Intro to video camera

We were introduced to the cameras that are used on the course, these are the Sony PD170. We learned about the different parts of the camera, how to assemble the camera and what to look for on the screen. We learned that you have to look for on the screen:

--:--:--:-- this is the time code which shows how many frames there are
the number means how many frames there are per second
16:9 means the aspect ratio
50 is the shutter speed (50 times a second)
F1.6 is the exposure / iris this would be light and F11 would be dark
db is short for decibels which should be 0
the light bulb on the screen means indoor/artificial light
the sun on the screen means outdoors/natural light
48K is the sound quality

We then tested the knowledge we had gained by filming a 20 second clip of our choice. We chose to film it in the school car park, with the subject a girl waving at another and her ignoring the girl. We did a long shot of the scene, a mid shot and a close up all from different angles. This was to show the different emotions and personalities of the two people in the scene. We did many cuts because we wanted to get the shots just right so that the mise-en-scene was the same in the frame every time. For example, we did not want the girl to be waving with her right hand in the long shot and her left hand in the mid shot because then it would be confusing and not look real. We then watched the clips again on the computer and we realised that we had accidentally set the exposure to 1.6 which is very light. We didn't realise this at the time because we were in limited time and didn't think about looking at the footage straight after it had been filmed. If I was to do this exercises again I would know to turn the exposure up to a more convenient setting and check back that the lighting was not too bright or too dark.