Learning Depth of Field

The following video is a recording of myself using a Canon 7D to produce a change of depth of field. There is a voice-over to explain what I am changing at each point in the video:

Research 23: Time lapse practice

Here is a short video where I took a Canon EOS 7D up to the main road outside my College and took a picture every two seconds. I then made a movie out of the pictures by making each one a frame and making it play at 25 fps.

Research 22: Digipaks

In this post I am going to post some pictures of various digipaks and talk about their design and how they can influence the design of my own digipak. I want it to link directly to the poster that I will design, maybe using the same photograph and font.
As I need to scan them in, they will be displayed as follows:

                                       Front Cover             Back Cover

                                       Inside Front             Inside Back

                                                              Disc

1. The Killers - Sam's Town

This digipack is all greyscale, apart from the name of the album which has been done in red on the front cover. This is the theme for the album, with small parts of text and a border on the side of the digipack also in red. The most striking thing about the digipack is how a yak has been printed on the disc, with the round horns following the curvature of the disc. The inside front cover is a locational shot to let the person about to listen to the music picture the location they should be thinking of, adding to the mood of the music when listened to. The back cover is a picture of the band suitably dressed for the location pictured. The front cover is just pretty random, I have no idea what a woman in a bikini, and a yak have to do with an album, however it does have an impact on how people feel when they listen to the music, and understand the inspiration behind the songs. Nothing special has been done about the listing of the songs on the back cover, they have just been centre aligned and typed out to an even length over three lines.

2. The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out

This is The Kooks' most famous album with three very popular singles. This means that the digipak had to make a good initial and lasting impression. It is pretty abstract design on the whole. The front and back covers less so, which is just greyscale pictures of the band playing with instruments. But when you open up the case, you find another picture of the band on the left, with a red banner through them and on the left is a bright red CD with bold, capitalised letters on them, the artist and album title separated by font colour. The inside back cover is a slideshow of different situations. This is for comedy value mostly, and is appealing to the eye, so the person looking will be interested to see what is in each box, and how the story develops. This is ideally the sort of cover I would be happy with as my final design, a few band/artist photos, with some editing and abstractness on the side.

3. Green Day - International Superhits

Green Day are a very famous american band well known for the abstract genre of their albums. This really stands out with the colours that they have used. Black and white with bright pink and orange in the back ground makes for a very contrasting cover and stands out from a lot of other album covers. The front cover is particularly striking as the colours almost jump out at you and grab your attention, so that you open up the digipak and look at the back to see if any of the songs take your fancy. I particularly like the disc in this pak as the reflective part reflects the styling on the front cover, as well as having the song names listed, which is a very useful feature. On the back cover, the abstractness continues where a close up of the band's heads has been taken and greyscaled, with the bright border around their heads. The inside rear cover is another band shot, with them larking around, continuing the genre of their songs.

4. Feeder - The Singles

The first and most striking thing about this digipak is the black and white. It is a very simplistic design, with the front and inside front covers picturing guitarists whilst in action on what looks to be a stage. The rest of the digipak looks to have been taken from a template, but is simple to read and looks good, with a clear list of the tracks on the reverse and the same font on the CD as is on the front cover of the digipak. There is no image behind the disc, but there is some fine print text at the bottom, (copyright warnings and the like, which have been copied on the disc also). I like this style of digipak the best and would like to have my final digipak relate to this one. I think it is contemporary and is an unusual style of digipak, but I think it works well.

5. Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream

This is a fairly simple design, the front cover has had a lot of editing done to it, but the rest of the digipak have been made fairly quickly with not much editing input. My favourite part of the digipak is the disc, where the artist and album name are given in the same font as is on the front cover, with a picture of the sun in the centre, gradienting quickly into black, like in space. The inside cover is very simple, with just a few spheres dotted around, portrayed as planets in orbit I would guess. The most interesting and eye-catching part of the digipak is the front cover, this is where the most colour is. It is made up of an imaginary space city scape in the background, and a cartoon image of the lead singers layered in to the foreground. On top of everything however is the name of the band in their signature style with and orange glow behind, relating to the typically orange glow of the sun.

