Reseach Into Filming Equipment

I was in charge of obtaining filming, lighting and sound equipment.

The lighting and sound equipment was easy to sort out because in terms of sound, it is all going to be added in during post-production so we didn't need any high-tech microphone on the day.

In terms of lighting, the weather was set to be relatively bright yet cloudy which meant that the light would be dispersed which is perfect photography conditions in terms of the quality of film but also we wanted a natural light rather than electric so we decided against any artificial lighting equipment.

However, if we had decided to use any then I may have been able to obtain some from the photography studio where I work.

When it came to the video camera, we decided using our experience from our Prelim Task that we wanted something that filmed in HD. One of our actors owned a digital SLR camera that filmed in HD that she leant to us, however I also hired one out from the library just in case something went wrong with the SLR plans.

It was just as well that I did this because my memory card was not compatible with the SLR so we started out on the Sanyo camera the belonged to the school. However, this ran out of battery just before we started filming the last of the fight scenes so Mickey leant me her memory card and we switched to the Canon SLR.

This means that all our footage is in HD. HD stands for High Definition which means that there are many more pixels per frame resulting in a much clearer image with sharper edges. Standard Definition is equivalent to 480 interlaced horizontal lines (480i) stacked from the top to the bottom of the screen. The "interlaced" lines mean that the image (a frame) is made up or alternating fields of 240 lines that are scanned across the screen every 1/60 th of a second.

High-definition sources today come in one of three different resolutions: 1080p, 1080i, and 720p. Comparing the latter two, 1080i has more lines and pixels than 720p, but 720p is a progressive-scan format that should deliver a smoother image that stays sharper during motion. 1080p combines the superior resolution of 1080i with the progressive-scan smoothness of 720p.

Our cameras filmed in 1080p.

The other technical equipment we used was a jessops own Tripod. This is a very reliable tripod that has strong tilt and pan locks, height settings ranging from 30cm to 1.7m as well gripping feet. All of this meant that it was the perfect tripod for the job not least because it is easy to move around.