Preliminary Task: Evaluation

Preliminary Task:

The planning which my group, and I did, helped the filming process much easier to do. We started off with an A4 piece of paper which we written down some very simple ideas for a plot for our preliminary task. We then started to think about which would be the best to film, and why it would be. This A4 piece of planning helped us to keep to our roots when filming and to make sure we didn't completely change our plot while filming. After we figured out what our preliminary task should be, we started to discuss the different camera angles we would use. After many suggestions about what camera angles to use and how they would be effective in our plot/story, we then started to talk about how our story boards should look like. The story boards we created where our backbone to fall upon when filming. This is because we had something to go by, and keep to. Although we changed a few things which weren't originally present on our story boards, we thought that the changes we made where a good thing.

The 180* Degree Rule

While filming, we had to be very careful about the 180degree rule. The 180degree rule is when 2 people (for example) are in the same scene and should always have the same left and right relationship to one another. If the camera crosses over an imaginary axis called "The Crossing Line", the opposite shot is called "The Revere Angle". This rule is very important and we had to consider it when filming our Preliminary Task. This is because if you brake this rule, your audience watching will feel confused as the characters or objects seem to appear in a different location. It is very important to keep to the 180degree rule so that your audience does not become confused. We successfully filmed our Preliminary Task without braking the 180degree rule as we thought about how and what camera angles would be used to prevent braking this important rule.

We used many different camera shots in our Preliminary Task. These included:

• High Angle
• Long Shot
• Tilt Shot
• Birds Eye View
• Tracking Shot
• Over the Shoulder
• Close Up
• Panning

We started our Preliminary Task film with a High Angle Tilt Shot which showed a long narrow hallway. This shot established the location so that the audience would understand where the scene takes place. The tilt angle wasn't originally in our story board. We agree that if we added the tilt it would add more variety to the mise-en-scene instead of using a slightly "dull"  horizontal high angle shot. This shot would eventually pan while following the character in the scene. The second shot was a horizontal panning shot. This shot was used to give the audience a sense of the character to continue moving down the hallway but from a different location. After this shot, we cut to a tracking shot. We follow the character down the hallway until we get to the end. Myself then came up with a cleaver idea that "what would happen if someone comes round the corner, and we follow them instead?". We used this idea of mine, not to confuse the audience about what is happening, but instead try to add more variety and originality to our Preliminary Task. Now we follow our 2nd character. The 3rd shot was a Birds Eye View. This is to give the audience a sense of scale of the hallway and the location of the scene. The shots after our Birds Eye View where mainly Over The Shoulder and also a few Close Ups. These where used to make the conversation between the characters more fluent and interesting. It also adds an effect that the characters are nearly talking to the audience.

Our film was finally finished. We then had to capture it onto the computers and edit it. I learnt many things while taking part in filming and editing the film. When filming I learned that if we wanted our film to look professional we needed to have continuity with the costumes. Have continuity in our Preliminary Task, we needed to film some scenes twice as we didn't use the same clothes. I have learned that we need to plan what to wear next time when filming a media production. When editing, I learned how to use the school's editing software and how to capture the film onto the computer. After I became familiar with the software, editing was very simple to do. 

In conclusion, I highly enjoyed creating our Preliminary Task and getting back into media production since high school. Working with people who I know (James Kent) and others who I've became friends with (Jessica Moy and Mandy Edmondson). I believe our production of the Preliminary Task was a great success due to our combined teamwork and effort.