Preliminary Task

Preliminary task.

KERI AND ALICE'S GROUP: Preliminary task

Keri's evaluation:

In my group there was Myself, Alice, Harpreet and Simranjeet. Collectively as a group we decided on what we wanted to film for our preliminary exercise. We knew we had to include the 180° rule and someone coming through a door so this meant we needed to have conversation within our task at least one entrance. Our idea was about 2 girls in school who were running late for their media lesson.  We decided to add suspense once the girls had arrived outside their classroom, scared to go in as they could be in trouble. We used our media teacher to portray the tension within our clip.  We believe our clip will include a variety of camera shots and angles. Once we had thought about everything we wanted to include within our prelim task we began to prepare a script, camera angles and shot list and a storyboard. When filming we kept to our shot list so that filming would be time efficient this also meant when we edited it all together it ran continuously. While filming we added light to certain areas but for the majority of the time found natural light worked the best. Within filming used the terminology given to us, such as; "Quite on set" and "Cut". This helped us understand how a real production would be filmed and it will also help to prepare us for filming our final piece. Although Simranjeet and myself were filming and directing we all gave impute and worked well as a group to complete our preliminary task. 

Evaluation of editing:

Lessons 1-2:In the first lesson as a group we sat run and arrange our clips into a rough cut of our film. We went through all the shots we had and added them into the order we were happy with and had decided on before filming. When looking back at our clips we collected a variety of shots from different angles this helped to make our film my interesting to watch and will make our scenes look more continuous. However if we had longer to film we could of produced even more shots increasing the quality of our product.We came across a big problem, when looking back at our clips we realised we did not keep to the 180 degree rule, as the actors were not in the same clothes we could not  reshoot this without having to film everything again as the task would not be continuos. We have learnt that in filming the consistency of costume is very important. Next time we would have to make sure we are wearing the same clothes so it doesn't mess up the filming. Overall, i think our task is coming together well and we haven’t learnt a lot which will make our real film even better. For next lesson now we have to continue our editing and finish our film.

Lessons 3-4:In the next two lessons we started editing our film probably so that our clips matched correctly and there was consistency throughout. Continuity is a very important factor to remember when filming. We have worked well as most of our shots look continuous and fit together so far. However, we found a problem with one of our clips due to the lack of light. We realised the clip was too dark but as we cant re-film we just had to use the clip we had.  When looking at the objectives for the task, one being to film someone walking through a door i feel we have completed this objective very well and it is a successful clip. Over all i am happy with our preliminary exercise task and i have learnt a lot which i can take with me and use when making my real product. 
  by keri Rothwell Douglas

Alice Driver

Evaluation of My Pleminary Task:

Filming

For the preliminary task I was grouped with Keri, Simran and Harpreet. Firstly, we had to come together and to think of a storyline to use. We were instructed to only use media terminology because it would help get used to the words; Camera shots (Low angle, High angle, Medium shot, Long shot, Close up, Extreme close up, 180 degree rule, Cross over, Point of view,  Dialogue of each person). Finally coming to an agreement and decided to make a story about 2 girls running late for a class.

Next we then made a storyboard and a script. We all contributed when making the script. Keri was in charge of making the storyboard.

After this we gave each other the roles we were going to play.

Alice- Actor (Acting as Zoe)

Harpreet- Actor (Acting as Evie)

Keri- Camera & Director

Simran- Camera & Director

We decided to film in the corridor of the school because that way we can get lots of dialogue and lots of different camera angled shots. Our first scene was Evie walking through a door and Zoe running after her. Our aim for this scene was to get lots of different points of view when she came through the door. This was so it would benefit us when editing.

Editing

The following week we started to edit our preliminary task, we all contributed towards the editing. When looking over the footage we realised we made quite a few mistakes. The first one being that when the two characters were walking to lesson, the matches were incorrect and there was no way we could edit it to make it look continuous.  

But our main struggle of this preliminary task was that we didn't match the 180 degree rule correctly, and we couldn't shoot the scene again. We overcame this by adding titling of the preliminary task.

