Training Course Week

stingman · Post by **stingman** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:45 am

Dear all,
I have just come back from an intense training course. The course was from wednesday to sunday, 7.00am to 10.30pm! My brain was just numb after just one day. The course was run at Horsham, by a Christian organisation. It is to train new Newscrews for Hope 08 with UCB Television. The news programmes start to go out on air from April 1st.

We learn`t EVERYTHING about being on a News Crew. My team was made up of me and no-one else! I am the only one who is a `one man band`.
The training covered everything from being a reporter, Health and Safety, Consent forms, Vox Pops (interviewing passers by on the street like on a news report), How to prepare a camera, lighting, arranging a shot etc. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

One tip that I learned and I`m giving you for free is this

When you are interviewing someone and it is a medium to close-up shot. Make sure that when you look into the person's eyes that you are filming to see that sparkle. You need to line up the camera in such a way that you see a bright dot in each eye. This makes the eyes come to life and makes the person more interesting. If the dot in each eye isn`t there then you`ve done something wrong and it won`t get the audience`s attention. It make them dull and life-less. When you next watch the news or even Eastenders or Emmerdale, look into the eyes, you will see what I`m talking about.

I`m still recovering from it all. I was given a partner on the course, he was from another UK country (I won`t mention it

), but we just didn`t get on and I had to ask him to repeat everything because I didn`t understand. When I started to say something, he would just but in halfway through my sentence

CRAZYMAN) So I just let him get on with it and ignored him. Because of this we didn`t get much finished practical done. The practical was good as on one occasion we went down to the town centre and filmed interviews with people (Vox Pops).

Be good guys and thank your lucky stars that you don`t live in (woops, nearly said the country!) He was from Fife

Be good.
Bye

Stingman

Post by **Dave Watterson** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:13 pm

Well Fife is a separate kingdom traditionally ...

The course sounds fascinating, Ian. Mind you I am a bit surprised they let you and that bloke get away with not co-operating. I would have thought a lot of the stress would have been on the discipline of working with other people ... even if that is sometimes difficult.

The "glint in the eye" tip is useful. Sometimes lighting directors even set up a special little lamp on or near the camera to give a suitable glint in an actor's eye. Of course it would not be natural to light that way for every shot in a longer movie but for interviews yes.

Any other such practical tips you can pass on to us?

Dave

stingman · Post by **stingman** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:37 am

Another tip is an obvious one. When filming, camera position relative to the eyeline. If you film slightly above the person, it makes the viewer seem more important then the person on camera, it also belittles them a bit. Filming from below makes the viewer feel less inportant.
You can also split the screen up into 9 thirds and a normal filming of the eyes would be seen to be on the top third line. Look at the news when the presenters are speaking.

More to come.

Stingman.

Brian Saberton · Post by **Brian Saberton** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 7:58 pm

To the rule of thirds as mentioned by Ian, I can add the 80/20 rule which is a useful guide for shooting landscape scenes. The idea is that the horizon will be either on a line 20% up from the bottom of the frame or 20% down from the top with the remaining 80% being sky or land respectively.

You will see this guidline used in many a travel documentary.

Willy · Post by **Willy** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:42 pm

Brian Saberton wrote:To the rule of thirds as mentioned by Ian, I can add the 80/20 rule which is a useful guide for shooting landscape scenes. The idea is that the horizon will be either on a line 20% up from the bottom of the frame or 20% down from the top with the remaining 80% being sky or land respectively.

You will see this guidline used in many a travel documentary.

Yes, that's right, Brian. 20% from the bottom of the frame when the sky is impressive. When there are heavy clouds in the sky for instance, this to create the right atmosphere in the film. I would say 30 %, but of course we can always discuss about it, but you are right ... never 50 %. Some weeks ago I watched an excellent film. It opened with a picture of the beach. The wind was blowing hard. It blew up the sands. In the distance I could see a man running from the right to the left at the horizon which was on a line 20 to 30 % from the top of the frame. Magnificent !

Chrisbitz · Post by **Chrisbitz** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:46 pm

That course sounds really interesting - what's the background? is it a voluntary job, or your full time work?

stingman · Post by **stingman** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:34 am

Chrisbitz wrote:That course sounds really interesting - what's the background? is it a voluntary job, or your full time work?

Hopenews is a Christian idea. It is backed by Kingdom Faith ministries, who have 2 churches. One is based (and backed the course) in Horsham. Is is also backed by Revelation TV, UCB Television (both on Sky), The Hope 08 website www.hopenews.co.uk, and Vivid Broadcast. The course had a value of £1500, but with the sponsors and donations, it was all covered. Food, travel lodge hotel etc was all covered. It was a very intense course. It was set up to supply news stories for these organisations. The news programme can be picked up all around Europe and in the USA. Check the website for a shedule.
The course trained teams of people from around the country to be Newsteams. Self contained units able to report and film news events.
The sort of news that will be covered is about Hope for the nation. Not just Church events or Christian stuff, but News of Hope to encourage people and to say that all is not lost, there still are friendly people out there! Even acts of goodwill should be covered. It`s to get people acting positively.
Yes, it is voluntary, but for what I learn`t over the week is basically priceless. I can put it to good use in my own films especially the white dots in the eyes thing. This I didn`t know, but since watching TV since, I have noticed it and it really does make people shine more.
The first programme goes out on April the first. Not an April Fool! I`m still waiting for more details before I start filming. I have a few ideas.
I didn`t want to say too much because people may think I`m starting to Preach to them!

Thanks for asking.

Stingman