1) What planning did you do for your filming task, and how did this planning aid the filming?

When planning for our preliminary task we were given a sheet with all of the different camera shots on, this helped a lot when planning as it allowed me to see what shots would be suitable at which points of our film and as someone who has never done media studies before this really helped. Once we got this sheet we took a stills camera – mobile phone – and practiced all of the different shots so that we were comfortable with them when we started filming for the prelim task. The shots sheet helped when designing my storyboard as it gave me an idea of why shots are used and in what situation they are suitable but before creating my storyboard as a group we needed to decide on a concept for our piece.

When debating what themes and concepts we wanted in our piece we decided that we wanted our concept to be simple an everyday situation that everyone can relate to, and so our concept and the topic of our conversation is that a teacher has put two students in a group together but they do not get on and so don’t want to work together and when they try they are both fighting for the power. The dramatic moment in our piece was at the climate of the conversation/argument where Phoebe had had enough of Matt and decided she didn’t care what the teacher wanted, she would not work with Matt she would do the work by herself and so when leaving knocks over a chair and slams the door behind her. Planning this before filming helped a lot of it gave us a direction to where the filming was going what the shots needed to show.

I then made my storyboard which is on my blog, this helped when filming as it showed us the main shots we wanted/needed for our piece to be successful. When filming we would refer to the storyboard to make sure we were following the right path to the final product and to make sure that we had a range of different camera shots in our piece, although I think that our piece could have been improved – during the conversation – with some different camera shots for example more close ups or a tilt, I still think we have a good range of shots and angles.

In our group we wrote a shot list from the shots off the storyboard, this helped us keep track of what shot came next and what the location for the shot was I have included this on another post. We used filming techniques such as match on action during our piece, one example of this is when Phoebe is coming through a door and we have her opening the door in one shot and coming through in another. We also used shot reverse shot during the conversation, we shot the shot reverse shot from a high angle and we also made sure that there was perfect continuity in things such as costume and made sure that we filmed in a classroom so that we did not get anyone else in the shots other than the actors so that if we had to reshoot something there would be continuity.

2) What is the 1800 rule, and how is this rule important to the filming task?

The 1800 rule is a rule stating that a camera should be placed somewhere inside 1800 on a particular side of the invisible line of a shot containing two or more people. The best example of this is sports for example a football match during a football match the cameras that are filming it do not go pasts the 1800 mark as it would confuse the viewers This rule is important when filming as it stops the audience from getting confused as to where they are and who is in the scene. During our filming rehearsals we did break the 1800 rule but when we realised this we changed where we were filming to ensure we didn’t break it when filming the real thing.

3) What shot types and camera angles did you use in your filming task, and to what effect?

We used many different shot types and camera angels throughout the filming of our preliminary task, the first of which was a close up tracking shot of Phoebe’s feet while walking from the front gates into the 6th form common room. I think that this was an effective shot as it inadvertently tells you the time of day the gender of the character and shows that the character has a purpose.

The second shot we used was a pan from Phoebe’s feet up to her hand opening a door, this was an effective shot as the camera focused on Phoebe’s hands and her rings which looks really good and was one of the set shots we needed.

Our third shot was an over the shoulder tracking shot of Phoebe walking through the common room, this shot was effective because you get a better sense of where the Phoebe is going and you place the audience in the position of the character.

Our forth shot was a close up tracking shot of the back of Phoebe’s head this was effective as you could see what Phoebe was aiming for as Matt was now in shot.

The fifth shot was a close up pan of Phoebe coming through a door and walking towards Matt as the camera pans, this shot was effective because you get a sense of the relationship between the characters before they even speak.

The sixth shot was shot reverse shot during the conversation between Phoebe and Matt, this shot made the conversation seem faster and more heated.

4) What editing skills have you developed? How confident are you with using the editing programme? I have developed all of my editing skills as this was the first time I had ever edited anything and so it was all completely new to me. The main skill I think I have learnt is how to make good cuts, for example in one of our shots we have Phoebe on one side of a door pushing it to go though and then we cut to the other side of the door when she is coming in. I am confident with the editing programme as I think that it has been logically laid out and made. I have also developed my skills in putting effects into my piece we have put in a piece of slow motion near the beginning of the piece which I think is very effective when emphasising the action of opening the door, we also put in some black and white on a piece of tracking in the middle of the film, we did this because it adds a sense of mystery to the piece, it makes the audience ask the questions why it is black and white only in that moment and then why it returns to colour almost immediately afterwards. Another editing effect we put in was dissolves we did this because it made the transitions from one cut to another smoother and we put in a fade to black at the end of the piece so that the film does not just cut off but there is a wind down so that the audience knows that it is going to end. It took a while to figure out how to use all of the effects and where they were but once we had figured that out they were easy enough to use.