Camera Technique Research

In preparation for the task of creating a film trailer I decided to investigate and compare how three different types of videos filmed their products. For this I compared a film trailer, television advert for a product and a music video to each other and reviewed a variety of their different aspects. I chose to focus on their movement; angles and shots; focus; amount of cameras used and their formats. I believe that doing this has given me a more advanced idea of how I could shoot my own film trailer as well as potentially using codes and conventions from other types of videos.

The three videos I compared were:

The Guardians of the Galaxy trailer:

The Cadburys Gorilla Advert:

Feed Me & Crystal Fighters - Love Is All I Got music video:

Camera Techniques	Film: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) - Trailer	Advert: Cadburys Gorilla Advert (2007)	Music Video: Feed Me & Crystal Fighters – Love Is All I Got (2012)
Movement	As this is a full-length action movie the majority of camera movements are used (panning, crabbing, tracking, peds, tilting and zoom). There is a contrast between the smooth and relatively slow motion of the shots that do not contain action scenes and the action scenes. The action scenes use very fast movement and a mixture of handheld cameras and cameras which that are not. There is significantly more variety of movements shown in this movie and trailer then there is in the Cadburys advert and the Love Is All I Got music video.	The advert primarily uses the dolly camera method as well as a range of panning and tracking. The movement starts off slow at the start because the music is calm. However the motion speeds cut dramatically when the drum solo occurs and the pacing of the music increases. In addition to this the camera work is rather shaky, therefore it may have been recorded via a handheld method. The movement in the advert is far less varied than the movement shown in the guardians of the galaxy trailer and the music video. However this is intentional and gives a more realistic and ‘homemade’ feel to it.	The music video primarily makes use of tracking and zooming. The motion is very smooth and it does not appear that the camera is a handheld one. There are a large amount of movement types such as panning, crabbing, tracking, zooming and tilting used in this video. It appears to be of a high quality but is clearly less professional then the movement shown in the guardians of the galaxy trailer. However it makes better use of the movement then the Cadburys advert does.
Angles and Shots	The trailer shows a montage of different angles and shots. However the most used type shot appeared to be a medium close up taken at eye level. Due to the length of the full movie it is very likely to include a majority of the possible angles and shots. In the trailer I noticed low angles, high angles, eye-level shots, bird’s eye views and examples of long shots, medium shots and close ups.	At the beginning of the video, close ups and medium close ups are primarily used. This is done so as to hide the drum kit from view. These shots range from low angles to high angles and eye-level shots. When the drum solo begins, medium and medium long shots shots are used in addition to a selection of close up cuts.	This music video used a range of angles and shots. It is able to explore them to a greater degree than the Cadburys advert as it does not limit itself to using a single camera and is set in a more open location then it.
Focus	A selection of different focuses are used (both shallow depth of fields and deep depths of field).	A shallow depth of field is used for the close up scenes of the gorilla. However, when it zooms out to reveal the drum kit it is changed to a deep depth of field thus showing everything in the scene.	Both shallow and deep depths of field are used in the music video.
Multiple Cameras	Since this is a trailer for a highly expensive movie many cameras have been used. There any many instances in which these are displayed. Multiple cameras are used to display a variety of different angles and movement times throughout the scenes. It makes best use of the multiple cameras and does it with a relative amount of subtlety.	The scene appears to have only been shot with one camera that pans around the area. I am led to believe this because the area appears to be too small to use multiple cameras without capturing the other cameras in the shot. I believe that they would have simply taken multiple takes so as to allow for the cuts. A similar method was used in the new movie ’12 Years a Slave’.	I believe that there were multiple cameras used for this music video as there are certain scenes such as the party scene in which the switch between the locations is seamless. Also many cuts are used.
Format (what camera may have been used)	The movie is still to be released, it had a large budget and would have therefore used top quality equipment such as the Sony PXW-Z100. It is the production with the largest budget and therefore would have been able to afford more expensive gear than the Cadburys advert and music video.	Since it is an advert for a well-known company I would think that an expensive camera was used. A camera they could have used is the Sony PMW-500. This is because it is a highly expensive camera that is used for professional situations and was available in 2007, when the advert was produced.	The music video is filmed exceptionally well. However I do not believe that the equipment available wouldn’t have been as expensive as that used in the Cadburys advert or the Guardians of the Galaxy trailer. I am led to believe that they would have used a medium priced video camera such as the Panasonic HDC-MDH1 PAL Camcorder due to budget restrictions.