Research 21: Posters

This first poster that I have chosen is different from most. It has no actual people in it, but is a cartoon. The abstractness of this poster caught my eye, with the contrasting colours (brown on white and blue). This is a play on the name of the band the 'Arctic Monkeys' where we see a monkey quite randomly eating an ice cream where we presume is the Arctic. This shows that a poster does not always need to show the artist themselves, but can be constructed in this abstract, cartoon way.

One of the most famous bands in the world, advertising one of their most famous songs for an up coming concert. To stand out, the designer has used black and white so that the text is then linked to the bad pictured in the middle (presumably Coldplay). I like the way the text almost creates a border around the picture in the centre, and makes it stand out. The picture itself has also been thought through, with all of the bright/shiny things really standing out on the black. There has been no depth of field put in here so that the (what seems to be a) city scape in the background can be seen clearly.

This is the only poster that I have chosen to talk about which does not have a picture, be that a cartoon character or normal photograph. This is an abstract poster, made with bright, light colours on a white background. The idea is to show that the concert (or tour) is a fun thing to go to. This is backed up by the random objects in the background, a smiling sun, trees, squiggles and other cartoony shapes all in basic colours (no more than 3).

One of Maroon 5's latest posters, this includes their new advertising campaign logo, with the signature text, with the red in the M. The poster includes a picture of each of the members of the band edited in softly into the background which is the main subject of the poster. Other information about the concert has been filled in below, with the date highlighted horizontally across the whole poster, which is a good way of making people remember when the concert is. Another key thing, to make it even more specific to the band, all the 'v's in the poster have been printed in red, to go with Maroon 5's new identity.

The last poster I am going to talk about is one of Pink Floyd's old posters. It is basically an artist's impression of the lead singer of Pink Floyd. WE can guess that it is an American concert, where pink Floyd are headlining, and so all the information has been written in a funky style down the side, following the outline of the cartoon figure. This is an idea I may wan't to incorporate into my own poster, but I would prefer to take an actual photograph and start from there.

Research 20: Three Keys to Photography

Here is a video I found on youtube which goes over the basics as to how to take a decent photograph in three easy steps. These include the Aperture, Shutter speed and ISO. This video alone has given me a great grounding in photography, which can be translated over to film very easily.

If I can practice and get relatively skilled with a camera, then finding the shots and setting them up should be little bother, it is the inspiration that is the key to photography and film, it just helps if you know how to show that off in the pictures.

I have been practising some techniques with my own camera, however I do not have an SLR so have been trying to get an idea of the outcome of the desired photograph and replicating this using photoshop. Below I have posted a picture that I took of my car at midnight in a car park. My camera is completely digital, so I set the shutter speed to 1 minute and left it still on a tri-pod whilst it took the photograph. As the camera could not manually focus, I had to add in a masked lens blur to achieve the effect of depth of field, which is so often used in the same way in almost every music videos.

Original Photo -  you can see that that everything is in focus and that there is little depth to the photo.

Edited Photo - Here is the edited version, you can see that the car almost jumps out in front of the background. I set the gradient of the blur to just start at the rear wheel so that the whole of the ground under the car is also in focus, yet everything behind gets gradually more blurred.

Research 19: Match On Action

Match On Action is a key element to any type of film or video. Without it things may appear a bit strange (i.e. a door generally closes after it has opened, so it is a good idea to show the door both opening and closing), so unless intentional, more than one shot is used for a single action.
Music videos however tend to almost overdo Match On Action. Where maybe even three or four shots may be used for one action; say someone is to walk through a door, we may firstly see them reach for the door, then cut to the door handle opening, then see a foot walk over the latch, and then cut out to see the person close the door from the other side.. whilst remembering to stick to the 180 degree rule.
Therefore it is crucial for me to take a lot of different angles and versions of shots for each part of my video. Then I can edit a lot more effectively as music videos tend not to have long lasting shots in them, it is all very quick and flowing on the most part.

