Creative Cinematography 1 - Camera Basics

1. What is this Course?: everyone. Welcome to the Complete Guide to Cinematography the class that will teach you how to shoot Amazing video mining This Philemon er and I'm a professional video creator and online instructor. I'm co teaching this class with Will Carnahan, professional Hollywood cinematographer who has shot a number of amazing documentaries. Film, music videos, commercials for a variety of companies were so excited to bring you this class. Millions of videos are shot each and every day because everyone has a camera in their pocket. But most of these videos are never seen. Why is that? One of the reasons is because the shots just aren't that great. We haven't learned the traditional cinematography techniques that makes the movie industry so magical, and that's why we're bringing this course you. While we call this a cinematography class, that's a big word. And what this class really boils down to is getting better video with whatever camera you're using. Whether you're using an iPhone, a DSLR or mere lis camera or a big cinema digital camera, we're going to teach you to shoot better video. Here's how the class will work. You'll first learn the basics of how a camera works and how to use the manual settings on your camera to get exposure, which is an important part of cinematography. You'll then learn how to compose better videos, putting exactly what you want in frame and how to add movement with a variety of tools to make your video look better. You'll then learn how to light your videos with the complete demonstration of how lights can change the mood of a scene. And finally, you'll learn how toe make money and find work. Being a successful cinematographer or videographer. We designed this course for anyone that wants to take their video shooting skills to the next level so that your friends say wow when they see your next video. So that sounds like you. This is the perfect classroom enrolling. Feel free to look in the description below to find out more information about what this class offers and then click that enroll. But we can't wait to see you in the class, but more importantly, we can't wait to see your next amazing video 2. Intro to Course: Hi. My name is Will and I am a freelance cinematographer. I went to film school for undergrad at UC Riverside and studied film and visual culture. I then went to grad school at Loyola Marymount, where I did film and television production, and I focused on cinematography. I've been a cinematographer slash videographer, freelance for the last 5 to 6 years. I wanted to put this course together to teach you kind of the basics all the way up into the intermediates levels of cinematography and videography. I think it's a really awesome way to kind of get you started on on really building your cinematography knowledge, building your videography knowledge and trying to really get the make your footage look even bigger and better. High production value make it look better. Make it easier for you and really make it more fun. As an artist. What I will be going over is I'll be going over the camera techniques what cameras are the kind of intricacies inside the camera and how to jump into video. I'll then talk about lighting and do a little demo for you, and then we'll also kind of delve into what it is to be a cinematographer and a videographer and how to get jobs and really had to take you up to the next level as a cinematographer and a video. 3. Top 5 Tips for Better Cinematography: So here my five tips for better cinematography, Number one composition. Composing a shot is very important deciding where your camera's gonna be pointed at and by putting a person in this particular part of the frame putting the horizon in a particular part of frame. You're saying something, so it's very important that you compose a shot that saying what you're trying to say, Number two exposure exposure is really important for you to be able to pick up any camera at any time and expose correctly. You want to be able to take the scene in any situation and make it look beautiful. Make it look totally vibrant and have enough light to really see what you're doing. Number three Telling a story. You are the camera person. Your camera is where the story goes through the lens and accomplishes it on the screen. So you want to be able to tell your story through your lighting for your composition through your camera work. It's really one of the biggest and most important parts of being a cinematographer. Number four. Being aware of the things around you as a cinematographer, you're gonna be looking at natural light. You're gonna be looking at the way people interact and act. If you're doing a documentary, you're gonna need to be able to watch what's going on. A When people are laughing and smiling, you're doing a narrative. You're gonna have to know how your actors air moving. Who was going into set? How you're gonna move the camera? Being aware of everything around you in your world around you is really gonna what be what's informs the art within your camera. Number five being who you are and finding your own cinematography style, it all comes down to you as an artist. Everything that you're doing is going to go through your eyes, your lens, your hands, your movement. So make sure you find a style that you're happy with and you're proud of what you're shooting, what you're lighting and how you're exposing it. Because at the end of the day it's your work. It's your art and you're the one doing it. 4. Philosophy of Being a Cinematographer: So I wanted to talk to you guys about the philosophy of being a cinematographer. Now, Rio Quick. When I refer to cinematography for this class, I'm really talking about anyone who's creating video. Anyone who's creating cinema video, any sort of moving picture. So I don't wanna keep referring from cinematography a videographer, but they're really kind of very similar for us. Faras this class goes. So what I love most about cinematography and videography, I think the philosophy behind the fact that it's art and it's also technical at the same time, it's really a place where knowing technical and science kind of meets this artistic kind of thing. I know like painters, you know, you have to know your brushes and your strokes, and your paints and pigments and all that, with photography and cinematography really have to know all this technical information that we're gonna go over and you need to learn how to marry it with your art. You'd learn how