preliminary task

Day 1

Today we got introduced to the preliminary task which consisted of filming one member of the group walking through a door, into a room to have a short conversation with another member of the group.

The group was then instructed to create a shot list with a minimum of 10 shots and also a story board to represent the different shots.

Shot list

1. long shot of Beth walking into the canteen
2. mid shot of Beth walking through the door
3. close up of Dales phone looking at text message
4. point of view shot of Beth walking towards Dale
5. Two shot of Beth and Dale talking
6. high angle shot reverse shot of the conversation
7. shot reverse shot from a low angle of Beth
8. shot reverse shot from high angle of Dale
9. two person shot of Beth slapping Dale
10. close up of Beth walking away

We were then presented with our equipment and shown the correct way to use it. The group was given a handheld digital video camera, a tripod and a digital still camera. We then went and spent the little time we had left of the lesson practicing how to use our new equiment.

Day 2 Today, unfortunatly we had two out of the four members of our group missing therefore we struggled to film for our preliminary task. However we used our time effectively by trying out different techniques for doing a smooth pan shot on the tripod and varied angles on the camera.

Day 3 We had a full group in today so it was time to film our preliminary task. By following our shotlist we managed to complete the task smoothly, for the first few shots we had to do several takes to make the shot successful. Firstly we learnt how to frame a shot on the camera properly, to do this we had learnt how to use a tripod. Tripod's are useful for keeping the camera steady and also give the effect that the character is being followed. This made it easier to operate the camera as we were able to vary the shots by changing the height of the tripod, this allowed us to create low angle and high angle shots. When using the editing programme final cut pro we have learnt how to edit the clips so that they run smoothly together by match cutting. Also we have learnt how to add titles and sound to the clip by importing them into final cut pro. The filming was done in one day which made it easy to film the clip as we could film the characters wearing the same outfits. However some problems that we have overcome is that we had to delay filming due to team members not being in and also when it came to the editing only one team member knew what they were doing. Ways in which we could improve our preliminary task is that two people should have learnt how to edit and makes sure that team members are always in. An example of shot reverse shot in our preliminary task would be when Beth and Dale are having a conversation. When Beth is in the frame it is a low angle shot on the other hand when Dale is in the camera it is a high angle shot. The group achieved match cuts during the editing process by Beth walking through the door it was matched with when the opens the door from the other side showing the front of her view. We ensured that we didnt break the 180 degree rule for example when Beth walked into the canteen and spoke to Dale, we always had the camera on one side of them. If by chance the camera was positioned on the opposite side then we would of broke the 180 degree rule.