Question 7

Question 7:

For the preliminary task I had to work alongside my group members to become more comfortable working with all of the new equipment we would be using both as a group as well as individually. We soon discovered that all of this equipment was new to all of us which meant we were all literally starting from scratch together. Hence this was the perfect chance for us to get use to working with all of this technology as well as working together and discover each others as well as our own strengths and weaknesses and how this could benefit or having a knocking effect on our film.

For our official task we had to film a scene focusing mainly on the importance of our camera shots/angles rather than the dialogue or anything else. We were provided with a list of shots and angles we had to film from so to achieve the task. In doing so the aim was for us to have mastered filming from these different shots/angles so that we would be confident and able to film from them when it came to the filming of our thriller film opening sequence.

I found that this was a good task to par-take in prior to the filming of our thriller opening sequence as both myself and the members of my group found it to be a learning experience and were able to take aspects from this experience with us when filming our own thriller opening sequence. One of the things this task taught me was how simple it is to produce a shot reverse shot as well as how through the use of editing you are able to make a sequence run smoothly without awkward breaks etc as well as logically even if it wasn't film in that order or you changed your mind at the last minute. Hence this early experience with editing enabled me to be more familiar with it when it came to editing our final product naturally with this added experience making all of us better editors. I found that  shot reverse shot was a technique I really liked  as it allowed the audience to have a better focus on the character as they are speaking/reacting so the audience is able to have a better understanding for the and then going back to the other person enabling the audience to switch the two characters at the exact right time which can make them feel more involved with the on screen antics as they feel more involved. One thing I decided to make clear the importance to the group of how big an improvement we needed the steadiness of our camera to be when filming. Straight away if the audience sees the film as being shot badly they are likely to view the entire production as unprofessional and lose faith in it hence loosing interest. When using a hand held camera rather than using the tripod it can be tricky to keep the camera filming on a  even level as the slightest body movement can result in the camera moving and therefore ruining the effect of the film making it a less realistic image and ruining the audiences experience.

I have learnt a lot about technologies via the process of constructing this product. My learning of these new forms of technology to me began when I done my preliminary task. When filming our preliminary task I soon discovered that Emma was unsure of how to film a close up as when it was time for that shot rather than simply zooming in she thrust the camera into my face. Not only was this an unprofessional way to film the shot when she could have just zoomed in but it also meant that they camera was unstable and she only had my cheek in the shot. Once we saw Emma doing this both myself and Harry got out of out sits we were filming from and told Emma to stop filming. We took the camera from her and found the zoom button then went through as a group how best to use this. Whether we wanted to use a fast zooming close up or a slow one whether we wanted the shot to began on a close up or whether we wanted the audience to follow the movement of the camera going in closer. These were all decisions we had to make so not to close out our options we decided to film the camera zooming into my face at a fairly average speed. This meant that we were able to either keep the zooming in our filming or cut it out in the editing stages as well as speeding up or slowing down the speed at which the camera zooms. I told Emma that it would be best for her to leave the camera on the tripod for this shot as it would mean that the camera would be more steady for filming. Something else I discovered whist completing this task was that the tripod was surprisingly hard to work. I found that the lever on the tripod which I later decided would be good to use when filming Carol laying dead on the floor with the antagonist standing over her was really stiff making it hard to pull either upwards or downwards without finding that it has stuck half way through or keeping it at a good pace. Unfortunately this still wasn't  something I had managed the knack of until filming for our opening sequence however this early experience did make me more aware of the problem as well as ways in which it worked less well so this did help me in the final stages of filming. I also decided that any filming I done by myself would be done on a tripod if possible as I was aware throughout this task just how easy it is to accidentally make the camera move without even noticing until you watch it back to do your editing. If you are unaware of this mistake through watching it on the small screen on the side of your camera then it is likely that you will leave the shot as it is thinking that it is good enough for the editing stages meaning that you'll either have to work with what you've got or go back out and start filming again. Which can be very difficult considering you need to find the right time, if the locations outside the weather may need to fit in with other scenes, hope that costumes are still good for this particular filming, get everyone there who needs to be etc filming isn't just something you are able to wake up and decide you want to do it takes time and much preparation.

I found that I done many things differently when filming my thriller film opening sequence compared to the way I done them when par-taking in my preliminary task. For instance I found that I had much better communications when filming. For instance myself and my group members were in the middle of shooting a panning shot when I thought we had finished and turned around and shouted that I thought I had ruined the shout by slipping slightly watching the footage back I realised that it wasn't in fact my slight slip which ruined the footage as this went unnoticed but when I turned around out of character which ruined it. From this I was able to fully understand the importance of communications within filming, this provided that I was unaware of when I would be out of shoot which was something that I needed to know to make sure that I didn't come out of character before we had finished filming as this would have ruined the effect. Due to this when we began our filming for our thriller film opening sequence I made sure that we had all communicated with each other properly and that everyone was  fully aware of where they were suppose to be and when so not to course any slip up which could ruin the effect of our film had they gone unnoticed on location as well as wasting valuable filming time and demotivating all those involved in the filming and production.