Match On Action can also be called Match Action Cut. I have found a video that explains it;

Research 18: Depth Of Field

What I did not really pick up on through my AS course was the absolute importance of depth of field when filming. Not only is it used for music videos, but is used an awful lot in films, and for the same reasons:
Having a very focussed/thin depth of field is a way of pointing out to the audience where they should be focussing their attention on screen. It is mainly used to portray emotion, but can be used for purely special effects, or even going as far as creating subliminal referencing, which engages the audience even further into the film.
Just the other night I went to the cinema to watch one of the latest romantic comedies that have come out, and could not stop noticing the use of depth of field on nearly every single shot that was taken. It was amazing to think about how much effort must have gone into taking each shot, but the end result was well worth it, with the filming coming off with a very professional look to it.
I have found a video on youtube which has helped me understand the reasons for understanding, and when to use depth of field;

This makes it that much more important to get the depth of field right for every single shot, so that the audience can gain a greater sense of what they are supposed to look at (i.e. there is more of an attraction to looking into a sharp area of an image, than to a blurred out are of image.. it is just an automatic thing, as humans, that we do)
If needed, I can edit in depth of field after shooting everything in-focus, with the help of Adobe After Effects of course. But I would much prefer to get the depth of field right whilst filming, it just comes off with that much more natural a feel.

Research 17: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can't Stop (Video 15)

Can't stop is one of the many famous songs made by RHCP. It is a very abstract video, very random.. But the shots have been very thought through. There is no real story line, and is mainly just the members of the band messing around with props. There are various shots of the band playing as well.

The end of the first shot of the video.. The camera flies through a tube, computer generated, and then ends up at the end with the lead singer at the end making a weird face. The reason I chose this shot is  because of the way in which the actual shot has been integrated with the computer generated shot. It is possible to try one of these shots using loops and blurring, but may prove to be difficult given the equipment on hand.

The randomness continues later on where we see the first shot, but from the outside. We can see from here that it would be nearly impossible to create the first shot by sending a camera through the actual tunnel.. but the main thing about this shot for me is how it is locationless. It is just a guy sticking his head into a yellow tube in the middle of a white room. This shows that location is not essential to create a decent music video, just a white room with little features is good enough.

Here is an impossible shot. The camera is facing the mirror on the wall, yet there is no reflection of the camera. To create this shot, a normal shot has been taken, and then a 'fisheye' effect has been added to make it look like a round mirror. Then simply layers have been added, such as the edge of the mirror, and the wall behind so that it then looks like we are looking at a reflection. This type of shot is really interesting, and makes the viewer wonder how it is possible, when it is actually a trick.

Here is a classic band shot, but with a difference. It is really just the band playing about on set, with a random orange backdrop and an oddly lit stage. Again I think the point of this shot was just random version of a common shot. It shows that you can take any footage you want, as long as it fits the genre, and it is acceptable.

This final screen grab is made using a green screen I believe. It shows three of the same person doing different things at the same point in the song. If suitable, this shot would be relatively easy to replicate, so long as it is appropriate to the song. This song is mainly just random shots, so this  ties in with the theme/genre nicely, but say on an acoustic song, this may be less appropriate, but could be used in a similar way. It is all in editing, but would need to be planned before shooting.

Research 16: Example - Kickstarts (Video 14)

This is Example's way of starting a music video. They always have a banner or logo to introduce the video. Here the green logo jumps up and down, like it is being moved  by the tapping foot. This is the first shot of the music video and then begins to expand so that the feet keep changing with the beat. This sort of thing is common, yet Example have added their own twist to it.

This is the last of the feet tapping at the beginning of the song. The screen has been divided up into 16 sections where all the squares keep changing the tapping feet that are in them. We can also see a woman's face in the middle of the screen. This actually the next shot, and is a clever way of cutting into it. Depending on the genre of my chosen song, this type of editing could be useful in moderation as it works very well with this particular song.

