Practical lesson in The Hurtwood Film studio

Our class had their first practical lesson on Thursday  the 17th of September.
We were introduced to the Film studio and to the basic rules of working there.
Working with three cameras we got to explore focusing, white balance, usage of a tripod, balancing the camera out and changing the camera lens. Of course we were also taught some rough ideas of when the different types of cameras are used and how a tilting shot or panoramic shot are composed.

 I was working with the Sony HXR-NX5 Camcorder NTS, which I experienced to be a very interesting,  yet a heavy Camera. In fact it was so heavy that the 'yours & mine rule' introduced to us seemed very reasonable. The rule encounters that when you hand over an expensive object you say "your's" as soon as it leaves your hand and say "mine" as soon as you receive an object and feel that you hold on to its weight appropriately, to reduce the amount of casualties. 

We learned how to change the cameras batteries, by sliding the battery up and down and how to focus on an object. To focus you need to zoom in as far as possible and than focus on the target object by adjusting turning the according, fragile focusing ring attached to the camera's lens. However, the process is completely different with the Canon 5D were you have to measure the distance separating the camera from the object and then adjust the focusing ring, which displays the distance in the Customary units.

Setting up the tripod we were informed that it is important to start by stabilizing the base first and then extending it into the vertical direction, before attaching the camera on to it. The camera is simply slide on to the Camera holder by pressing down a button and letting the camera click into place. An important step to take is the balancing of the Camera, by slightly  unscrewing the  

handle bellow the camera and making sure that the provided helping bubble is in the outlined circle, to get an even and straight image.

Another thing we touched upon, is how to adjust the white balance.  The process consists of zooming into a white surface and setting the white balance on it, simply by pressing the button, however the setting will have to be changed when the lighting changes from interior to exterior.