verite one, following my story of the documentary.

Cinema Verite – (https://www.britannica.com/art/cinema-verite)

Having a look into what the origins are for this, it seems like it wasn’t exactly idolised at the start. said to be degenerating film and not artistic in any way, but still continued to carry on through-out the years to be a main part of documentaries. Originated in the 60’s to show an authentic way of showing people in their life situations or stories, it’s not made up and not put in a movie format. You can tell by most of the fourth wall breaking, the handheld camera footage, perhaps some archive footage. It just feels different to a film.

What is Cinema Verite?

Ofcom – (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/what-is-ofcom)

I was told about Ofcom, I was told that BBFC doesn’t really matter for documentaries, only for films but that Ofcom was a good thing to look into. What I learnt from overlooking their website is that it is a regulator for community services that are relied upon every day.

It seems like the do a lot of things, consisting of making sure UPS and The Royal Mail are delivering letters 6 days a week, parcels 5 days a week at a good price. They also look over the airwaves signals across the UK, this can be from mobile phones, car keys, anything wireless. They protect vulnerable people from getting scammed and also the main reason I had to look into them is that they make sure that the TV and Radio content is good for the UK to hear and watch. They check if the programme reflects on the audience it is targeted for. They listen to complaints and sometimes will dive deeper into the company is the rules are broken to a certain extent.

They are an independent company that are funded by fees by companies they regulate.

Target Audience –

From looking into some research, I am still unsure of what my target audience would actually be aiming for, obviously it would be people who are interested in video games and photography itself, which the age range can be a big gap.

Which I guess what I will be aiming for, because of this, the documentary will be universal rating and will not contain any swearing, explicit content because there’s no much need for it, especially since the age gap can vary through-out. I will mainly be targeting older, mature people such like teenagers, young adults and possibly any older people who would be interested. So, my script, voice and so on, this will result in my voice not being condescending as I doubt the older audience would want to watch or listen to such thing, but easy enough to understand if anyone else younger would be watching, but I won’t really want to be focusing on that since I don’t think they would have any interest, but it would still be there.

Equipment I need –

• Canon DLSR Camera
• Standard Tripod
• Gimble/SteadyCam
• Soft Box lights

The equipment I need are all for simple reasons, no complex camera movement, lighting, etc. I will use all this to record the footage I need for the video.

Risk Assessment –

Evidence of me sending the email to Zak.

Risk Assessment 1 ( Cameron Hardman) Here is the copy of the document itself, I did’t fill in a lot of the boxes since they weren’t relevant to what I am filming and where.

Script –

This week I plan to write the script, and the finish it next week, but most of it will be done through-out this week.

Pitch –

The pitch went better than I thought it would. I was nervous at the start as I know my subject is very unknown and there have been many controversies considering the topic, but although I was nervous throughout it, I went into detail of my plan, the story, why I chose me as a role, why I am doing this subject, etc. I thought I could’ve went into my production schedule in a bit more detail.

There were some questions that caught me off guard, one was how I will captivate my audience and I didn’t have an answer for that, one tutor suggested adding an example and recording of me taking a photo in the game itself to intrigue people.

Another question was that if I was going to talk about the controversies within it, which was that people may not like it as it’s taking photos of other’s work? Which I could somehow add into my story but since its my personal story. I don’t want to add that, although maybe at the start for context.

Interviews –

In the video I will have three interviews, one recorded on footage of my friend, and then another two at the end in written interviews, this will be put in the end of the video, and won’t be voiced by me, as they are written interviews it feels necessary  to have other people voice it as it were them themselves.

The reason for the interviews is because I wanted an interview from someone who doesn’t know a lot about virtual photography, but knows somethings. I felt it was good to have other perspectives and characters in the video other than myself, it also helps with the editing process of not being able to see my face all the time.

The reason for the written interviews, is because that they are people from across the world online, and they preferred not to do a recorded interview, which is fine as I can get people to voice their roles, but the main reason why I actually wanted them in the end of the video is because that they are apart of the community, and have been for awhile now so to just get their perspective on what they think of the community and their experiences will add nicely in the video.

 

I asked two people for the written interviews, here is the proof of them sending it to me;

This person, alias is named “Virtua Photographer” sent me a big interview on Google Docs;

The next person, alias “ScionJay96” Sent me his interview to my college email;

Voice Over –

I have emailed Zak to ask if me and two other people are quickly allowed to use the recording studio for my voice over.

