Park Hill/Camera Practice

While we still had the spare time before focusing most of our attention on the drama project, Alex and I decided to go to Park Hill, in Sheffield, to practice filming various camera angles. I was very keen to do this as I have not had as much practical experience with cameras as others on the course; due to my course in Sixth Form being mainly essay-based.

Alex informed me that Park Hill would be an interesting place to capture footage as it is a spacious estate allowing us to film from different heights and angles. We walked up to Park Hill with Alex's camera; a Canon 60D with 50mm lens, and he went through all of the features to capture the best footage possible. I was very happy to be getting to grips with the camera and we sometimes switched the 50mm lens for a 18-55mm lens; specifically for wide angle shots and long shots as it produced a better image. I learnt how to set the right exposure and focus for each clip.

We spent around a couple of hours in the estate both taking it in turns to film various parts of the location; from the entrance, low angle shots and pan shots. Luckily for us it was a sunny day, which meant we were able to capture clear footage and we agreed it would be a good location to suggest to our group for the drama project. Alex decided to edit together all of the footage we had shot that day and posted it as a short film on Youtube (link below). Although the footage we had were only basic shots of the estate and not planned to be made into a short film, it lifted my confidence about using a camera in various ways and allowed me to gain experience for when it came to filming the drama project.

Link to 'Park Hill' Short Film