to take things and figure out how to make cameras work and lighting work in the way that makes you express your story, and it makes you express what you're trying to do visually. so really, the other philosophy of being a cinematographer is really looking at things around you and collaboration working with people on set, whether it's a narrative or a film as well as a dock or a wedding or some sort of event is really important as a collaborator and as a cinematographer, you're gonna be working with other camera people, other departments, other lighting cruise. So it's really awesome to be able to hone your vision in and be able to express it to other people as well as looking at the environment around you are using natural light. Are you shooting foreground? That maybe in front of you there's a ton of different things that you could be always paying attention to and always looking at. So the big thing for me philosophy being a cinematographer is marrying the art and the technical as well as just collaboration and being in the inside your environment and creating art. Really, that's what cinematography is about, as well as just loving this sort of medium 5. What is a Cinematographer (Director of Photography)?: So what is a DP or a cinematographer? DP stands for director of photography, so usually on a set, any sort of industry. Hollywood set The director photography is in charge of the camera department and the lighting department there, in charge of the overall look of the peace based on the story and what the director wants. So, in essence, they are the ones being the lens for the director of the project. Also videographers or sort of cinematographers in their in their own way. They're just a different level. So again, for this class, I'll be referring to anyone who's really creating a video, because all of these things are going to affect you. Sometimes we'll be talking about MAWR set etiquette and some that later in the class. But really exposing your film, composing your film, dealing with lighting, dealing with cameras. That's really what a cinematographer videographer is doing. So basically, I would say a cinematographer or director photography is in charge of the cinema is in charge of the photography, moving, photography, moving images for the entire piece that you're shooting 6. Choosing a Camera: DSLR vs. Cinema Camera: so I want to talk about DSLR versus cinema cameras. I think there's been a really big trend in the last five plus years where DSL ours have really made a huge impact, mostly because they're cheaper and they still get you. That look that you're looking for and that look I'm talking about is the high definition, the 24 frames per second, as well as the kind of depth of focus that we're looking for that you get with interchangeable lenses. So let's talk about DSLR versus cinema cameras or bigger, more video camera ask things. DSLR is really come from a world of photography, So you got to keep in mind that these DSLR cameras, while they do shoot great video, they were meant for photography. So a lot of times there are little tiny instances where they might not get you the most perfect video I'm talking about. When you're using DSLR lenses, they may breathe, which means when you when you focus, they tend to zoom in and out. There's other instances where you're moving quickly the jelly effect, where you see things maybe move sideways because the processors just can't keep up with the amount of information that's coming in those tiny little instances that DSLR is have along with. They're just really hard to see the little tiny screens. Um, and also they're just smaller and they get a shake to them. So those air DSLR is While they're cheap, they have interchangeable lenses. They're really good way to get that look for a lower price, and they're small. So when you take those and you verse, um, up against a cinema camera, something a little more like a bigger red camera or, let's say, a dock camera like a Sony Fs seven or even a cannon C 100 or can see 300 those air really meant for video. So the big difference is there is that those are meant for video. They may or may not have Andy filters, which we can talk about later. They will have interchangeable lenses. They'll have inputs for sound like XLR straight in, and so there's a big difference in like battery length battery time imagery coloring. A lot of these bigger cinema cameras will let you shoot it raw, or they'll let you shoot with a look where you can capture more latitude much more similar to film as opposed to DSL ours, which you can hack and mess with and get that look eventually. But out of the box. They're really not going to get you the the immense amount of of amount of light and perfection that you can from from ah from bigger cinema cameras. I know there's a big debate because there's definitely a lot of people that love their DSL ours, and they shoot fantastic video, and I will always differ back to. It's always about the camera person, not the camera, because whatever tool you have, you can make work and you will make work best way you can as an artist. But as a cinematographer in a professional, I would prefer to move away from the DSLR game and move Mawr into the cinema game On. The other thing that's worth talking about that's coming up are mere lis cameras, so those don't have those DSLR The single lens reflex is there just straight up chips, which are sort of like the cinema cameras, but a little bit smaller packed. We're talking about the Sony A seven answer. The Sony seven are, or the Panasonic Lumen x GH four Those were the two that are really making waves right now . So really, when you're looking at purchasing a camera ranting a camera, those differences between those three types of camera DSLR cinema cameras and near lis cameras, there are very subtle differences, but they can affect your project. So again, you've got to remember what you looking for. Sensitivity. I s o frame rate, the ability change lenses. Do you need sound? There's a ton of different variables, so just make sure you figure out what you need, and then you pick out the camera that you need for that specific project. 