Out in the Field

During the opening weeks of my third semester at Penn State, I've learned a lot regarding the technicalities of filmmaking. I am currently enrolled in COMM 242, a fundamental course exploring film production. The most important topic within our curriculum is the difference between lenses, how differing focal lengths can determine the composition of a shot. Additionally we've conducted a camera workshop on the Panasonic AG-DVX200, an audio workshop on the ME66 Mic Kit, and an editing workshop on Adobe Premiere Pro. While all of this information is crucial for the development of a visual storyteller, each of these lectures pale against genuine experience.

The first ever film exercise I've conducted for credit was under Professor Westrick's guidance, the "Shot List" assignment. Testing our knowledge on basic shot types, exposure settings, and focal length range the "Shot List" requires us to fulfill an array of cinematic directions.

For this project I worked with my classmates, Hannah Harrington and Courtney Kerr. When we met to begin our shoot, none of us were entirely prepared or confident in our abilities. Though we've all had experience with professional shoots to some capacity, this was our first run through with absolute creative control. We were responsible for the quality of the composition and audio feed, and getting the shoot done within a reasonable timeframe. It was a daunting task, it took us about an hour to get our first three shots completed. For me, this felt like a bad omen.

Fortunately, as the shoot progressed our efficiency drastically improved. There was a point when we were outside and Courtney turned to us and said "We only have eight more shots left." That suddenly brightened my mood; previously I did not think we could accomplish our goal within the span of a singular shoot, but now it seemed possible. As the sky darkened, we moved our equipment into an empty classroom in the Bellisario Media Center. It's a genuinely beautiful room with surround sound stereos, Star Trek-esque seating, automatic shades, and lighting that was optimal for our shoot.

While we were in this room, we attempted a dolly shot without any automotive equipment, because I had neglected to rent some. With limited resources, we staged and created a "homemade dolly shot." It was by far the most challenging, yet rewarding moment of the night. Grasping the boom mic in one hand, pulling our director's chair in the other, we dollied out as Hannah walked toward our camera.

Our needlessly complicated dolly shot.

The most ironic part about this situation was that we didn't even film the shot correctly. Looking back at our "Shot List," I discovered that the dolly wasn't supposed to be just any type of dolly, but rather a "dolly in." We weren't really beat up about that revelation, because there were several other shots we needed to redo.

Our homemade dolly from the perspective of the camera.

When we met up the following Monday, the quality of our shots and the timeliness of our efforts massively improved. Perhaps it was because the weekend was behind us, we weren't angsty to get our project over with. However, I had to go to a meeting that afternoon, and only had an hour and a half to film. Considering that time crunch, you'd think we'd be in an even greater hurry then before. Fortunately that wasn't the case.

I guess with any filmmaker it takes a bit to get used to the entire process. Our work ethic drastically improved during the reshoots, we all just needed to get our feet wet. We were also much more nervous during the initial session, our attentiveness manifested itself into the form of anxiety. By Monday we no longer felt totally out of our element, and were able to put our best foot forward. Of course we have a long way to go, but that's per the course with any craft.

This was not only my first project with these girls, it was also my first time operating a boom mic.