When I was appointed the role of Arts and Culture prefect, I immediately began brainstorming ways to promote these departments of the school. I soon came to realise that this was quite difficult to do as the creative arts are highly subjective. However, an idea I had from very early on was to assist the school videographer in producing videos of the departments, to celebrate the Arts and give members outside of the school community a glimpse of what the Arts at RSJ involve. I have always been interested in acting, filming and creating things by implementing different types of digital media together, so this idea was right down my alley.
Once I reached out to Ms Iveson (the director of marketing and admissions) with my proposal, she very kindly contacted the resident videographer regarding my idea and offered me the opportunity to work alongside him. I experienced operating professional cameras through filming various shots for the highlight reel of the senior production, Much Ado About Nothing, as well as filming the whole production for parents to view.
The filming experience was incredibly enjoyable as the videographer, Mr Sliwinski, taught me how to operate the cameras. I learnt how to use the manual focus and how to shoot using different camera angles. After the basic tutorial, I was given the freedom to capture whatever I thought would make a good shot for the highlight reel. I filmed various elements of the set design, actors getting their makeup done and some backstage preparations all whilst honing my filming skills. When filming the production, I stood next to Mr Sliwinski at the back of the Black Box and we each operated our own camera. My role was to capture the whole stage and zoom in on areas when necessary, whilst Mr Sliwinski captured close-up footage. Although standing up continuously for an hour and a half sounds like torture for some, being able to do what I enjoy whilst watching the incredible performance was very satisfying and the time went by quickly.
When filming, I could only see what I had filmed through the small screen of the camera, so I was a little nervous and hoped that I had captured some clean shots. When the highlight reel was shared on the schools’ social media pages, the clips had been edited and I was finally able to see my footage on the big screen. I was very impressed by the quality of the shots. I wanted to avoid using automatic zoom which would prevent me from switching to different DOFs (depth of field) easily, and I was glad to see that the use of my manual zoom also looked very good for a first attempt. I am incredibly happy with this project and I hope to also be a part of the editing process for future projects. Please see the video and enjoy watching not only all of the hard work that has been put into creating the productions but also the first professional video for RSJ filmed by students. My sister, Emily Blackwell, and I.