7. Intro to Cameras: Hey, everyone, fill here. I just want to introduce you to this new section on the camera. In this section, you're going to be learning what a camera is. The different types of cameras and all the different aspects of a camera is very important in this cinematography class to learn what the camera is and how it works, whether you're using a smartphone, a DSLR muralist or a bigger cinema style digital camera. So get excited and I'll pass it over to will. 8. Choosing a Camera: Digital vs. Film: so welcome to this section. About cameras were really just gonna talk everything camera in this section. What the camera is what it does and everything that encompasses this tool that we're gonna be using. Probably the main tool of what we're talking about. So a little over 100 years ago, film was invented movie imagery, moving images based off of film. Up until about the last a decade or so, we had used film for everything. Maybe we start getting a video for TV and stuff like that, but really, it's really been in the last decade or two or we've kind of started to move into digital imagery. For this course, we're gonna kind of specifically lean towards digital. Obviously, this is the medium that everything's leaning towards. Film is not really used as much anymore. It is a really important to film history that you understand how to expose film because everything that is talked about digitally comes from how to expose film. So we're talking about I s So we're talking about frame rate. We're talking about shutters that used to be used in old film cameras. Everything that we use technically in terms comes from how to expose film. The big difference is obviously in emotion, where its chemical based in analog, so to speak, versus digital digital is gonna be the chips with pixels RGB that we're exposing and having light photons react digitally as opposed to chemically. So that's the big difference. Another big difference is on why they've kind of waited to move from film to digital is latitude and really where you can expose the shadows and where you can expose the highlights. Typically, film had always one film had always been able to expose more, and I think there still might be a little bit of an argument that it still does. But Digital has gotten to a place where cinematographers and filmmakers, based on budgets based on time, have been able to use digital as the mainstream way of capturing imagery. So we're going to focus on that. Another reason for digital is because that's the workflow, typically olden days. With film, you'd shoot something on film, you could expose it correctly, then you'd have to go develop it, and then, because of the digital age, you'd have to scan it and then edit it faster because post is able to edit, obviously digital much faster than cutting up film and moving things together and having reels hang everywhere now with digitally. Just go right into the computer. You can edit on your computer immediately from the camera, or you could be editing it live. Or you could be editing on your phone. So really Digital has been moving us in that direction. Um, I think it's caught up to it as faras basic videoing, and it's become much easier and cheaper. So, really, that's why digital is kind of taken over. So because digital imagery has become so good as of late, we're gonna be referring to just digital stuff because that's typically what all of you guys will be using. So keep in mind for the rest of the course, I'll be referring to Resolution chip size all that stuff digitally. But also keep in mind that all of that stuff derives from film. So if you know film, if you learn film, it should be an easy transition into digital. As long as you kind of remember what we're doing 9. What is Video Resolution?: Okay, so let's talk about resolution. This is very important because this will set your basis for the rest of the project. Um, let's start off with what exactly is Resolution Resolution is the exact pixel by pixel dimension of the chip that is inside your camera that you may be or may not be shooting at . Right. So we look at that resolution, and that translates over to how you're gonna view it. Your standard HD TV is 1920 by 10 80. That's like the standard cable television that's pumping out now. HD signal. And that's high definition. We've kind of forgotten about standard definition. Those cameras were out of date. You need to get on the HD train because that's where everything's moving. We're talking YouTube. We're talking the Internet. We're talking video. We're talking your TV at home. You're talking your blue ray disk now just to take a second DVDs. Old TV's. Some low resolution websites and some older computers are not going to be at that high definition standard, which is now again 1920 by 10 80. Get that in your head because that is the main resolution that we're talking about. Typically DSLR video cameras, which a lot of you will probably be starting out on. We'll shoot 1920 by 10 80 at 24 frames per second, or 23 98 or 60 frames per second. We'll talk more about frame late later, but let's stick on resolution. The big thing to remember is that as you grow in cinema and as you grow in cameras, the resolution will get higher. TV's are now getting bigger. So let's go from 1920 10 80. What's the next common step? It's called two K, which is 2000 something Buy something, which is a really not much bigger than a 1920 by 10 80. But it's sort of been a selling point for a lot of different projects. GoPro was one on one of the first consumer cameras that started shooting at two K, so that typically isn't really popping. People have gone from 1920 they've skyrocketed to four. K four K is 40 96 by 2160 pixels. Again, that's down and across. So that's a big image. And that reason why is there's more pixels. There's more detail in your image, and you can see that it's just much clearer, as opposed to 19 by 1920 by 10 80. There's more pixels, more definition. It's kind of the way you would look at a painting, right. If there's more strokes and more fine detail, the more you're gonna be able to see the detail of the entire piece as opposed toe broader , less strokes. It's going to be a little fuzzier now. Painting that's a look. But for TV and for video to match your I, the higher the amount of pixels, the more dense, the more detail that will see. And that's what they're calling high definition. Chances are the cameras that were shooting on are not going to be necessarily four K. And also, chances are the people that you're gonna be showing this footage to are not gonna have a four K TV to project that full amount of resolution. Maybe if you're projecting in the theater like AMC or something like that, but typically you're not gonna be that high of a resolution now. Why would we shoot? And four K? Because a lot of professionals or shooting in four K and often even six K