Camerawork
|
This article is still yet to be completed due to stress. We get a lot of stressful torture in our lives that makes us crash into slumber. Given that inspiration is a big variable, and we may have been lacking of it, this article will be completed as soon as possible, at our own pace... HONEST!
|
| “ | Q: Why do so many of your videos have a greenish-yellow tinge? A: It's one of the flaws in recording with Sony's EyeCreate Program (a downloadable Playstation 3 Application that requires the Playstation Eye Camera); THEY NEED TO FIX THE PROGRAM, not only of that tint from Lack Of Some Light, but the Audio/Video skips that seems to occur during recording. |
” |
| Chris, believing it's all in the equipment | ||
Chris's approach to camerawork of all kinds is rather abysmal, whether we're talking about still photography or video work. Despite years and years of constant and obviously enthusiastic photography and home video making, Chris hasn't learned anything beyond the basics of this craft. Actually, the way he still routinely fucks up things proves that he is handling cameras far worse than your Average Joe... and as we've seen from what Chris has done to his PSEye, "bad camera handling" can be interpreted in two ways.
Chris's video production efforts have been hindered by the fact that, despite of years of practice, Chris doesn't know anything about cinematography. He's oblivious to several common sense ideas like "if you want to see anything at all, light the scene properly." Something that should be remembered when considering the poor quality of the results is that Chris never even checks his videos before uploading them.
Framing the shots
Chris assumes that if he can see the lens, then everything can be seen by the lens. He has no idea what it means to be in the focus of a shot, and is constantly standing way out of center, or is putting shit way too close to the camera, so that you can't even tell what the fuck you're looking at most of the time. When handling the camerawork directly, Chris often attempts to experiment with the camera's positioning without properly considering what his audience will see, and as such we are on the receiving end of masterpieces like the Videobooks and Sonichu's Edge. Additionally, his lack of proper equipment or controlled co-ordination tends to weigh down such endeavors with constant shaking, or disorienting angles.
Focus
Chris relies extensively on autofocus. Autofocus usually works with a slight delay and it usually can't focus on subjects that are too close to the camera. Many cameras have specific autofocus mode or require manual focus for macro photography.
Chris's attempts at using manual focus, as evidenced in A Week With Christian Chandler (probably shot with a 35mm SLR camera from the school), have resulted in some rather blurry shots.
Lighting
Most of Chris's YouTube videos have been lit completely wrong. Plainly put: If you're making videos indoors, you've got to turn the room lights on; human brains can automatically adjust to different color temperatures, but film and video cameras either lack the automatics to handle this, or are constantly struggling in bad lighting conditions to figure out what's going on. Chris assumes that if there's enough natural light coming in for him to see anything at all, then the video is lit properly. As a result, many of Chris's indoor video shots have a distinct yellow tint.
Many of Chris's photographs, as in the Scrapbook and A Week With Christian Chandler, have been shot against light (i.e., camera facing the light source). This usually leaves the subjects in shadow and obscures the details.
Chris also commits a common novice mistake in thinking that camera flash completely negates the need for proper lighting (a naïve view of "if it's day, everything is OK, but if it's night, then just use the flash"). In fact, flash will highlight the front of the scene, but it can also over-expose the shot if the subject is too close to the camera. If the background is unlit, it adds a very big contrast and stark shadows.