Major Project: Exterior Locations

After reading the script, I knew I had a challenge on my hands as it involved a number of exterior locations. This meant I had to plan and prepare very carefully as obvious obstacles like light and wind could cause serious issues. I have filmed outside before so I had a rough idea of what kind of actions/precautions were needed, however I spent some time researching and found some useful tips, particularly in this video:

• Use the sun as a backlight. By placing your subject between you and the sun, you can achieve a backlit or “halo” effect that emphasises the outline of your subject. This works best when sun is at a 45 degree angle; if it’s too low, you risk getting lens flare, so try this after midday.

• Use the “golden hours” of daylight. Another option, depending on the look and feel you’re going for, is to film when the sun is low in the sky (roughly an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset). Filming with the sun at your back will give your subject a rosy glow.

• Use a wide aperture. By manually selecting a wide aperture and zooming in on your subject, you’ll be able to blur the background and sharpen the image of your subject. This is a nice way to visually create ambience without distracting from the subject.

• Use a microphone. Perhaps this goes without saying, but outside environments tend to have ambient noise, which leads to lessened sound quality in your recording. To solve this problem, use a clip mic or a boom mic—both of which you can place close to the speaker—to make sure the focal sound is the speaker, not the background.

• Use filters. Most cameras these days come with a variety of filters that will eliminate the slight annoyances of outdoor filming that can be distracting, like reflections and glare. A UV filter, for example, will reduce glare, while a polarizing filter will reduce reflections from water and windows. Read your manual to find out what filters your camera has, and use them!

• Avoid autofocus. Shooting outdoors often means that there will be several objects in your depth of field, such as buildings, trees, etc. This can confuse the autofocus, and if you’re not careful you’ll end up with footage that keeps focusing on the trees behind your subject, and blurring your subject. Always try to use the manual focus when you’re shooting outdoors to keep this from happening.