SD cards are a non-volatile memory card made for portable devices. They were the improvement from MMC (Multi Media Cards) in 1999.
They come in many different sizes and capacity. In physical sizes are; standard, mini and micro. SD and SDHC are available in all three however SDXC are not available in mini and SDIO are not available in micro.
The capacity are SDSC are from 1MB to 4GB. SDHC ranges from 4GB to 32GB and SDXC can be found from 32GB to 2TB.
SD Cards have speed ratings, which are the speeds to read and write video record data.
Class 2 is for SD video recording
Class 4 and 6 for HD to Full HD video recording
Class 10 for Full HD and consecutive recording of HD Stills
UHS Speed Grade 1 for real-time broadcast and large HD files.
UHS Speed Grade 3 for 4K video files.
SD Cards (‘Secure digital’)
Camera Manual Modes
P Mode – Program or also known as the ‘paparazzi’ mode. This creates balanced photography. It works hard and fast to allow quick fire photography that doesn’t take ages to set up. Perfect for paparazzi.
TV Mode – This is the shutter speed mode. This allows you to take control of the shutter speed while the camera keeps it balanced. The shutter speed allows light in and allows for movement, giving you control over these aspects.
AV Mode – This is the F-Stop mode (Aperture) and the depth of field. You can have control over the area of focus. With a low aperture you will have a small depth of field.
M Mode – This is the fully manual zone. You have full control over how you shot.
White Balance
The process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that what is white in real life appears white on the camera. This also involves colour temperature. A camera can sometimes exaggerate the colour of the light. It can turn white into blue or orange. The colour blue happens when outside with natural light whereas orange is the use of unnatural light indoors.
ISO
ISO is the level of sensitivity of your camera to available light. The lower the number the less sensitive it is making the footage darker. Lower numbers would be used in brightly lit areas . The higher the number you increase the sensitivity. However with higher numbers you will have more noise and grain.
Highlight Tone Priority
This makes the highlights more detailed however will mean that you lose detail in the shadow. This means that you will have a limit to the ISOs available to you. It also disables the auto lighting optimizer.
 Original PhotoWhen first opening a RAW file in Photoshop it opens a RAW editing window, which allows you to preview the edits to your photograph before having to fully open it. |  Opening RAW filesIn the first editing box it allows you to change the saturation and contrast of the image, as well as the exposure and colour balance. |  Colour SatuationIn the second window it lists the colour allowing you control on what colours you want to have within the photo. You can brighten them or set them back to grey. |
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 RGB LevelsThis window shows you the levels of the colours within the photo. The line moving through the graph is then open to manipulation. |  Last StepsWhen happy with the RAW file edit, click 'Open Image'. It will then be place as a Photoshop file in the normal photoshop window. Click 'View' - 'Gamut Warning' and this will give you any indication on what would show up poorly with moire on a television screen. |  FXThis window gives you examples of the special effects you can add to your image. It allows to blend or warp the photo. The most common use is the vignette, darkening the edges of the photo focusing on the centre. |
Editing RAW Files
Sound on Camera
Using a 650D Canon Camera it will automatically record stereo sound through its built in microphone however if an alternative micro is plugged in it will automatically put priority to that. The best external microphone for use on the 650D would be a rode mic with a mini plug of 3.5mmm diameter. The levels when recording can be set on Auto or Manual. When it is set to auto the level is adjusted automatically to the response of sound. To change to manual you can adjust the sound recording level to one of 64. To do this select [Rec. Level] and adjust the sound recording level while checking the peak indicator. For the loudest yet clearest sound, set the level to “12” making sure it does not hit the peak of “0”. The only other option is to disable it completely.
Sound Design
The three main pieces of sound when making a film are the human voice, sound effects and music. When making a documentary another main aspect is atmosphere. Dialogue needs to be the most important thing when recording for a documentary, as this is a person telling you about their life and the truth from their eyes. When recording it you do not want to have too much background noise, as you want to hear the interview clearly. Atmosphere is needed in a documentary as it gives you the sense of realism. It gives you the sounds of the environment you were in when you filmed; this makes the film sound real to the audience. Music and sound effects are things added during postproduction, which can help enhance the quality of your film. It adds to the theme of the documentary as well as filling gaps that are created where there is no speech. Music is not always needed within a piece of film however it can add to the emotions. For example using minor, slow music can help the audience feel the sadness of what is being spoken about.
Foley
Foley is used within film, television, video, video games and radio. It is the art of reproduction of sounds that are added to the media during postproduction to enhance the quality of the audio. They do this by recreating the noises and sounds within a controlled environment. This is a technic that will not really be needed within documentary however it may come in handy to aware of incase our sound from recording does not pick up something that is needed for the footage to look real and normal.
