Dissecting the Camera, Sound Production and the Director

 Dissecting The Camera

The guts of the camera:

In a camera, you have the aperture, shutter, gate, and film. The aperture is the opening in the lens that lets a certain amount of light through that changes the amount of light that you can see. The shutter is a part that will open and close at different speeds to either let the light through or keep the light out. This might open fast to have a flashing effect on the scene. The light will then pass through the gate which is in front of the film. When the film is exposed to light it will retain what you are recording.    

Lily Gladstone

A camera is a collection of parts that can help you tell a visual story. It takes in light through a lens and captures images, creating that illusion of reality we keep talking about. 

Sound Production

Different Microphone Patterns

The microphone pattern is the shape that is around the microphone which affects what sound is recorded and what sound gets blocked out. You will have some that will record sound from all around you and you can have some that will only record sound that is in the direction that it is facing. You can also get some that will only record sound from the sides and front of the other way around. There are a lot of patterns which means that if you want to block out sound from one direction you can. 

 Lily Gladstone

And the sad thing is: you don't often really notice good sound recording and design. Even though it takes just as much technical know-how and artistry as visual storytelling does. 

The Director

Lily Gladstone 

An actor's job is to bring a character to life. And we need actors to think real thoughts and feel real feelings to make the film relatable.

This is incredibly demanding work, so it's up to the director to ensure that the actors have a safe place to explore their characters and to take risks. 

To give an actor the confidence they need to inhabit a character, a director must give clear, actionable directions.