We added non digetic sound towards the ending of the scene. This was to build tension and suspense between the teacher and the students. We picked the sound of a heart beat and the suspense music. This gave the audience the chance to see more their emotions from the sound being played.

Something I think we done well was the narrative that going into the classroom was meant to be scary and I think we showed the audience what the characters emotions were. Especially with the non-digetic sound of the heart beat and the suspense music that is played when the teacher comes to the door and Zoe and Evie look at each other. 

KIA'S GROUP:PRELIMINARY EDIT

Kia's Evaluation:

Our first filming session went very well. Kiran, Chloe, Humairia and I were grouped up with each other. The first thing we discussed as a group was the genre of our story. We came to an agreement and chose horror. We chose this specific genre as we felt we could do a lot and use a variety of camera shots to demonstrate how particular shots and angles make the audience feel and react.

I was responsible for creating the storyboard in our allocated planning time. Humairia was in charge of the scripting. Chloe and Kiran teamed up ad prepared the shot list. We came to a conclusion that we would use only natural light.

We set up our first shot with Chloe beside the window. We rehearsed the shot and camera moves so we all had an understanding of what was happening within this particular shot. We shot a total of three times in order for it to be correct. We used a tripod for this shot as we wanted the camera to be sturdy.

Once we finished upstairs with the first scene we used the garden to shot Kiran looking up at the window where Chloe was sitting. We decided to give Kiran a pitchfork to give her a creepy look. I think this was successfully done. Both Kiran’s and Chloe’s eye lines matched up. We used a tripod for this shot.

The following shot I filmed alone. I was filming from beneath the stairs and once the camera saw Chloe’s face I panned at a medium speed to the right where she stopped at the top of the stairs. I took close ups of both of their faces individually afterwards which illustrated Chloe’s scared emotions. This movement was hand held for a POV shot.

The last shot was outside of Chloe running through the main door where she sees the pitchfork placed on the floor. Humairia and I shot this last camera shot together. Our main camera movement was POV as Humairia shot Chloe coming through the door from around the corner as if she was Kiran who was watching her.

We reviewed our filming on the iMac and imported all the clips on iMovie to start editing everything so it flows correctly. We all decided what shots look the best as we took more than one just to play it safe and save time.

We all feel like we are at a proficient level with a hint of creative as we used the terminology and we used props and unusual camera shots.

LACEY'S GROUP: Preliminary Exercise

Lacey's Evaluation:

In my group there was Rafia, Farhana and Palwasha. The first thing we decided was what we actually wanted to do. We knew our scene had to have the 180° rule and someone coming through a door. Our idea was about 2 girls in school. One of them was walking impatiently for the other to give them a message. When the other girl entered the scene she gave the girl waiting an envelope including details to kill someone. We decided on this as we felt it was dramatic and we could use a variety of camera shots. After we decided what we were going to do we wrote a script, camera angles and a storyboard. When filming we shot from many different angles and levels so that when we edited it all together it would run continuously. While filming we tried adding light to certain areas but we found natural light worked the best. Although Rafia and Farhana were filming we all gave suggestions and worked well as a team. We also used the the terminology given to us. This helped us to prepare us for our final piece.

Evaluation of editing:
Lessons 1-2
In the first lesson we did a rough cut of our scene. We went through all the shots we had and added them into the order we wanted. We had a variety of shots from different angles which will make the scene look more continuous. However, i think we could of filmed a few more. For example, we could of had a worms eye shot to add tension to the scene. We can't re-film these parts as the actors aren't wearing the same clothes. Next time we would have to make sure we are wearing the same so it doesn't mess up the filming. Overall, i think we are doing well so far.   

Lessons 3-4
In the next two lessons we started editing the scene. We worked well as most of our shots looked continuous. However, there was one shot that jumped to another and we didn't have any others shots to link into it. When looking at the learning objectives we also realised that we only filmed one side of Palwasha coming through the door. We then decided to go outside and shoot these two parts again. Palwasha was wearing the same clothes so we were able to film her coming through the door. We shot from the other side at different angles including a birds eye view and a low shot. I however wasn't wearing the same clothes so we could only shot close ups of myself.