In the next section of the song, the screen is split in two. One half is his face singing, which allows the audience to see the emotion on his face. And the other half giving a visual representation of the lyrics he is singing. 'I'm holding your hand but I'm holding it loose' are the words sung here, and on the left we see two hands holing loosely.

For a section of the song the screen is split into three, where a single person in the middle is switched and swapped around with the legs, torso and head of other people and objects (drum sticks for legs and a finger with sunglasses stuck on the end for a head). I think this video is quite a random one, however the the shots themselves look to have been planned before shooting, just the content in the shots seems to be almost improvised.

I chose to screen grab this shot purely for the aspect of editing, linked to match on action. The singer/actor is saying down and pointing down repeatedly, and every time he says down the next shot (above him) comes further down until it is then taking up the screen. This could be a useful thing to include in my video because it is an obvious connection between the music and the video, and in this case works well with the song.

I have chosen to screen grab this shot primarily because of the depth of field that has been used. The singer's head is completely in focus, but the depth of field is so thin that even his shoulders are out of focus. The background is a complete blur, we can presume that there are plants in the background but we are only really focussing on his face as it is the only part of the shot that is in focus. Depth of field is used a lot in film, especially music videos and is a vital part of making a music video look respectable and professional, rather than having the whole shot in focus. It is less interesting to watch and consequently the audience may become distracted and loose interest in the video.

Research 15: The New Amsterdams - Turn Out The Lights (Video 13)

I am not familiar with this band, however a friend sent me this video link and it really caught my eye. The main point to make about it is that is has been shot completely in sepia. Everything is either a light brown or black. So there is a lot of contrast and can make uninteresting objects look far more so.

This is one of the first shots. We are looking up from a boat into a tree as we float past the branches. This shot really caught my eye as the random but natural shapes of the branches create a really nice silhouette against the glare from the sun, shining through the leaves. This would have taken quite a lot to set up the camera to record the light in the correct way, most cameras would just make everything around the glare pretty much pitch black, so by taking one of these shots successfully I can really show off the skills that I have picked up whilst on the course.

Once again, we have a clip of the guitarist strumming, this as classic shot, it is amazing just how much it it used. This version of the shot has been done especially well, with a depth of field focussed only on the neck of the guitar. The strumming hand is out of focus, and everything we see after the end of the neck of the guitar is also out of focus. The sepia effect works especially well in this shot given the colour of the fingerboard against the strings and the dark colours in the background.

Similar to the previous screenshot, this is actually just a what is known as a 'luck' shot. I doubt they were expecting a swan to swim across in the background. The camera man must have realised what a shot it was and adjusted the depth of field, making the strumming guitar out of focus, but keeping it fairly visible, whilst catching the graceful swan swimming across the behind the guitar. This shows that a lot of filming can be just out of pure luck. Plus in this case, this shot sums up the genre of the song and is arguably the best shot of the video.

I chose to take this screen shot mainly because of the reasons for taking it in the first place, and by the way depth of field has been used. It is primarily to focus on the emotion on the child's face, but this is helped vastly by the use of depth of field. As a rule, you put into focus what you want the audience to see. In this case the most in focus part of the shot are the child's eyes, and this is where the majority of emotion is expressed. A very well shot piece of footage.

This is the last screen grab that I have taken of this video. The rest of the shots are all very similar to the ones above, with many close-ups of heads and an absolutely huge use of depth of field, used for pretty much every shot. This is a simple shot, where no depth of field has been used as it is more of a landscape shot than an emotion shot. The way the water reflects the sky, and then off the boat really ads to the appeal of this shot.

This is a really good music video to be aspiring to, as the techniques used here are top notch and done professionally. Especially the depth of field shots, a lot can be learned from watching this music video a few times through, and I hope I can take what I have learned from it forward with me to when I shoot my own music video.