Preliminary Task - with Dan

Cinematography 

The main objective for our Preliminary Task was to have two people sitting opposite each other with a few lines of dialogue.The different shot types we used effectively showed expressions and emotions. For example the shot-reverse-shot we included portrayed facial expressions so that the audience were able to identify the atmosphere of the scene, while being able to follow the dialogue easily, i will be going into more depth about this later on.

We used a variety of different shot types, including:

• Shot reverse shot - Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.
• Panning - The rotation in a horizontal plane of a still camera or video camera.
• Over the shoulder - A shot of someone or something taken from the perspective or camera angle from the shoulder of another person.
• 180 degree rule - An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene
• Match on action -  The editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action.
• Two shot - A shot in which the frame encompasses a view of two people
• Zoom - Allows a camera operator to change their focal length within a shot or quickly between setups for shots
• Medium shot - A medium shot is a camera angle shot from a medium distance.
• Close up -  a type of shot, which tightly frames a person or an object.
• Shot reverse shot - a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.In terms of shot-reverse shot, we received good feedback from other students as some mentioned the fact that the use of shot-reverse-shot was effective for when Liam and Richard where sitting around the table face-to-face. They also thought that we had good use of shot-reverse shot in the video as a whole, so this was a strong positive factor of our video which was good.
• With this very varied range of shots we were able to really experiment with different methods of storytelling, and I think they are one of the main reasons for our films success! Film is a visual medium, and so these visuals should be used to their highest potential through different camera angles.
  
  The use of camera angles in our preliminary task video was overall seen as good.
  Also, based on then editing used in the video, we recieved fairly decent comments. Some of the comments involved the good length of shots, good range of shots like close-ups, the right pace of editing etc One slight problem of the editing was the dialogue.The reason why this was a slight problem is because the sound of the dialogue was quite quiet which was the only real downside to the editing of the video.
  The objectives of our task were to catch the audience's attention. To entertain them and to make them feel interested in the video.
  There were only a few 'named' shots that we did not include, because of practicality or just not finding a use for them:
  • Dutch Tilt
  • Aerial Shot
  The Dutch tilt is more commonly associated with horror films, so was a completely inappropriate shot to use for our film. The aerial shot is hugely impractical seeming as we do not have access to much height, however the opening establishing shots could be argued to be 'aerial'.
  
  Evaluation
  This task has taught me a great deal; not only about working in a group (and those constraints) but also about technical problems that can unexpectedly arise during filming. The filming process took longer than I expected due to a few issues with the camera. I think our preliminary task clearly demonstrated match on action (when the main character walked through the door), shot reverse shot (during the conversation), and the 180 degree rule.
  The first problem that occurred was the choice of our actors: it took enough time to film a standard amount of footage as they didn’t take it very seriously; this resulted in a lot of wasted time combined with poor quality footage. The next problem that surfaced was that the footage hadn’t recorded properly as the camera wasn’t set up to record on to the memory card.
  
  
  Our group did not have any organisation or planning, as we weren't able to decide on the storyline, as well as the different types of shots and angles before we started filming; this could of saved a lot of time. I am glad that the technical problems with the camera happened during the preliminary task and not the final task, as this taught me to always check that the camera is set up correctly and is recording on to the memory card – so we will not make the same mistake again. I also learnt that test filming is very useful as the lighting of a shot can appear very different on a full screen as opposed to a camera screen; its normally much darker than you actually think it is.
  
  
  I am glad that I worked with the group that I worked with, as it taught me to choose who I work with carefully as I don’t want to end up doing all of the work. Luckily there was one member of my group that I worked really well with; we contributed our ideas, worked hard, explored creative editing and filming techniques and committed our free time to finishing the film. So I now know that I work best in a pair as we can share out equal amounts of work, I also know who I am going to work with to create the final film – we already have many ideas and have past experience with working with each other so we will definitely make a good team.
  Overall I believe we done fairly good in our preliminary task as we all worked hard on different aspects and put them together rather well. We came across quite a few problems whilst filming but we overcame them and managed to finish filming. We could have improved our time management by finishing filming earlier but as we didn't have a room, we were still being productive by editing the bits we had filmed and comparing angles as we filmed some scenes a number of times at different angles to find the most suitable. To conclude, I believe our preliminary task was a success. The biggest problem for us was when we went against the 180 degree rule and this tells me how such a small factor can make people confused.