because you get that resolution to get that room. So imagine if we shoot right here. We shoot this much space, right? This is maybe a four k shooting, but we're really gonna projected at this big write a 10 80 TV. That's much less pixels than this. So we shoot this much. That means we can take this image and we can zoom in that much without losing definition on our final project. So that's really why we would shoot a higher resolution when we can and then be able to project it at a lower resolution and be able to really kind of just get that detailer, Get that reframe that shot or maybe move that shot left or right without losing definition . Four K cameras are getting cheaper and cheaper. There's some smaller Sony's and Panasonic's that are going to be a little more cheaper that you can shoot four. Count their mere lis cameras, which we can talk about later. But chances are, if you're going to shoot four K, that means it's gonna take up more card space that's gonna take up more computer space when you do post, and it's gonna require a much beef your system to run through all of that stuff and edit it and output it. So for now, I would say, if you're starting out to do cinematography and you're investing in a camera, investing in post work and really getting out there 1920 by 10 is your best bet. If you can rent a higher quality camera, maybe a small Sony mere list camera, or if you have enough budget to get a read or Ari or any of those bigger Alexis's or anything like that, shoot a bigger resolution. If you've got the bandwidth because you always want to get as much detail inasmuch reservation as you can, the future of high definition is kind of up in the air. I think in about a few years people are gonna be moving to four K TVs. But typically everything's in step in step in step, mostly because companies need to sell you as much as they can and then move on to the next thing. The next thing will be four K three D has kind of fallen off, I think a little bit after four K in a few years. Five years probably get to six k and it'll just keep going. I think the ICONA is settling around two K four K as faras. What we can see. It's kind of an unknown right now. I think a lot of people are not necessarily moving towards resolution but moving more tardes, high dynamic range, which means being able to see in the shadows and see in the brights. So I think there might be some trends and cameras moving towards sensitivity and stuff like that as opposed to resolution. But you need to know what resolution is in order to get the rest of your Cameron cinematography moving. 10. What is Frame Rate?: so we just talked about resolution. Now let's talk about frame rate frame. Ray is frames per second. You'll often see this as F. P s. When you're talking about cinematography or video, what you're actually doing is taking multiple images and running them up and speeding them up to make it look like a video. Right? So that's how they figured out video and cinematography. They took a ton of photos, move them really fast, kind of like animation, and they turn into a moving image. So what's the aesthetic, or what's the amount of frames that needs to pass in front to make it look good? Well, it was kind of set up back in the early 19 hundreds. That 24 frames per second was sort of the standard that moved well to the eye as well as their mechanical machines. In the old film cameras, that means that every second there's 24 frames passing in front of your lens, right, just like that. So that aesthetic became the standard for frame rate playback when it played through a projector, so the projector would also then take that same film and run 24 frames a second to mimic the exact amount of light that it captured in the moment when we moved into television. The video aspect. They seem to kind of like a different look, and it became 30 frames per second. Generally, most TV when TV started and newscasts would project and would also film at 30 frames per second, which gave you six more frames, which I think is kind of odd. You're probably thinking, but it makes it a different look look like If you look at a television and you go watch a movie in the theater, there's definitely a different looking you can kind of tell the refresh rate or the reality rate is a little slower and movies, and that's because the frame rate is 24 vs 30. When you watch a CNN newscast, that's it. 30. So you can kind of see the difference as faras look, and it's kind of hard to explain. You kind of have to look at it. I think you'd understand when you're looking at it. So as we move into the digital age, we've really kind of settled in 24 frames per second as the standard movie aesthetic for some reason we've all kind of come used to that. We like that. That's our magical point for really cinema and movies. A lot of TV shows like shows on HBO, Game of Thrones, stuff like that. They shoot a 24. So you kind of tell the difference between a sitcom which would shoot a 30 versus a film that she's a 24. So when you take your project, you have to decide where you're going to be shooting. If you're shooting an interview for television or something like that, you might want to stick to 30. If your look is more cinema and you wanted to look a little more dynamic as's faras aesthetic and movie and Magic 24 frames is where you're gonna be at. So let's talk about your digital camera. You need to go and find the selection to do that. Ah, lot of cameras, smaller DS Lars will actually shoot at true 24 frames per second. But because of digital numbers and ones and zeros that I'm not gonna get too deep into its also referred to as 23 98 or 23 976 which could really means it's dropping a little tiny frame, but we'll get into that maybe some other time. So if you're looking for 24 it could be under 23 98 or true 24 all cameras or different. You might not know which what your camera is. You have to look and make sure that you select one of those. The same goes for 30 frames per second. If your camera will do true 30 select that. If it won't do true 30 it will probably say 29 97 So you have to pick one of those and decide which 1 29 97 and 30 frames per second are the same thing as far as he was concerned . As Faras Digital goes, just make sure you're you're consistent across the board. If you're gonna shoot in one frame, right, you need to stay on that frame, right, Unless you're gonna do some slow motion stuff. We'll get to that in a second. But you need to stay on that frame rate and your post workflow also needs to