Here is the email proof;

 

 

I have now done the voice overs, mine and the interviewer’s, but very unsure about my actual part, I made a lot of mistakes and don’t like the tone I did while doing it, it doesn’t seem to fit. I will re-email Zak to see if I am able to re-record.

 

It turns out that I will not be able to re-record in the recording studio, so I asked if I can borrow a Microphone so I could do it at home, and I was able to, he gave me a PMD device and a Rhode microphone which was very good, easy and quick to use, the voice over is all done now.

 

 

Research into Documentaries –

I have been Googling many websites looking into ways to create a documentary. this website here has given us tips to use for when you are thinking to start one.

(https://www.filmmakingstuff.com/12-tips-how-to-make-a-documentary/)

This website, although is to help pros or beginners for their documentary, is for a real full-length documentary, so there are lists here saying to make march, raise funds, give free DVDs and to create your own music. Which I will not be needing within this documentary.

The website says to always think about the end of the documentary first, to think about the target audience you want to achieve, what the outcome is and how it’ll affect people in the end. Which I will add up upon whilst creating the factual short. This is one of the only tips I can use for the documentary I am doing, in further research, I will try and find research that is more useful to me.

(https://www.desktop-documentaries.com/documentary-structure.html)

I have looked into the three act structure which has been a main aspect of film itself, I knew about this structure before but didn’t know how to work it itself. You have three acts in it, the start, middle and end. The website is explaining it in a manner of a character story line.

The first act shows the mood of the overall film, it starts off the plot and most importantly, introduces us to the main character(s) and how they will embark on their journey.

The second act is for them to attempt to overcome their challenges or even have worse challenges appear, for them to either fail or defeat it in the third act. It gives a better look to what the story is.

The third act is basically the finale of the film, the ending but also the events that turn around after the second act, how it builds up to the end. It helps to figure out what your ending is before starting or continuing anymore. Does it give any meaning? Was there any purpose? Did the first two acts pay off for the finale? All of these I will keep a close look into and try and figure out what I really want to do for the script. For my documentary, I am still deciding on if to add any characters or not, but if there are no people, then there is not a good connection with people apart from the voice over.

Research Plan – Justifying my research.

Through my research, I will get both primary and secondary research for this. Primary will consist of surveys and interviews. The reason why is because I need my own research within this, the survey will consist of me questioning people if they know about virtual photography, how they found out, what they think it is, if they have any experience within it, if they would have any interest within a documentary about it?

I asked all these because it fits what I will be doing, I will be explaining my experience and journey for the story, the primary will help me get personal views about the subject. It’ll boost up my research and the interviews will help the video itself, it’s people talking about their own experience with the subject. It’ll help with more open minded opinions.

The secondary will be used for help with my documentary and script, since I know a lot about the main subject myself, and the fact that not many people know about this so there is hardly anything online about it. I will use a virtual photography website someone I know has made that talks about the game’s photo mode, tips and tricks, wallpapers, etc. The reason for my research on documentaries as I am still unsure of what to do for it overall, I have an idea but the research will help me. Same with the script.

Primary Research – Surveys.

So here I got 25 people to answer this quick survey on Virtual Photography. I asked them questions on if they have ever heard of Virtual Photography before, and if they have, where? But if they haven’t, what do they think it is on random thought? 

Here are the results, I will do some in Pie charts to make it easier to analyse.

Question 1 – Have you ever heard of Virtual Photography?

So, out of 25 people, there seems to be a sort of split. With 12 people knowing what it is, but 9 people not knowing what it is, Two very close numbers and along with 4 other people having some sort of clue what it is. From this survey, I wanted to test people to see if they knew what the subject was and how they heard it, or if they haven’t heard of it, what they think it is and then asking if they would be interested if a documentary was made on it. I got all the answers I needed. But it is interesting to see almost a split in people knowing. We will soon find out how they know.

Question 2 – If you have heard of Virtual Photography before, where did you hear about it?

