Preliminary Task Evaluation

Planning

To ensure we completed the preliminary task to the best of our ability, our group did research into all the different camera angles of a stereotypical conversation. For example, a tilt of the camera, to show confusion,and to make the audience pay closer attention to try and work out the purpose of the camera tilt, resulting in them paying close attention to the unfolding events. We had already covered different camera angles in class, and we discovered they would be useful when filming our preliminary. We realised that camera angles have an effect on the video, as well as the acting taking place.
Another area of planning we covered was ensuring we had a clear storyboard of our task, ensuring we had all the key events and types of shot. This was effective when shooting as it made sure our group were on task throughout. we referred back to our story boards whilst shooting and ensured we included everything we wanted too and we had planned.

(scan in story board)

In general, we didnt change from our original plans overly, at first our range of shots were limited and not as advanced, we then altered these to improve our work. We began to pick certain angles, and focus on making them as good as possible, for example, the hand opening the door.

(print screen of hand on door from preliminary task)

Locations

Our locations where chosen effectively, in the task we were told to show our actors in an every day situation. To make our films a bit more interesting we got more locations that just a classroom, we chose to have our actor walking into the school. Luckily, the weather outside was quite dim, with the effect of this pathetic fallacy, it gave a sense of negativity to the shoot, which reflected the conversation topic which was an argument. Our locations consisted of the walk into school, taken from the front gate, and then through the sixth form common room and then finally into a classroom which is where the conversation was filmed.

180 degree rule

When filming, all directors and film crew are aware of the 180 degree rule, which is incredibly important when shooting discussions. It is extremely simple, and extremely effective. It ensures there is no confusion to the audience when viewing conversations in things such as films and tv programmes. It consists of an inamginary line running through the set (180 degrees), the aim of it is to make sure who ever is filming does not cross it and cause confusion. The actors having the conversation will always be on the same side of the screen. A good example to explain this is that of a football match, knowing which team are shooting in which direction, and that doesnt change.

during my groups shoot, we kept this rule in mind and ensured we did not break it, making our preliminary shoot a success.

 

Camera shots and their effects

 

certain camera shots we used, such as the one we started with, which was a tracking shot, built up tension before the actual conversation took place. By focusing mainly on the actors shoes, and not her face, this enabled us to keep the identity of the actor and not revealing what they looked like straight away, this means the audience have to wait to get a larger picture of the actor, and fully understand their character and the situation they are in.

 

(print screen of tracking shot)

 

Another shot we used was the high angle shot of matt to show vulnerability as the other actor approached him. By using this shot, it makes matt seem smaller in comparison to his surroundings. This also shows status and power towards our main actress. Who approaches matt and begins the argument. It clearly shows who is dominant in the conversation.

 

(print screen of high angle shot with matt)

 

Realistic aspects of conversation and filming

 

There was a clear element of realism through the whole of our conversation, the fact we used such a simple basis for our argument made our action believable. The conversation shows a gradual build up of tension and anger resulting in our actress knocking a chair over and storming out of the room.

 

Editing effects

 

after we had our core material we then went onto editing in pairs to make our work our own, and give it a more personal touch. One of our main editing aims was to make our cuts smoother, and our scenes more interesting. To achieve this we chose to fade some of our shots to black and some to white to show different aspects of the conversation. For example, as well as fading to black and fading to white, we had all of matts scenes in black and white, and all of phoebes in colour. This shows clear difference in the two worlds they were living in, one of colour and one of black and white. This makes the cuts contrast nicely, making our shoot more interesting to watch than if it was all edited to the same colour.