Preliminary Task - Evaluation

The final cut of our Preliminary Task:

Planning:
For my planning, I created a list of all the shots we would be doing. This list contained rough storyboards, as well as all the different shot types needed and what would happen in each scene. In addition, we did a proper storyboard - this was basically a more organized version of this. Furthermore, we wrote a script so that we knew what was being said in the scene.

The planning was useful as it meant we knew exactly what we were doing in each scene - we didn't have to improvise, which wouldn't have looked as professional. The only thing we had to change was the script, so that the actual "plot" was better to watch.


The 180 degree rule:
The 180 degree rule is a rule that is very important in film-making. However, it can be easily overlooked. The 180 degree rule is the rule that states that you should always be on the same side (180 degrees) of the action, conversation, etc. This stops the viewer being confused as if the camera kept flipping over from side to side, you would not be able to say what side each thing or person is on. For example, in a game of rugby the camera stays on the same side of the pitch. This is so that the viewer knows which side each team is trying to get to. If the camera kept switching sides, the viewer would be completely confused.

Camera:
Even though I had used camera before this task, I learnt a lot about how to use a camera. One of the main things I learnt were the actual kinds of shot you could use, such as an over the shoulder shot to put you into the film and low and high angle, close up, medium and long shots to change the appearance of the characters. Also, another big thing I learnt were some of the techniques used in film making (e.g. shot-reverse shot and the 180-degree rule). Due to my previous experience, I was pretty confident with using a camera before this task. However, this task has made that confidence grow even more.

I cannot think of many areas in which I did not feel comfortable. I may need to revise the different shots and camera techniques so that I can use them as well as possible.

For the start of the film we used shots to track someone who was moving from the outside of the school to a room inside the school. For this we used still, tracking, panning and over the shoulder shots. We also used a few different distance shots, including medium and close-up shots. These shots were used to give the sense of watching someone move from one place to another, while also creating interest as the camera shots slowly revealed the person moving.

For the conversation, we used still shot-reverse shots while abiding to the 180-degree rule. These were all medium shots. These shots were used to make the people and what they were saying as clear as possible.

Editing:
I have used editing programs many times before. I had not used this particular editing program, but using it was quite simple as the only editing we had to do was simple video effects, such as fading to black at the end of the film, and basic cut/delete operations.We did find a slight problem trying to capture the footage from the camera, but that was a technical issue that I managed to solve through trying many different ways of importing the footage from the camera.

Overall, I am very confident with using the editing program. Most of it is similar to other editing programs I have used, so I am familiar with it. On the other hand, I would possibly struggle if I was told to do very complicated editing effects with the software.