Out of 17 people who answered this, which almost adds up to the people who have a slight clue what it is answered a bunch of answers for this, a lot of one’s with only 1 person has said it which that includes with other. As you can see, the orange coloured part of the pie is the biggest, which has 8 people saying that they have heard it from a  friend. The other big one, the grey one, is the “other” one. Which has 6 people answer it, now this includes answers such like; from game developers, being apart of the community, TV, Class and online. Many different answered and although most of them seem the be online based too, but in many different ways it seems. From game developers supporting the cause and knowing of the subject to hearing it in their class, being apart of their community and also on TV? Which has confused me the most as I know for sure that Virtual Photography has been said on TV. Maybe they mistook it from somewhere. But if so, then that is a good step forward for the community.

Question 3 – If you haven’t heard of it before, what do you think it is?

Out of this Pie chart, less people answered on this one, around 10 people did. The two big ones that have the same people, 4 people voted for both VR Photography and “other”, which included moving photos, virtual tours, and making photography look real? It is very interesting to see what people guess what they think of the subject without knowing anything. The blue one with only 2 people answering is the lowest one out of the three, which I don’t get if they mean computer generated photography like Photoshop or anything, I am unsure. But the fact that VR Photography is the top one is cool because it’s completely different to what it actually is. Which is why I wanted people to do this survey even if they have never heard virtual photography before, it was to let me know for my documentary to add a good example in the video of what virtual photography is.

Question 4 – Would you do more research into the subject? Look more into it?

I asked this question to see if people were interested enough that they would do more research, out of 25 people, it seems like 12 people said they would as it seems interesting, now not sure if they’re just saying that because of the survey or they would actually do their word on it but the fact that they said they would be willing to is very nice to hear, also having 4 people saying they have already done research or have participated within the subject is really nice too. There’s still 6 people who are still unsure of what it is and 3 people saying they wouldn’t, which of course is fine, at least they’re being honest about it. But hoping they would still be interested in seeing the documentary.

Question 5 – Have you had any experience with Virtual Photography?

In this one, I already know there’s many people who haven’t experienced it by now, but for the people who have are have even had a little by experiencing it or even done it by accident without knowing in the past. But it seems that more people this time have clicked in that they haven’t heard of it or even haven’t done any experience, which doesn’t add up from the previous ones saying that they have heard of it. Although combining the others saying they have heard of it but either experienced it, haven’t experienced it or even had a little tiny bit of experience, which does add up higher than the 9 people who said they haven’t heard of it. It’s cool to see how a bunch of people have only had a little bit of experience, knowing that the topic is very small and not many people in the public eye would know about this but it doesn’t seem like that. Now obviously this isn’t as accurate as it should be as I asked people my age, but I did ask my mum to ask some of her friends to answer this survey so we do have some older people in this survey too, perhaps they are the ones not knowing what the subject is and have had no experience, so it’s a pretty good mix of people answering this.

Question 6 – Would you ever watch a short documentary on Virtual Photography?

Out of 25 people, it seems like 19 people would be interested in seeing the documentary, which I think is awesome because it helps me have more motivation for my project, that people are willing to see it as it’s a very personal story for me. There are a few people who said they would have to look into it more or just aren’t interested in it at all, which I do understand why they wouldn’t. Not everything is for everyone.

Here we have the main script for my project, including the voice over too, the script was a hard process, probably one of the hardest for this project. it was hard to create and I didn’t really know what to do.

After some thinking, I wanted it to be grounded, so no special stuff, just a guy expalining his development through his photos. That’s all. I wanted it to be as honest as it can get and include the little things such as some possible slang, not much detail while talking but just a pure script.

While recording I didn’t really use a lot of the script, I made this as a foundation/back-up just in case I needed it. Of course I used it at parts but when I was on the camera I was just improvising it, which thinking about it now really didn’t help it. I had to cut a lot of scenes out because of that very reason. So next time I will make sure to.

 

 

I need a question for the story. An on going story that continuously flows throughout the video.

So after speaking to a tutor, realising that this documentary being around 8/9/10 minutes long is too long for what I want, and for the subject. Possibly be around 5/6 minutes.

Ideas – Originally want to have a personal story, taking into account what I have learnt through-out my journey of virtual photography of learning the photography rules by myself, self-improvement over the course and why I do it. Taking a retrospective of it.

• Pros – Nice and simple, not too complex but also has a very personal touch, gives my own experience and follows a story.
• Cons – Possibly too bland, people may lose interest as there isn’t a lot to it.

Idea – To get the principles of virtual and traditional photography and compare them, are they competitive? Are there any differences? Advantages? Meaning? and hopefully make sense for the people who don’t understand the subject or don’t exactly agree with virtual photography more aware of the similarities but how unique this also is in its own way. Even get myself (VP) and a traditional photographer and either make our own little project for the documentary or talk about our points, views, etc.

