Preliminary task -Miss Miller

Preliminary Task

In my group I am working alongside fellow Media students Emma Allen and Harry Osborn. The purpose of our preliminary task was for us as a group as well as for our own individual use to get use to using the equipment which was new to all of us it was good for us to do this as it means that we are now more comfortable in our knowledge of how to use it hence the production of our film should be better. For example whilst filming our scene some of Emma's camera angles we're at bit off and a bit shaky but now that she has had her experience with the equipment she is better at using it and the shots/angles that she will be filming will be done more professionally.Both myself and Harry have learnt from her mistakes also as we are now aware of what she needed to do in order to improve hence we won't be making those mistakes ourselves whilst filming either. It was also a good opportunity for us to experiment with using different camera angles and shots.Whilst filming Emma discovered that she was unsure of how to use the camera to film a close up so she lifted the camera from the tripod and forced it into my face not only was this not a professional way to shoot a close up but her hands were unstable whilst filming as a result the camera didn't stay still or straight throughout the scene also parts of my face were missing hence we had to re-shot the scene. However now that she has had this experience she was able to learn from it as the three of us worked out the best possible way for her to go about shooting the shot now she is able to do close ups reasonably well as I from the learning experience of watching and working alongside Emma and therefore learning with her.

However I do feel that it was a bad decision as a group to decide to start filming without making sure that Emma was completely sure of all the camera angles and how she was going to film them. After all we had to stop half way through our filming to resolve the problem. So to prevent this when filming our opening sequence although everyone will be better working with cameras now, I still think that it will be important for me to make sure everyone is comfortable with everything before we start filming, otherwise we may have to stop half way again.

We simply had to film a short scene with a small amount of dialect however this wasn't the main objective of the task which was for us to display a range of different camera techniques so we could make sure we are able to shoot them and improve on them as well as seeing how they could all work well together.The scene didn't need to be particularly long so long as we got all of the right techniques in nicely.

We were only given one lesson to decide what we wanted to film and then film just within the time set of that lesson, the following lesson we had to quickly edit the sequence together and then watch it back in order to see how the filming had gone, again we were only given that lesson to do so. It was good to practice with the editing software as well as again this was new to both myself and the people I was working with in my group. Watching it back we were able to tell whether it all ran together smoothly or not and how we could make improvements when filming our thriller film.

The different camera techniques we had to use include using the tripod, use of different shots such as close ups, panning, shot reverse shot, etc. I think our best shot out of the lot was our shot reverse shot once we had edited our scene together and watched it back that stuck out for running smoothly with the conversation looking as realistic as possible without any breaks in-between from bad editing  also it was a good clear shot of the characters as the camera was on them. Our biggest camera problem was Emma's dilemma with the close up however once we had sorted that out everything was fine.

We used shot reverse shot as it enabled us to be able to only show the speaker as they are speaking hence displaying a mid shot of them, this is good as it means that the audience focuses on them and only them meaning that they won't face any other distractions on screen, it also means that the audience can have a better view of the speaker as they are speaking and are able to also read any body language etc. This type of shot also displays the flow of the conversation without any breaks. If we were to use a fade or dissolve shots to show the transition to the different speakers it would likely to frustrate audience members maybe even confuse them. As a shot such as a fade or even a dissolve tends to indicate the end of a scene and the moving onto something different it doesn't make sense to have it half way through a conversation as this would be a continuation.

Once we were given our equipment we found our spot to begin shooting and then went to put on the camera on the tripod, at first I thought it would be easy enough so I left Harry who was holding the camera to put it into place on the tripod, however we soon found that this was a struggle which resulted in all three of us attempting to do it. In the end we worked out how it was to be done and are now all perfectly capable of doing so hence this is no longer a problem. So there won't be a struggle next time and the job can be left to just one person.

Overall our group worked really well together. Which is an underrated quality when working on a production such as a thriller film. Had we argued on things and not listened to what others had to say we may have wasted precious time baring in mind the tight deadline, ended up with something that wasn't very well produced and wouldn't display a wide enough range of ideas contributed from the group etc. As we worked along well together this gives hope for how we will be able to cope under the stress of getting our own opening sequence done under the deadlines. We know that we will all feel able to contribute to ideas without being shouted down or not listened to, that we are free to challenge each other without people taking it the wrong way and will all be able to make changes and come to fair agreements about when we will be able to film etc. It is important that the group is able to work well together otherwise friction could compromise our film.

We used the tripod throughout our filming so to make sure that it was being film at a steady level however we spoke about how we will also be making use of hand held filming for our opening sequence. One of the elements we spoke about when using a hand held camera was that like we saw in the 'Saw' series of thriller films a hand held camera can be used to display panic. Having a camera staggered and shaky displays this as well as changing the pace at which the camera moves around the room displaying the full scene.

This task helped both myself and the members of my group for filming our opening sequence in numerous different ways, for instance we are now more comfortable with using different camera techniques as well as simply having gotten use to the actual equipment itself. This task taught me how simple it actually is to produce a shot reverse shot as well as how the sequence run smoothly and logically once having been edited. When filming the opening sequence we need to make sure that any acting done within the scene is a big improvement as well as a more steady hand on the camera when not using the tripod.