reflect that. So when you're editing you to make sure your time is set up as the frame rate that you shot up. Now, if you want to do slow motion, there are other frame rates. When you take 24 30 and you try and slow it down, you're going to see a little skipping digitally. You might see some artifacts and stuff like that. That's because there's just not enough frames to show the slowing down. You're taking images and you're slowing him down so you'll start to see that kind of tick because there's just not enough frames. So how would you shoot slow motion? You need to add more frames in so that when you slow it down and you're playing it back a 24 you see those added frames to keep that nice kind of fluid movement. So there's a couple of standard steps as faras frame Rico's. The next step from 24 would be 60 frames per second, and really, at that point you're adding in more frames that when you slow it down, you see those extra frames and you can see that nice, buttery movement 60 frames per second or 59 94 is really those two standards digital and true 60 So if you pick that you have to. Then take that image you're shooting at that frame rate in post. You want to slow that down and interpret it or look at it as if it was 24. So you shooting 60 to get that extra frames, But then tell the computer in the TV toe look at it at 24 that will really effect and give you a nice, smooth, slow motion. Not all cameras will shoot 60 frames per second. In fact, some cameras will only shoot 60 frames per second if you drop your resolution down. So if you're shooting in 1920 by 10 80 it'll drop you down to 12 80 by 7 20 you'll be able to shoot 60 frames per second. But your resolution just went down, so you kind of have to pick and choose how you're gonna shoot on those types of cameras. Other cameras, newer cameras like the Sea 300 mark two. We'll let you shoot 60 frames per second at 1920 by 10 80. The older C 100 will only let you shoot it. Uh, will not even let you shoot 60 frames per second. I think so. You kind of have to figure out which camera you you want and what you're gonna shoot if you're tending to do a lot of music videos and sports stuff that you want slow motion, that you might want to look into a camera that shoots at a higher frame rate. If you're not worried about that, all the other cameras will shoot a 24. They'll shoot a 30 they'll shoot your standard definition. It just depends on what your project is and what frame right you're really going for. 11. Choosing a Lens: so I want to talk a little bit about lenses. Now let's just go back to the big movie look, that aesthetic of movies that, like widescreen, that high resolution that 24 frames per second. But also there's the look of the lens right. So lenses really allow you to get that shallow depth of field to make something really in focus and make the rest really add a focus. And that's really what's kind of defined. The DSLR in the film movement in the last 5 to 10 years, which is making your really low budget films look like big productions, big movies and lenses, and that depth of focus is what makes it look big. Nice, fun, aesthetic toe to really look like movies. Um, I would say that the interchangeable lens has really turned the digital market into that. Now that we can have interchangeable lenses and shoot video on DSLR is on cinema cameras, you're able to achieve that look for relatively inexpensive. So what lenses air we really using? Well, there's multiple lenses. This right here is a cannon 24 to 70. It's kind of their standard zoom. It's the older version, but because of this, were able to zoom in and zoom out and really get that nice, crisp depth of focus shooting at a to wait, which will get into more later. But because of this interchangeable lens were able to make it look like that. You can have a zoom. You could have AH, prime lenses, which are just fixed aspects of 50 millimeters 35 millimeters 85 millimeters, 100 millimeters and those won't let you zoom. But they will give you that greater depth, which will look like a movie. Now you got to keep in mind that there are DSLR photo lenses and there are cinema lenses. The big difference with that is that the DSLR film lenses tend tohave filaments that will actually breathe. I mentioned that earlier, but when you try to focus, you'll see the millimeters or the zoom moving in and out, which could change a composition that might not be what you're wanting to use. Whereas a cinema lens will typically b'more expensive, harder to find and will not do that, they'll also tend to have rings here for a follow focus where a first a C or someone could be pulling focus for you. So that's the really big difference in cinema and DSLR lenses. I think the big thing to remember is against Remember to look at your project. What are you trying to do? Are you doing a dock where you need to be able to zoom in? Zoom out depending on the situation, Or you shooting a film or commercial where you have a set of lenses and you'll have time to switch from, ah, prime lens to a zoom lens or whatnot? Or do you have a big budget in a ton of money where you can get a Fujian on giant zoom lens ? That's this big that never breathed and you can shift all day if you like without having to move it. It really depends on your project. The big thing to take away here is that whatever that's going through, the glass is going to change the look immensely. All lenses have a different look, whether it be crisper circles of confusion, which means the kind of way the stuff looks out of focus. Recently, Nikon lenses I've been noticing have kind of this really big Boca, really. When he's out of focus it looks nice and fuzzy, whereas like a cannon lens, when it's out of focus looks a little more crisp out of focus, which is kind of an oxymoron. But you kind of gotta look it all around what the certain glass and filaments due to your image. There's a ton of things that happens once light goes through a lens, and so every lenses different everyone's has its own signature. And really, that's gonna affect your look, I think, more than anything else. The other thing is, lenses are a great thing to invest in your not really going to get much different resolution out of this. This is always gonna be glass. It's always gonna be physical. Some have autofocus manual focus, so those changes air different. But really, it's a great thing to invest in. You can always interchange them, depending on the camera system. Urine soas, faras. Investing in lens is a really good example of