DV Talent Shooting & Directing Course

Over the last two days, I did the DV Talent course in Shooting and Directing on the Canon XF305.  The intention of the course is to teach you how to self-shoot: be able to film without a crew and specialist cameraman.  This is part of the multi-skilled dimension of modern television production, where researchers and APs are expected to be able to shoot taster tapes and interview contributors for productions. The XF305 has become the industry standard for a fully tapeless camera, largely down to its ease of operation, so this course was a great way for me to add more to my CV, to help me make the step to Assistant Producer.

We practiced through a series of filming tasks, meaning we also learned framing, setting up shots, sequencing, exposure and the grammar of film-making.  These are skills that I'm excited to learn, and the course gave me a great grounding in the basics that I can practice in preparation for India.

Overall, I would definitely recommend the course:  It gave me the confidence to self-shoot, which is invaluable to top up the research and writing skills I've developed.  I feel confident in writing a shooting script, planning sequences, interviewing, setting up lighting and filming.  Keep an eye out for more posts on top tips and flow-charts of the processes that I learned on the course.