Making a Trip Useful

    So this TV trip has been quite. . . interesting, to say the least. Ok being honest it's been terrible. Which is why I didn't expect to gain much usefulness from it. During one of my off days (I wasn't competeing in any competition that day but other teams from my program were) I decided to go to some of the workshops that the competition hosts organized. Most of the workshops I went to had a lot of industry proffessionals with probably a lot of interesting things to say, but they only really touched on basics I learned 4 years ago. That was until I went to the very last one for the day, titled "Film Aesthetics" 

    Having been through 2 somewhat useless workshops, I decided to hold my expectations low for this one. It started off with the presenter talking about some concepts I already knew (he mentioned the typical things you'd expect with mise-en-scene like lighting, color, set design, etc.). But then it started to get interesting. I never really though of how camera lenses can effect the audiences perception of a shot. I always went with what I thought looked good and was convenient. For example, I knew if I was shooting in low light, I needed a prime, (usually 50mm lens) since I can open up the aperture a whole lot to let light into the camera. However, I didn't often think about the effects of lens distortion on the audiences perpective. 

    The presenter asked for two volunteers from the audience to get a close-up of a person sitting in the front row. He mentioned that the lens was a wide lens (around 24mm-35mm). The close-up, ended up distorting the subjects face, making it appear a bit longer and more blown out. Then, he asked for two more volunteers, (I was one of them :) to switch out the lense for a 50mm. which is normally considered the lens that emulates standard human vision. Then we had to use it to get the same close-up of the subject. The presenter mentioned that the wider lens required that the camera be closer to the subject. To the audience, this distortion makes the audience feel as though they are uncomfortably close to the subject. It feels more intimate, or intrusive depending on the context. Meanwhile the more zoomed in lens required that the camera be placed farther from the subject to achieve the same close-up. In tern, the audience will feel like they're at a conversational and comfortable distance from the subject. 

    Now I already knew I wanted to use a wide lens for a shot or two, since I want to show the whole room. But now this gives it's use a whole new meaning. By having the camera be forced to move uncomfortably close to Cam, it'll make the artist feel uncomfortable. Which will give the opening a more unsettling tone (which is what I want given it's a psychological thriller). So now I have a a better idea of how to make the use of this lens, and other lenses more purposeful. 

Thank you workshop, for making my trip a bit more bearable.