this is the cannon 72 200. I never really purchased it, although I probably should have at this point in my life. But I have used the Cannon 7200 L series on photography cameras for weddings I've used it on DSLR is to shoot Aton of different stuff. I've used it on can and C 100 see if their owners I've used it on a red camp. I've used it on a Sony F five, which are big cinema cameras. That lens has really been able to carry across an entire sort of spectrum of different types of video cameras. These will really last year on any camera as long as you have the right mountain. So all those all those cameras I mentioned will have any F mount for that particular lens. I do have some night Conlan primes that I use. I have an 85 1.8 that I have a Nikon Canon adapter that I will bring on set and use on also the same types of cameras. So really like the lens investment is kind of a cool thing, where you can use it across tons of different cameras. Another thing to mention is the speed of the lenses. That 2.8 will also get you that really good focus. The more wide open you get, the more, uh, shallowness you'll be able to achieve. If you do a 1.8 or a 2.8 f stop, the more will be out of focus, and the less in focus. And that's really that look. DSLR is tend to do that because of just their chips. But if you remember from your photography knowledge opening up, let's more light in its faster. That lens is going to be more expensive as well as it's gonna have more of that. Look. If you close down, more things will be in focus and things will be sharper. Also, you'll let less light in, so you got to keep that in mind when you're getting lenses again. Lenses that are faster, which means light, will come in uh, means that it will be more expensive because that's hard to achieve as far as physically. So 1.82 point it's 1.4 primes would probably be some of the more expensive glass. When you're talking about zooms a 24 to 70 of 72 218 the 100 if it's at two, weight is going to be a pretty expensive lens. But if you need that for your project, you're shooting at night your camera doesn't handle sensitivity very well. You're gonna want a faster lens. If you're shooting outside during the day, it's bright light. You're gonna need an indie filter anyway. But if you want to achieve that, look, you still want to shoot at like a 456 to 8. You want to open up, so you achieve that cinema. Look, you'll probably need filters. You just got to be aware of what you're shooting. So again, the take away lenses are a great investment. Remember to figure out what you need specifically for your project if you're zooming, zooming out if you can run away with primes. If you need a fast lens. If you don't need to fast lens if it fits your camera system. If you need a map box to cut out flares and put filters in, um, a lot of variables remember project first and then figuring out what you need exactly for that project 12. Memory Cards: so memory cards again. No tons of variables As faras memory cards go really got to start with what camera you're going to use. Make sure you know what kind of card your camera takes. Typically, the most standard cards are either SD cards or compact flash cards. It really depends on the type of camera you're using, because even Sony, most bigger Sony cameras like the FS seven, the F 5 55 they take their own proprietary Sony cards. So you got to remember if you need to rent that extra for that camera or what DSLR you shooting on the older DS large, where the bigger, more expensive DSL ours will usually take CF cards, whereas the newer, smaller, younger DSL ours will end up taking SD cards. It really kind of depends on what you're doing. They're all flash based, so that's good. Another thing to remember is really just the right speed of your card. You need to make sure you get something that's fast. I would always recommend at least 60 60 megabytes a second. This was a 64 gig at 95 megabytes per second. Um, this one's a little bit slower at 60 megabytes per second at 32 gigs for a CF card. But you got to figure out what camera using how fast it needs to write, how much you're going to record and what your project is. You need a lot of cards. Can you fill everything up on one card? Can you, uh, spread it across multiple cards? You want to put all your eggs in one basket? You gotta really figure out what your project is and how many cars you're gonna need could also download on set, have a D i t. It depends on the level of what you're shooting at. I really like to see 100 here that we're shooting on. It does take SD cards, and I usually stick to 64 gig, 95 megabytes per second card, which will last me all day. I've shot a wedding on them before and it will kill it'll. I'll never have to replace the cards all day, which is great. I've also shot narratives where we'll show on smaller cards so that we can keep rolling and take him out dumpem so we can use the footage. Play with the lights on the computer, so we see what's going on. So it kind of depends on the project you're doing. The big thing to take away is that you make sure you have enough space, and it's fast enough for this particular camera that you're using. I don't want to get into all the details of all the cameras because every camera is different. You really have to research. How many megabytes per second Your camera is advised it taking and how much you're gonna shoot. Remember to go back to the resolution. Are you shooting 1920 by 10. 80 or you shooting four K, which is gonna eat up tons more space cause it's twice the amount of information, So just remember what you're shooting. Figure that out and then figure your card situation now. 13. What is Latitude?: So I use the term latitude a couple times and basically, when we're going back to what we talked about, film versus digital latitude is the amount of range that you can get exposing correctly without losing information in the shadows and the highlights. Now film is known to have a large latitude, which means it may have up to 13 14 stops of range. So if you shoot at a mid level F stop, let's just say in 11 you'll still have information into eight and you'll still have information at 22. And that's having to do with exposure in the highlights in the shadows. Now remember, different cameras have different ranges of latitude. DSLR is maybe a smaller latitude, which means around your base F stopper exposure. You'll only be able to see into the shadows in the dark on Lee so far in F stop range, whereas a bigger camera with a more sensitive sensor, you'll be able to have a larger range, a larger attitude latitude, where you'll be able to see deeper into the highlights and see deeper into the shadows. So I refer to it a couple times. It really has to do with exposure and where you're going to really Landis faras, exposing your film and how far you can stretch it into that zebra's air into the clipping or into the shadows. 