any ideas on camerawork training material?

iov.co.uk

IOV training costs more if you're not a member, and it's a little pricey for beginners

There must be lots of professional bodies out there, but I don't seem able to find them.

Unfortunately not able to find anything through a search of the forums

Pete

I actually attended one of the IOV seminars in Broadcast live this year and was not impressed that much. I even registered to get 3 issues of their magazine, but it is not that exellent as well. Too much advertising rather than in depth articles. :rolleyes: on the same trade show i bought a book which is a brilliant source of information. It is technical and still quite easy to understand if you have a basic knowlege about camerawork and it's principles. For anyone who wants to get serious about camerawork i would deffinitely recomend 'Digital camerawork techniques' Media Manual, by Peter Ward. Released by FocalPress. With a little discount i got it for some 16 quid and it was the best 16 pounds i had ever spend towards my self-study of camerawork. :cool:

I suggest you might want to have a look at "Showreel" http://www.showreel.org/

and here : http://www.cinematography.com/ and here :

http://forums.creativecow.net/forum/cinematography

The last two are good places to ask questions and I'm sure there are people there who can point you towards what you need.

You can't beat setting yourself filming tasks and going out and doing them and seeing what problems come along. Go and film your local town and make two films, one showing how bad it is and one showing how good it is.

I do, I understand, so they say.

Film Art: An Introduction (Bordwell D. and Thompson K) has chapters describing framings, shot sizes, editing techniques etc but from an analytical viewpoint rather than practical however, following on from Claire's post, you can see practical examples from films which aids understanding.

Thse may also prove useful: http://www.urbanfox.tv/workbooks/sonypd150/
http://www.dvuser.co.uk/generalresults.php?CST=7

The BBC run short courses but are quite expensive but there are some on-line tutorials here:

http://www.bbctraining.com/searchResults.asp?cat=2781&subcat=2782

and have a look at Skillset:

http://www.skillset.org/training/

There is no shortcut - you need to learn the basics and pratice practice practice. Get to know your camera inside out (think: those corny Vietnam films where some grunt learns to take his M16 apart and reassemble it blindfolded!) Use a decent tripod wherever possible, get a range of shots and hold each for at least 10 seconds. Ensure you record sound appropriately and practice everything using manual settings - there will be times you need to use some auto function or other but mostly you should be using manual.

You will use different skills depending upon your area of specialization - be it ENG, corporate, weddings, documentary or indie film but the basics apply to all areas.

I took a highly practical degree in Media Production and was fortunate enought to be taught by ex-industry pros using industry standard equipment and there is a massive difference in learning from books/on-line tutorials and hands-on learning. There's no substitute for practical experience.

A flood of information, great!