How to film the landscapes? How do you stage the characters in action? How to have a director’s eye in the field? Pierre Petit, renowned cameraman and director, offers a very concrete training course, based on examples. During a hike in front of Mont Blanc, you will be put in a situation to shoot a sequence. You will choose your frames, cut your shots, and already think about editing…
How to film the landscapes? How to stage the characters in action? We immerse ourselves in the mountain environment to familiarise ourselves with your video equipment. The aim is to familiarise you with your equipment, to make you feel at ease in the particular environment of the mountains to gain confidence. A technical approach, but also an approach of realization, of look.
What is my point of view? What rhythm should I give to the sequence? What are my production objectives? You will realise that the language of film has its own grammar, its own language, which we will learn together. On a practical level, your way of filming will change whether you are shooting a contemplative scene or an action scene. This will be reflected in the different choices.
What framing, focal length and aperture to choose, and why?
In this course we will also look at shooting in anticipation of the editing phases, how to shoot to have all the shots needed for the editing?
And how to manage the sound? With which microphone? How to use a tie microphone?
From the top of the Brévent cable car (2525m), we start with an exceptional panorama of the Mont-Blanc before reaching Plan Praz via the side paths. This is the pitch of our story, all we have to do is turn!
In this course, you will learn how to set up your camera (or smartphone!) according to the scene, the light and the angle of view chosen. We will discuss the choice of framing, focal length and aperture. By anticipating the editing phases, we will try to give rhythm to our images. And how to manage the sound? With which microphone? How to use a tie microphone?
I will come with professional shooting equipment such as tripods, gimbals and sliders, in order to understand how and why to use them. As a documentary cinematographer, I will explain my way of working, and also push you to define the aims of your projects before a shoot.
Basic knowledge of photography and video is welcome, but any enthusiastic amateur will find a place in this course.
Maximum 10 participants
After directing and filming short films, I was soon involved in several animal documentaries. In parallel with sports images (Dakar, “Red Bull”), the particularity of mountain and expedition images fascinates me, both in the challenge of constantly adapting to the unknown, and in telling an epic story that transforms, as in “Doigt de Dieu, par delà les sommets”.
I then invested myself in the creation of helium aerostats, which allowed me to produce advertisements and feature films in 3D relief, such as “Ouragan” and “Terre des Ours”. To meet the demand, I took the turn of the drones, and refocused on my DNA as a director of photography. Since 2013, I have been working mainly on documentaries for international TV such as “Wild Cats”, “Frère des arbres” or embodied documentaries such as “L’Odysée”, with Sylvain Tesson, “Russie secrète” with Cedric Gras for Arte TV, or “Les Ailes de Patagonie” for National Geographic.