14. BONUS - Sample Camera Overview: So I have here my friend Caleb, and he's about to go shoot some stuff. And he had some questions because he's never actually shot with this camera before. This is a Sony F S seven, and I wanted to just use it as a camera to kind of go over with and interact with Caleb's. If he had any questions about it, we could kind of go over it and figure out the ergonomics of it. What he should be looking for. What are all the basic settings? Stuff like that. Now it's very similar to any other camera that you might be working with. It's sort of a mid range videographer dock camera. Ah, lot of it's gonna be different than any other camera you might have. But the basics air there. The basic buttons, the basic menus, the inputs, the ergonomics. Those are things that you can find on any camera there just maybe a little different. But you still got to be aware of where they are and what their functionalities. You ready? So what exactly are you? Are you planning on shooting? So I'm gonna be shooting a docking commercial, so it's a little bit of a documentary and some glamour shots here and there to make it pop out. And I make it your average documentary. So you're trying to shoot a documentary that's gonna look more commercial and look prettier and stuff like that. Okay, well, let's just go over like the base of the camera. I know you shot before, but you haven't necessarily messed with this camera. Basically, obviously got here the lens, There's, ah, lens release up here and looks like you actually rented a meta bones. So this actual F seven is not equipped with an e f mount for a canon lens. So you got an adapter to then adapted to Canon Lens. Very cool. So I'm just gonna spend around here so we can show the cameras here. But when you're setting up all your basic functions air here, you can see this big dial right here is gonna be where you change your nd filters. You can hear it click their physical Indies. It's cool. The fs seven has like, actual names for you, so you can actually see what they are, and you can hear it. Um, down here, it looks like you have Ah focus push button That'll, like help you do autofocus and like, you can kind of see, um, S and Q is ah is really cool on the FX seven. It's a fast way to get to speed and quality so you can change, like the speed of the frame rate. Or you can change the quality as's faras. Ah, uh, resolution goes and stuff like that Iris will let you, um, see how there's a line there. It took me forever to figure this out on this camera, but this is where you change the f stop eso like, Yeah, I'm sure you mess with that a little bit, but it took me forever. Sometimes it's up here and this will work, too. But typically a quick way to knows that's where you're gonna change the f stop. You can hold that and turn it off and that if you push that, that will keep you from bumping it. If you're set, I'll turn that off. Um, something we haven't talked about in this class. But the l, m and H r low medium high for gain within the camera. You can set that I s O so you can put low being 200 you can set medium toe like 600 consent high to be like 1200. So when you're running and gunning Utkan easily switch ISOS by just flipping that switch, I would say it's eso and not gain because gains more. I mean, basically the same thing. But digital Ah, white balance. Something we haven't talked about in this class. But white balance, Uh, will you can pre set them to A and B. The cool thing about white balance is that you can take a white piece of paper wherever you are, and there should be, uh, yeah, see the white white balance set button here. You can take that, Put it on air B and hold this button down with a white or a great piece of paper. And whatever environment is shooting on and it will lock itself to either the A or the B, you can switch to preset, and then within the menu, you can set toe like tungsten or daylight or whatever you doing. I would I would say, like whether you find me if you're moving all over the place, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I would set like I would say, a tungsten and be the daylight or something like that. And then that way you could just switch on the fly really fast. Just go pull pieces of paper where you're at, Sometimes the lights different different countries and stuff like that. Um, this full auto buttons Really interesting on the seven. If you push and hold that, it'll make everything go full auto, which means it will select your f stop. It will select your i s. So it'll select your frankly, it looks like you're not. You're frame rattles like your shutter. It just like a foolproof way. So if you're running, getting you didn't have time to set anything up, just push that button. It will get you liken. Okay, exposure. It just depends on what you're looking at. Obviously, record button up here. Um, this is where you can get into all your menus and systems right here. This menu button here will let you pop the menu up here, and then this is weird for the f I. But this is how you select and you push in on it to select something on their softkey's here. So, like you can kind of shift back and forth, left and right. Um, the thumbnail version will get you to play back what you're previously looking at. Um, so that's when you want to review stuff. You can push that and get into that mode. Um, all this other stuff, like you can select shudder. You can select white balance, you conflict I s own gain, and that will open up with while you're shooting. It will open you up in there and you can kind of move around and push that. So here's the memory card slot. Sony does have their own cards. We talk more about that later, but you can see you got some nice big 128 get cards. Um, those just go in pushin you can put an SD card, and I think toe load your own settings or you look, if you like, it's a little kind of complicated. Um, so that's good headphone, Jack. So listen to the shotgun that you don't have on here. It's funny. I think the F fs seven has an internal mike somewhere. Have you messed with that? Yeah, um, I believe it's, like, kind of hidden around here