Preliminary Task Evaluation

Our idea was a very basic idea. I thought it would be a good idea to keep it basic because it then meant that next time round we could easily see our progression, and also it means that we had more time to try and get the best camera angles we could rather than concentrating too much on the actual story line. In order too incorporate all of the intended camera angles into our piece we had to plan our piece before we started filming. In order to do this we made a storyboard to start with. The storyboard we made included all the actions to occur in each scene, along with the shot type itself. This meant that we would all know exactly what was being shot in each scene and the actual shot that was required to be used as well.

To start our piece off, we had a shot of one character as he walked through a door. We then had a tracking shot of him as he approached another set of doors. This was a hand held shot, this is an improvement that we could have changed to make better. Instead of having it handheld we could have had it on a tripod then make lots of fast pace cuts from cut to cut and edit them together. We then incorporated a match on action as he walked through a set of doors. This looked effective and I was happy with the quality of this particular shot. After this scene, it moves onto another and this is where we used the shot reverse shot. We had two characters in this scene that were talking to one another (diegetic sound) and as this was happening we were using over the shoulder shot reverse shots. This made it very easy to follow and was very clear for the audience to follow. Throughout all of this, we had to ensure that we always abided by the 180 degree rule. This is basically just so that the audience doesn't get confused with the surroundings and where everything is within a scene.

Animation showing the 180 degree rule in action.

To make our preliminary task, we had to use the cameras and then edit all of the different clips into one by cutting and placing scenes in order. Overall, for a first time attempt of using the cameras and familiarising myself with the equipment I felt as though I handled it and coped with it all quite well. The equipment to begin with did take some getting used to, especially things like the cameras which required a bit of getting used to so that we could get the most out of each shot by ensuring the camera was always in focus and that we had the correct lighting so that the shot looked how it should. Also I found editing the piece together to be quite tricky as before this task, I had never been on an IMac or ever been taught how to use one. So I would say I found that quite difficult to begin with, but by the end once I understood how it worked I was fine and managed to edit and cut different scenes down to the correct lengths so I could join them together to make it look mellifluous and flowing, as it should have.

During the filming of our piece, as a group we did encounter various different problems. For instance in our storyboard we had actually planned to use costumes on our characters, however, after initially trying to find the costumes we began to run out of time and instead left the costume idea and focused on the filming. Also we were going to have different actors to the ones that we ended up actually using. This was because we had to try and film it during our media lessons, and some of the original actors had lessons whilst we were trying to film. This made it difficult for us and because of this we had to change our actors. This is a lesson to be learnt for next time though in the sense that we need to consider choosing actors wisely and the potential problems caused if they are not available when we are trying to film.

When we were filming we changed quite a lot. This was basically because once we started filming we started to hit small problems that needed tweaking and changing slightly. These small changed allowed us to film our piece better and more effectively. For instance in one of the scenes we were going to use low lighting to emphasise the scene differently and make it seem more powerful than the rest. However, when it actually came to it, the low lighting was too low which meant that it was hard to make out the characters. This meant we had to change it and make it a lot lighter so that the camera could pick up each individual character and make it recognisable to the camera. This meant that we had to change the lighting and in the end just kept the lighting the same throughout as it wasn't worth the ever so subtle change as it didn't give off the same effect.

An image showing the difference between high key and low key lighting.

To avoid not having any footage, we ensured that each scene was filmed at least three times. However, we didn't actually have to re-film anything as such because of where we filmed each scene at least three times. We did this because then it meant that out of them all, we should have one reliable one which would be as we had imagined it. If not, at least we had three that we could take parts from and cut bits and pieces from each one then edit them together to from our final piece.

My group worked fairly well together. I didn't feel as though to start with we were fully prepared however, but I felt as things progressed we did all start to pull our weight and things started to get done. Before filming we made a storyboard and script which we then used when filming. However as always, it wasn't word perfect and we did find ourselves changing quite a lot of this when we came to filming. This may have partially been due to the fact that we weren't totally ready so had quickly produced the script and dint think about it as much as we could have or it may have just been because when we were actually filming things do change as some things may not have sounded as we anticipated and so it was beneficial to change them. However, for the next task, I do feel we need to spend more time over the script.



Very basic Script.

Part of storyboard, next time need to include shot length, type and angle.

When filming my group worked together by all having separate roles, I was the main camera man and filmed the majority of the scenes, then Brett was in charge of ideas and coming up with the set for our piece and informing us of what we needed to do to help out, along with all the aesthetics of our production. Rhys was then in charge of the editing and organising us all so we all new what we had to do to help out. This was useful because it meant we were all in charge of one section, however, still all helped out in every section to ensure we all did part of everything and to ensure it was done to the best of our ability's because three minds and idea would be better all combined than juts one persons.

 

Overall I mostly enjoyed the creativity and freedom we were allowed whilst deciding what we wanted to do our preliminary task on as it allowed us too really branch out and do something creative, rather than just do something boring which anyone could do.