Media Portfolio Blog # 21

Finally, in today's blog  post I will be talking about our last day of filming. For the shots that I am about to discuss, all of them were shot inside a boxing gym in Weston Florida called 9round fitness. The background of the gym was perfect with a brick wall on one side and a red background on the other. The gym also portrayed a very realistic/accurate boxing like environment, with many different punching bags, and boxing related training machines. Not only did it have all the equipment we needed but it was also empty allowing us to film for a good period of time with no real interruptions.

We filmed a couple different shots in the gym, the first one being a long shot of me hitting a punching bag. For this series of shots we also used the hand held camera technique to create a sense of realism, and shakiness. Moreover, my partner and I wanted to capture the action in an engaging manner so we decided on slightly moving the camera around as a I hit the bag, while still keeping most of my body in frame to show the full range of motion, and various actions that I was performing. By using a long shot we were able to really capture the entirety of the action while also displaying costume design, and technique.

The next shot that we filmed was a close up of me hitting the speed bag. The speed bag is a really cool tool that many boxers use when training to improve their speed and accuracy of their punches while also, increasing their stamina and alertness. Aside from that, we decided to shoot using the speed bag as we thought it looked really cool. We used the handheld technique again, and made sure that the camera was very close to my face as we wanted the shot to appear tight and close, bringing the audience closer to the action. Moreover, by using a close up we were able to ensure that the audience only looked at the action of me hitting the bag, and nothing else, also since the speed bag is raised and you only need to see some upper body movements, as well as my face we thought a close up would be appropriate.

 

Lastly, we also filmed the establishing shot of the gym, and me walking into the gym with my bag. We had to have an establishing shot to set the location, and let the audience know where the filming is taking place, for the first part of the montage. For the walking in scene we filmed multiple takes to ensure that it matched, with the scene of me getting out of the car and walking. We cut from the car scene to the establishing shot of the gym, and then to me walking into the gym to show the change in scenery and imply that the walking out of the car occurs in the gyms parking lot.One huge problem that we had was the lighting in the gym, the sunlight was coming in from two big windows that they had, but we quickly solved this issue by lowering the blinds, in such away where it was well lit but not at all glarey. I also held a gym bag for this shot as a prop to further create a sense of realism. 

 

 

Next, we filmed a really cool shot of me placing the headphones over my head in the reflection of a mirror. Many training advertisements, and videos often have scenes like this where the athlete positions himself in front of a mirror and performs a certain action. We thought that it would be really cool to add this into our production. We also filmed a medium shot from behind my back of me hitting another type of punching bag to add shot diversity, and add another different exercise that looked good on camera.