somewhere. But, um, it does exist. Uh, that's it for this side of the camera. Feel like it's pretty good functionality. Um, here. Your monitor, um, is kind of cool in the fs seven because you can adjust your peaking for exposure and your zebras. You're peeking for focus and your zebras for exposure. You can turn it off in on there. Um, also, the contrast will help you. Look, I I would I would I don't know if I trust this monitor for color, maybe for exposure, but I would really look at your zebras and I believe you can pull up a hist a gram on here . If you like your on off switches down here, it's always hidden. I always thought that was silly. Turn on, um, and then your mirror. If you want to, like, flip this around or somewhere, you can kind of flip it around The cool thing about the top of the fs seven, which a lot of a lot of cameras typically do have nowadays. The sea Siri's dio, um and you can buy handles for, like, DSLR is and stuff, but you can hold it low and you can record from appear or you can put on hold. And when you have a servo, you don't have a servo lens here, but you can zoom in, zoom out. You can put a hot shoe light up there if you want to. Ah, different. Mike. Um, Fs seven has this weird grip thing going on here with their monitor. And then you can put a shock and Mike up here, um, on this side, it looks like we've got more audio inputs and we do have audio stuff over. Here we go. We go back over and look at it. But are you using a shocking micro wireless mikes? So you would just run? You put it up here and you run it down here and then you can adjust line in. Um, Mike, I'm really bad at that type of stuff, but it is important to know if you're doing Doc running gun stuff. Um, you do, Mike, that needs power. Or if you're thing has power, you can switch it over. You're not using any monitors, but typically, if you're sending out a monitor on set, you can send SD I out to a director or to your first A C or to a nicer, better monitor up here. This is where you come out of there. Typically, DSLR is don't have that, but bigger cameras will. Um, yeah, man, I feel like that's that's pretty good. Back to the audio. Here's the the board. You can put it on auto, but sometimes it, like, doesn't look as nice or doesn't sound as nice. Um, or you could go into manual and then you can physically adjust the levels of it. It's cool that they have this door on it to kind of protect you from messing with that. You can push it and, like, spin if you had to. So looks just really quickly on your settings that you want to go over to check, Remember? So this camera shoots four K. So you're actually at 4 96 by 2160. I don't know if you're gonna shoot for can the day, but that's gonna eat up. You got nice big cards, so you should be fine. Um, your frame rates Here it's 29 97 All this information is typically on every camera. It'll tell you on the display what you're looking at, so you can tell what frame rate your at 29 7 What? Resolution 40 96 by 2160. The amount of battery left your your white balance. Then you have no GPS signals. Some of these cameras you can set up to have GPS, which is odd. Um, there's no sound levels because we don't have it set to internal Mike's. I think if I actually put it here, you might fix of that yet. See? No, we'll deal with that later. You have time code. T C. TCG is time code generator. It looks like you were in record mode. You could do free run if you want, but record mode. Since it's just you, it's probably fine. Um, has you have your what you go with shake off like it'll dio reduction movement reduction, but not with this lens on and then just have a whole bunch of other information that isn't necessarily important. You have 1/4 Indian, it'll tell you on the screen, so that's what it out. So it'll tell you clear. It's on standby. So or not rolling. For some reason yet, 1 5/100 of a shutter, which is a little odd. Um, you can change that. It looks like it's on auto. So it's doing that for you, But yet you have to go in and adjust. And then your cards here tells you how much you have left. A lot of cool stuff, man. I think it's really cool thing about the F about the fs heaven is that you've got here. I can try to pull us around. You've got, like, a whole remote system here with one hand you can record. You could go through the menus. You can set these buttons to be what you want. If you had a servo, you could use this zooming in, zooming out, and then this will adjust the f stop. There's a slider button up here. Okay, so hopefully this was super helpful for you. I know this is like a different camera that most people are gonna be using, but I just wanted to kind of go over this general points of, ah, camera. All cameras cento have similar things that you need to be looking for. Um 15. Put Together Your Camera Kit: everyone, welcome to the first practice challenge for this course. We want to challenge you to do something and to take action throughout this course because it's one thing to be listening to these great lessons by will and to kind of follow along and take in all the information. But it's another step, and it will help you learn by going out and actually taking action. Now in this section, we just learned about the camera what it is, and so there's not really much weaken ask you to do. We're not shooting yet, so our challenge today is to put together your camera kit whether you have just a phone or if you are thinking about getting a DSLR or other type of camera, get that purchase, rent it. If you want to try it out, test out different lenses and find a camera that you like. We're all about. The tool is just a tool. The camera is just a tool. Brands while they matter to a lot of people and they do matter to us, I know I'm a cannon fan. Will is more of a Nikon fan in terms of DSLR style cameras. I know will uses a lot of Sony cameras now for bigger productions and the red area cameras as well. But for you, it doesn't really matter because as a new cinematographer, you just have to get out there and start shooting. So get your camera together because in the next section, when we start to learn about exposure and how to manually expose your image, we will ask you to take action using whatever camera you have. And it's important to have a camera to be ableto take action and to learn and to become a better cinematographer. So your challenge today get your camera equipment together because in the next section we got a fun challenge for you. Thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next section.