Cinematography shot practice

Before we went out to shoot our main footage, we decided to have a go at some initial shots of film, to practice the shot types that we'd like to use. To shoot our trailer, me and Ashleigh are using our DSLR cameras (Nikon D3100). Due to the fact that they are DSLRs, it means that we can get cinematography effects that we wouldn't be able to achieve on a normal digital recorder, such as a pulled focus. For these few shots we used my Nikorr f/1.8 50mm lens - the high aperture meant that we could capture a very shallow focus. 

One of the main shots that we'd like to use is that of a record playing. Here are a few shots that we got;

This shot was taken of the record of the 'Blade Runner' film soundtrack, produced by Vangelis. This is just atmospheric music, and the fact that it is on vinyl gives it a crackled effect (best viewed in 720p HD). I took this video handheld, which is clear as the video is slightly shaky.The next few videos are shots of the record 'Tubular Bells' by Mike Oldfield. This song is from one of the most famous horror films of all time 'The Exorcist'. Clearly, this record, being associated with such a well known horror film gives off an eerie feel to it. I took these videos with the camera on a tripod, and they are visibly smoother.

These clips were just experimental, however, I like the effect this produces - after looking at the results of our questionnaire, cinematography was an important component in making a successful and interesting trailer, so we will consider other interesting cinematography features to include.