Marantz 661
A Marantz is a high-end audio recorder. It allows you to record sound straight onto an SD card whilst giving you control over the volumes. To use a Marantz you need to plug a microphone into the device using a XLR cable. When you are then recording you can choose between ‘pausing’ the sound track and ‘stopping’ it. The difference between these is that when it is stopped the next time you record it will come up as a new sound track, however if it was paused it will carry on the sound track you paused on. For the best sound make sure that it records at 12db, anything lower would be too quiet whereas too loud would make it peak. To download the sound tracks onto the computer simply plugged in the Marantz using the USB lead and drag and drop the tracks into the folder.
Phantom Power
Phantom power is an extra power source that is needed when using certain microphones. Some microphones have power built into them however others need to use of extra volts for the microphone to work. Phantom power is usually between 12 and 48Volts however microphones only draw the amount of power they need. It can be found within mixing consoles, Marantz’s and preamplifiers. When using a Marantz you need to make sure that the phantom power is switched on.
Stereo and Mono
Stereophonic sound is when sound is recorded using two or more independent audio channels and microphones. It can create the impression of sound coming from different directions. It tries to replicate natural hearing. It requires technical knowledge and skill as well as being more expensive than monophonic sound. Mono sound is just one microphone in one channel. It is less expensive to record and easier however it is only of one direction centered in the ‘sound field’.
Microphones
Microphones come in four main directional patterns; Omnidirectional, Cardioid, Hyper cardioid and Bi-Directional. The patterns are shown in this image showing that omnidirectional records sound from all around whereas cardioid is only from in front. Hyper cardioid is similar to these records more around but eliminates the side and rear. Bi-directional records from both sides, making it perfect during interviews.
Director Techniques
Actuality
The use of real people in real places without the use of scripts, sets or props. As director I want to make the footage seem as real as possible. As we are filming at a real event we won’t have the option of taking the interviewee to a set location. We will however have to add things that take away from the actuality such as explanation and captions.
Interviews
Harry and I will be taking part in the interviews together. Interviews are needed to explore into the primaries life. Without these the viewer would know very little about the people they are watching. Interviews can also make the primary talk about things they otherwise wouldn’t.
Archive Footage
Archive footage is material from another source. We are hoping not to use any archive footage however if it is needed we would keep it to a minimum. If we do use any archive footage we’ll make sure that it is royalty free with no copyright.
Reconstructions
When reconstructing a scene you take away the actuality of the footage. It makes the film seem less real as it is actors, in a set location re-acting what has once happened however it gives the audience no real proof of the event. In our documentary we will not need any reconstructed footage as we will be capturing it all while it happens.
Montage
A montage is footage/photos put together in with quick cuts with no real order. It allows you to get across a lot of footage and information in a short space of time to keep the viewer interested. Due to the amount of good photos we have we will be using a montage in both our VJPJ and our KickStarter, as this allows us to show a true and more rounded of the view of the Brony community.
Exposition
An exposition is at the beginning of the documentary that introduces the themes of what is to be seen. This then creates the viewers first impression of the film and introducers them to the content. Our introduction will be showing something shocking that’ll catch the viewer’s attention straight away. This should also show what themes we will have throughout however I think it is more important to catch their attention then to introduce them.
Open Questions
These are questions that are framed so that the interviewee can talk about the topics extensively. It gives the interviewee time to talk and means they are talking a lot more than you. These can be difficult as it could leave the interviewee lost with what it is you are looking for within their answers or it could give you some information you had not planned for, to follow up on.
Closed Questions
These are simply yes or no answered questions. When interviewing these are not what we are looking for however it could be a way to lead on to something else. For example having two separate questions that would lead off differently from a yes or a no.
Probing Questions
Once making the primary comfortable you can start asking these questions as they would be more likely to answer them if they trust you. These questions are used to bring out more information, some that maybe the interviewee did not mean to say. These questions have to be changed and thought of on the spot depending on the person’s response.
Hypothetical Questions
Setting up a possible situation to place the interviewee in, in their minds to find out what they would do when put there. These give you an insight to their personalities however for documentaries would not work overly well, depending on the topic. For our documentary we don’t want to hear our voices interviewing them which means that the audience wouldn’t know what the hypothetical situation was, unless the use of captions, which we do not wish to use.
Leading Questions
These questions also would not really be used within documentaries as they are leading the subjects to think something different on a topic. These questions say in the question what the interviewer wants to hear. In documentary this is not what we want to hear as we want to find out things we don’t know before. They can come in handy when wanting the person to head towards a topic that may be uncomfortable for them. I believe that for our topic we don’t want to manipulate the people, as we want to hear what it’s like from them.
Multiple Questions
When asking a question it is sometimes helpful to push a question further. They are most commonly used following a closed question with ‘why?’ to give it more contexts. These questions can sometimes confuse an interviewee, as they can’t remember everything you said.