• Pros – Shows both sides, how they both work and working with a traditional photographer may work very well.
• Cons – Although it shows both sides, that may also be a con as I want to mainly focus on virtual photography and not both in a sense. The subject seems very long for the production I am working with, the video can’t exceed over 10 minutes and I am not sure if I am able to mix them up and cover it in that amount of time.

Idea – Again, another personal one. Split into 4 segments, one being why I do virtual photography, also explaining what it is. Segment 2 being a short retrospective on myself, segment 3 +4 being able to showcase the community, getting interviews in segment 3 of other virtual photographers I know online, segment 4 showcasing how the community had 20 people in a real photography exhibit in Birmingham showcase their virtual work to a lot of traditional and even professional photographers and explaining what it could possibly mean for the future of Virtual photography and how it can be taken as serious as real life photography.

• Pros – Split well, showcases personal reasons and other viewings from others, keeps an open mind about the subject and talks about the growth.
• Cons – Could be too long, the segments don’t flow together.

 

 

 

In this project, I wasn’t really inspired by anything all that much, I wanted to test something new and give it a try, I didn’t know what documentaries to watch so I just watched parts of wildlife ones and character ones since I am using both those techniques, the voice of god, in a commentary style and following a character at the same time, the one I used for the voice over parts was any documentary with David Attenborough, I think his voice is very good for such thing and I want to kind of mimic the style he does while doing mine. The one I watched parts of was called “Our Planet” and had some insightful commentary over the the footage, it’s very straightforward and doesn’t seem to assume anything, it’s leading you in and not making you think anything else, which for a certain part of mine would fit in, when I would be explaining my types of styles for each game I photograph.

The other documentaries I looked at were actual previous college documentaries that were following a certain character and their story. They had some insightful information I was interested by, the cuts, the locations, the things they were saying which may help me for my own when I start to think about what shots I want and when I do my script.

 

For lighting, I want it to be subtle lighting, not with big bright light because I don’t need that, I will most likely use soft boxes as they aren’t bright and don’t wash out the face, I was told a tip to face one of the lights on the wall facing me so the light reflects off that onto my dace, leaving with subtle lighting that doesn’t wash out the face.

So here I will be covering all my test and BTS shots, talking about the various areas I used, the equipment, and camera settings, what went well, what didn’t.

 

Locations – 

Okay so here we have the locations I used, the first four being in my own house, I put Jack there as it was me, these are also test shots too. The area in the house had lots of space for wires and the lights, along with the tripod. So there wasn’t any reason for any accidents, but I made sure that all wires were out of the way. I wanted different seats in the house because it just doesn’t look good when I am sitting in just one area the entire time. It gets boring.

As you can see, I also used a wood area close to my house, this area was just random after filming, I originally was just going to film it all in my house, but then realised all my footage is in that house, so for all the random scenery shots of my photos in different locations was all filmed in here, I put them in trees, bushes, grass, anything I thought looked good I put it there, just to add more footage, also helps for context in the video itself.

I also used another outside location, which is my back garden, I thought of an idea to use the interview and a scene of me out there but didn’t like the footage, so I just bailed on that idea. The reason I put it in here is because I wanted to show that I thought of some locations but didn’t use them, and to make sure I properly think of locations in the future before a video, make sure that I like it enough to shoot in.

Equipment – 

 

As you can see here, I didn’t use a lot of equipment, which makes sense for the video I am shooting. I had a standard tripod for the static scenes, I didn’t really tend to use it that much, as I wanted most of it to be handheld with a bit of shakiness to it, but the tripod did help at certain scenes.

I also used a Canon 700D camera, very similar to the one I used before for the Usher music video, which really helped as I knew how to change the settings faster. There was this occurrence that happened that the settings wouldn’t show on screen after awhile, and it wouldn’t allow me to use any of the buttons either, but since I used a similar one before, In knew how to fix it.

I also used my own lights for this, the main reason is because the lights I used for my advert were such a hassle to use, since I travel by bus I had to bring them with me and they were very heavy, so I wanted to save that hassle and just buy these soft box lights, which work really well for standard, non visible lighting in videos, it makes it look softer. I also got them because they were really good for us in the Usher music video, they were very light, bright and just a very convenient thing to use.

