Preliminary task evaluation
Our preliminary task involved someone opening a door, walking across a room, sitting down and exchanging a few sentences of dialogue between two people. We had to incorporate shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule and match on action, into our short film to learn how they are used. Overall I enjoyed learning about the new camera techniques and getting used to filming. I found it more difficult than I expected to stick to the rules, for instance the 180 degree rule, however in my film opening I will now know not to the 'cross the line'.
Whilst doing this preliminary task we used a range of different equipment and software most of which was new to me.When filming the short clip, I used a filming camera which was put into a tripod, to ensure that the shot was straight and not tilted. I didn't use a hand held camera as that would have created a distorted and slightly tense effect, which would be better in a horror or action film. When I got to the editing stage of my task, I used iMovie to to put it all together, I had only used iMovie a few times previously so It took me a while to get used to using it correctly.
When planning the task, I drew out a storyboard of 6 shots to help me organise which types of shots I would used and on which character. Although when doing the storyboard I didn't see the importance, when doing the filming I realised how useful it was as I knew exactly when each character was speaking and where they would be when saying their dialogue. I ended up completely sticking to my plan and using all the shots in which I had planned out.
When I got to the editing stage I realised how many mistakes I had made, mostly being I had not done enough filming of each shot which resulted in my shot film not being very fluent. When I was putting my clips together I realised that character 1 was walking to the chair and the next shot jumped straight to her sitting down. This was due to me not finishing the shot until she was sat down. In addition when It jumped to the shot of both characters sitting down, I realised I had crossed the 180 degree rule, resulting in the short film looking disorientated and odd. One challenge I found when filming was keeping the camera at the correct pace to character 1 walking, At the end of that shot she is not centre to the frame as I did not pan quick enough to keep up with her.
When watching back through my task It was obvious the mistakes I had made, however when I make my next shot film I will be careful not to do this. As previously said Axel, a professional camera man, came into our lesson and looked at our preliminary task. He gave us a lot of feed back and ways to improve. He showed me how much head room there was in the frame and how it isn't needed, as it isn't adding to the effect of the film, I also had a lot of empty space to the sides of the my frame when the characters were sitting opposite each other. To avoid doing this I would need to angle the camera differently and tighten the frame to get rid of the empty space. Unfortunately I also crossed the 180 degree line. I noticed this when I was editing my film, however I could not change it, but I now know never to do this again! Overall I don't think that my preliminary task was particularly successful, due to all the mistakes I made, although I now have lots of things to improve on for my short film opening.
Throughout my preliminary task, I did make a lot of mistakes but I can learn from these and improve on them. One thing that I will defiantly do in my short film opening is to create a detailed storyboard. I was surprised with how helpful and useful the storyboard was therefore I will make sure I use one for my short film opening. By doing this preliminary task it really helped to show how to use different equipment but also how the characters are placed within the frame, and reducing the amount of empty space and head room.
Here is an image of the 180 degree rule
Here is an image of having too much headroom
Whilst doing this preliminary task we used a range of different equipment and software most of which was new to me.When filming the short clip, I used a filming camera which was put into a tripod, to ensure that the shot was straight and not tilted. I didn't use a hand held camera as that would have created a distorted and slightly tense effect, which would be better in a horror or action film. When I got to the editing stage of my task, I used iMovie to to put it all together, I had only used iMovie a few times previously so It took me a while to get used to using it correctly.
When planning the task, I drew out a storyboard of 6 shots to help me organise which types of shots I would used and on which character. Although when doing the storyboard I didn't see the importance, when doing the filming I realised how useful it was as I knew exactly when each character was speaking and where they would be when saying their dialogue. I ended up completely sticking to my plan and using all the shots in which I had planned out.
When I got to the editing stage I realised how many mistakes I had made, mostly being I had not done enough filming of each shot which resulted in my shot film not being very fluent. When I was putting my clips together I realised that character 1 was walking to the chair and the next shot jumped straight to her sitting down. This was due to me not finishing the shot until she was sat down. In addition when It jumped to the shot of both characters sitting down, I realised I had crossed the 180 degree rule, resulting in the short film looking disorientated and odd. One challenge I found when filming was keeping the camera at the correct pace to character 1 walking, At the end of that shot she is not centre to the frame as I did not pan quick enough to keep up with her.
When watching back through my task It was obvious the mistakes I had made, however when I make my next shot film I will be careful not to do this. As previously said Axel, a professional camera man, came into our lesson and looked at our preliminary task. He gave us a lot of feed back and ways to improve. He showed me how much head room there was in the frame and how it isn't needed, as it isn't adding to the effect of the film, I also had a lot of empty space to the sides of the my frame when the characters were sitting opposite each other. To avoid doing this I would need to angle the camera differently and tighten the frame to get rid of the empty space. Unfortunately I also crossed the 180 degree line. I noticed this when I was editing my film, however I could not change it, but I now know never to do this again! Overall I don't think that my preliminary task was particularly successful, due to all the mistakes I made, although I now have lots of things to improve on for my short film opening.
Throughout my preliminary task, I did make a lot of mistakes but I can learn from these and improve on them. One thing that I will defiantly do in my short film opening is to create a detailed storyboard. I was surprised with how helpful and useful the storyboard was therefore I will make sure I use one for my short film opening. By doing this preliminary task it really helped to show how to use different equipment but also how the characters are placed within the frame, and reducing the amount of empty space and head room.
Here is an image of the 180 degree rule
Here is an image of having too much headroom
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