The other day I attended a masterclass with director Simon Hook. Simon Hook has worked on programs such as Hollyoaks and M.I.High and therefore has had a lot of experience with filming and his work has proven to be successful. It was very helpful to receive tips and advice from an expert and I will most likely use many of these tips when I'm filming my own trailer so that it will look more professional. The first image shows the light pointing at the ceiling, this is a way of effectively adding the correct amount of light to the characters. This provides high key lighting and allows the audience to clearly see the characters, however it is not shining directly at them because this would mean that the shot would be too bright and the characters may not be shown clearly. I will consider using this technique in my trailer in shots where the lighting is already good but I just want to light up the characters slightly more without creating any unwanted shadows.
This picture shows the two actors who volunteered to help Simon demonstrate how to successfully use different shots. The actors had a complete run through of the script before any actual filming was done and each time the camera shot changed the actors would have a run through to make sure stage positioning worked effectively before filming was done, this was a useful technique as it allowed us to instantly see which shots worked and which didn't work so well. Hook used a filming technique where he would film a whole scene with the camera positioned in one place and then refill the whole scene each time with the camera in a different position. This was an interesting technique because often even though some parts of the scene didn't work with the camera positioned in a certain way, other parts worked very well. Also filming in this way means that the scene can be easily edited and transitioned and the best shots in relation to the script, can be used. Simon also told and showed us how dead space can often be very boring in shots and that by slightly moving the camera either upward, downwards or side to side, can remove this dead space and make the shot much more interesting, because it is including much more. Props can also be used in the background to add more to the shot.
We were taught two very helpful techniques about shots and angles. Zooming can often be very shaky and amateur if used as an effect whilst the camera is rolling. Therefore another way close up shots/zooms can be done is by the character walking towards the camera. This technique is called self-tightening. In order to make the characters the same size in over the shoulder shots, you can move the camera backwards and zoom in so the shot is a close up before actually filming. This way the characters are far more accurate in size in comparison to one another.
This masterclass was very beneficial and when I'm filming my own trailer I will definitely consider Simon Hook's advice in relation to the shot types and transitions I use, and also the lighting and positioning of my props.
