Director of Photography - Nicola Daley

Director of Photography Nicola Daley Shares some expert advice on the role and responsibilities of a DoP

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We were lucky enough to have Nicola visit us at Signals in November and talk to our BFI Academy students about the role of a DoP.  She gave us some great insights and lots of information that would be useful for any filmmaker.  We wanted to share some of that information here.

This is great practical shooting guide - 

SETTING UP YOUR SHOT : WHAT TO THINK ABOUT (STEP BY STEP)

1. FRAMING & PERSPECTIVE

• What are you framing for, what is emotion behind the shot, is it a POV, who do we

empathise with, what height to eyeline should you be, what is function of the shot?

• Rule of Thirds (refer to painting and composition theory)

• Do you have too much head room or too little?

• Have you filled the frame with visual interest or is there empty space in frame?

• Have you used the THREE plains: Foreground, midground & background?

• Can you use movement either in camera or in blocking/performance?

• If you have camera movement – what is the camera motivated by to move?

• Eyeline – the closer you are to the actor eyeline the more involved audience is.

• Have you used Depth in your framing and perspective?

2. LIGHTING

• Three Point Lighting set up – KEY light, FILL light & BACK Light

• Look out for bad shadows – like Boom Poles, around eyes, or camera shadow

• Use light to BOUNCE & REFLECT as much as possible off walls or ceiling or

use either a reflector disc or some white cardboard (anything flat & white)

• Make sure there is DEFINTION in the lighting and not all FLAT

3. WHITE BALANCE

• On every camera there is a MANUAL set up function for setting White Balance

• Set your white balance up only IN the Lighting set up once ready to shoot

• Use Flat WHITE paper or card to pick up lighting and ZOOM camera so you get

a full frame of white, then press White Balance Auto Set up – make sure the

white looks white and all colours look correct and true to reality.

4. EXPOSURE

• On every camera is a MANUAL set up function for setting your exposure

• IF your subject is too bright or too dark, no colour or pixel info is recorded so you

must aim for a MEDIUM exposure - not too bright or too dark

• IF you want to darken or brighten it up – do it later in post

• Use the ZEBRA stripe setting to check if you are over exposed (too bright)

5. FOCUS

• On every camera is a MANUAL set up function for setting your Focus

• To know if you’re in focus on a subject: ZOOM into it as closely as possible, then

adjust your focus accurately and zoom back out to adjust your shot

• IF you have a lot of movement by your subject in shot – its best advised to stay

in AUTO FOCUS mode but be aware that camera’s use the most brightly lit part

of frame usually to auto focus on.

6. SOUND

• If you have DIALOGUE its best to use an External Microphone or a Radio Mic –

an external microphone needs to no less than 1m away from actors mouth

• Always use HEADPHONES to HEAR what the Camera is recording.

• IF you use an external microphone you must SET up the MENU accordingly so

the camera can read the microphone

• TEST your LEVELS by getting actor to rehearse lines at volume they will talk

• Use MANUAL AUDIO LEVELS to adjust the recording level – make sure the

level is just below the red peaking – DO NOT let the level be too LOW or PEAK

 

Nicola also talked about how to create meaning and through the camera in order to fully explore the intent of the film.  There will be more from Nicola here soon.