For the microphone, I used the standard radio mic, which was the only mic I could actually use since all the other ones were booked as I forgot to order one. But it turns out this mic was probably better off for this type of video as I was able to hide it a bit with my black hoodie (which is why I wore it) and it has a more clear voice pick up. There are times in the footage where it fuzzes up a bit but that part of the clip won’t need any audio so it worked out fine.

The last part of the equipment I used was my own PS4, which is what I use for virtual photography, so I used it for shots of me just taking photos on it. also I used it while filming to record game play footage of me for the video itself.

Camera Settings –

 

I used various camera settings for each location, although most are pretty similar, they all worked very well with the certain lighting we had through-out different areas.

The main one I used was 200/400 ISO with around 60 aperture and 5.5 shutter speed for the indoor parts, they changed a bit through-out but this helped to get some of the natural light within but also allow my lights to get in there too. It makes it look more realistic and setting anywhere higher would’ve whitened the face a lot, which kept coming up a lot.

For the outside, I lowered the shutter speed and aperture to allow little light come through as it was just pure white, I changed the ISO to 400/800 to test what it looked like, but it looked pretty good through-out. As I went into the woods area, I changed it to 400/200 ISO as it looks very dark, which helped bring out some of the green in the video, which is what I want.

Other BTS shots –

These are just some random shots of me recording the scenery shots of my photos, I wanted to use various areas in random places that I thought looked cool. One thing I was trying to do with some shots is that the main colour pallet of the photo itself to work with the other colours in the background. I found this brown bush in the first shot which I thought looked cool, but also picked out a photo that had a brown-ish tint to it. I also had some ideas to make some colours completely different, to make a contrast which also worked very well.

 

Cameron Hardman – 309114

Title of Project – Virtual Photography

Main Area of Activity/Pathway – TV and Film Production

Section 1 – Rationale

So, through-out this course so far and the seven units we have covered, I feel like I have definitely improved my work and mindset – from the first unit where I had to make a factual short on a serious topic, to a music video, the difference, from not only the style but to the lighting, angles and editing. The first one was very grounded while the music video being very fast paced, up in your face, especially with the lighting. Before starting all this, I had no idea how to use a camera, no idea how to edit and now I have a decent enough idea of how to work those, which I will make sure to be adding into my final project. All this does mean a lot to myself as it shows from before thinking I may not be good enough to fulfill this to being able to do apart of what I didn’t think I could do before.

Section 2 – Project Concept

It’ll have 3 parts, an intro, main part and outro.

The first part will consist of what virtual photography is before we start into the main part, explaining the definition, the principles, how it works, compared to traditional photography. This will be done through voice over with footage in the background. It’ll show game play of the photo mode in use, me using it, examples of virtual photography, my photos, mainly game play as it won’t be a long start. This will be around 30 seconds to a minute long.

The main part will be of be talking in the video, with a camera following me around whilst I talk about my experience with this subject, taking a retrospective of my journey for the past year or so, talking about how I started, why I did, how different games’ photo modes affected me and helped me improve, how I improved and learnt by myself, how I changed my style, looking over my first photos and my new ones, comparing them. I will also be talking about the community of virtual photography across many platforms. The footage will be mainly of me, talking in different shots, taking photos on the game, I will also be putting my photos in random spots around the house and record them, they will be in different shots, some will pan onto it, focus onto it, or will already be focused on it.  This part will be around 3 – 4 minutes long. It will follow my role as the main character, the virtual photographer.

The ending part, or perhaps the outro. Won’t be about me, I ended the story in the main part, this part will just add onto the community aspect. I will be voicing over three interviews here from three other virtual photographers I know online. With voice overs from a few friends just to make it interesting and not hearing my voice again. It makes it feel like it would be them talking instead of me voicing over it. The reason I added this part into the video is to bring more opinions and minds into the video, with me being the only person, it would be nice to end the video with other people. The footage here will consist of various images of the person’s photos edited into the video, just to showcase their work.

 

 

Section 3 – Evaluation

Through-out the project, I will explain how I will reflect on and the evaluate all the important sections of my work. I will be typing write ups & evaluations through my blog and just reflecting on all my work.

My aims for this;

• To be able to write a good enough script for this documentary and fully explain to people about the subject.
• To make sure I have all needed resources I have for this project.
• To make this documentary professional as I can- to do a good script, transitions and information.