Cinematographer journal

The cinematographers role is very important within the production

of the film, this is because they are responsible for all the shots that
are taken, this will also be necessary for the editor as they will have
to pick put the best shots. The director works mostly with the
cinematographer to make sure that the final product is like how the
directors wants it to be like.

As a cinematographer, it was very important for me to make sure

that Maheen, the director and I plan out everything clearly, this
included the shots, location, costume etc., and by doing this it
helped me to be prepared before the filming day. We made sure that
we communicated well and met up regularly so that we can discuss
all the ideas. As a director Maheen would tell me all the different
kinds of shots that she would want and in what location, and I would
see if the chosen shot is good enough .Before I started filming, I
researched about all the angles and shots I could use and also what
I need to have in a documentary so that I can meet the codes and
conventions.

When filming the interview and the cutaways of Mr Islam, we used

the 700D canon camera to make sure that we get the perfect shots,
this camera was also very easy to use as Ive used it before for my
previous production, so I had general knowledge of it. When filming
the interviews and the cutaways the lighting was very good and we
did not face any problems with the camera.

When filming I did encounter problems ,one problem was that we

did not have a script to follow whilst filming, which was very
confusing as we did not know what cutaways to film after filming the
interview. We then decided to re-film the whole interview and some
cutaways again as we changed our script matching to the
documentary, we made sure that we filmed many cutaways in
different angles, because when it comes to editing the footage we
will have more than 1 footage to choose from to make sure that it is
perfect. We did not face any other major problems, as we had a
script of all the shots we had to film, so every time we went to film
the interview or the cutaways we knew exactly of what we had too.
Other than that everything else went well as we had plenty of times
to film everything meaning that we did not have to rush anything.
Me and Maheen communicated well making sure that we followed
out plan so that everything goes well.

Overall, this role as a cinematographer has allowed me to use all my

skills to make sure that the audience enjoyed our final product. I
was able to use a range of different techniques, such as camera
shots, angles lighting. This role has allowed me to develop a good
understanding on the purpose of each filming equipment that i
used.