Teaching camera operation

[Sara Stroud]

Hi folks,

 

My background is in painting and drawing, I have worked on my own short films and commissioned work. I also teach TV production in Scotland.

 

We train students to use the Sony XD PW750. I teach the students how to use all the functions in manual and use various shooting exercises to get them to put it in to practice.

 

As my background is fine art I struggle with explaining the more technical aspects of camera operation including the physics of lenses.

 

Would anyone have any tips on how to teach this practically and also other tips for helping train new camera operators.

 

How did you learn or get taught when you were a student?

 

Thanks Sara

[Brian Drysdale]

I don't know what level you're teaching at, but the best way is usually to break it down into bits. Something to bear in mind is that your students will have different ways in how they like to learn, so a mix of the theory (using talk, handouts and visuals) and then applying it in practise, hands on, tends to catch most students. That's pretty much how the BBC ran their training courses.

[Phil Rhodes]

If you get a magnifying glass, you can usually project an image of a brightly-illuminated object or window onto a piece of paper, which I find is quite a nice trick to demonstrate how it all works (there are of course hilarious stories of people doing this in order to guide oil painting, which you'll probably be aware of).

 

On the odd occasion I've been asked to run classes, I've tried to cover shooting stuff that's actually editable in terms of coverage and camera angles.

 

P

[Freya Black]

If you get a magnifying glass, you can usually project an image of a brightly-illuminated object or window onto a piece of paper, which I find is quite a nice trick to demonstrate how it all works (there are of course hilarious stories of people doing this in order to guide oil painting, which you'll probably be aware of).

 

 

Hilarious? Not sure I get what you mean except that there was a long period where people were trying to achieve the level of work achieved by the great masters of art, not realising that they were generally all tracings made using a camera obscura.

 

Mostly it's not really hilarious but just a fact about the history of art.

 

Freya

[Freya Black]

Here's a mildly amusing article about back when this stuff was all still a bit contentious although maybe you will find it hilarious I'm not sure:

 

http://www.koopfilms.com/hockney/articles.html

 

These days it's generally accepted that the vast amount of stuff from the period when people "suddenly got amazingly good at painting" was all traced. I guess there might be some older folks in the dark corners of the world who still find it difficult to accept but the paintings have been found to exhibit optical distortion in line with the lenses used so there is really overwhelming evidence in support of the idea of optical assists of various kinds.

 

Personally I don't have a problem with the idea, but then I don't think there is anything wrong with tracing but I come from a more recent art background.

 

It's interesting to think that cinema has a stronger connection to the world of painting than people might imagine tho.

 

Freya

[Phil Rhodes]

 

 

folks in the dark corners of the world who still find it difficult to accept

 

That's more or less the hilarious part!