Preliminary Excercise

Evalution


I worked with Michael, Despina and Claire for this task and we all contributed ideas and suggestions for the preliminary excercise. We studied the brief and then came up with ideas for a plot and a shot location. On professional shoots, there are certain roles taken on by different members of the crew, these include; a director, a camera operator, an actor, a sound technician, a light technician and a runner - sometimes there are more than one person doing each role ie. more than one actor. We decided that in order to get a good feel of what a real shoot consists of and also in order for our shoot to work, we would try and have somebody doing each role - a hard job seeing as there were more roles than people. In our first meeting we decided that Despina and Claire would be our main actors and that i would also act towards the end of the sequence. This meant that Michael would be left to do most of the camera work for the sequence although for some of the time i took on this role as i was only in a couple of shots - this shared the responsibility and also allowed both of us to get some experience of filming. Michael and I also took turns in being sound technicians as there weren't enough group members to share this role out. When we came to edit our sequence, Despina and I did most of the computer work although we made the decisions of what to edit as a group - trying to avoid continuity errors and achieve a seamless sequence. Overall i found working with my group an enjoyable experience, we encountered some technical difficulties but overcame them without arguing which i felt was important. We all contributed a lot to the task, each bringing something different to the group, and altogether worked well by being reliable and giving our all.

How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?
To plan our sequence we had one initial meeting in class and this is were we decided the idea for our sequence and worked out location and actors. The brief stated that we had to include; a character walking in and sitting opposite another character, and a brief dialogue, and observe important continuity rules including the 180-degree rule, the 30-degree rule, shot-reverse-shot and match-on-action, so when planning we tried to take all of this into account. We drew out our plans in the form of storyboards, brainstorms, shot lists, scripts and then went to the location to look at size and space and to check our sequence would work the space provided. We then scheduled another meeting for the end of the week where we went over some final details and made sure that the script and storyboard worked properly.
What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?
Before we started this task we were given a demonstration on how all the hardware and software works and were also taught all the correct dialogue used on a professional shoot - this gave us a better grasp on the task at hand and made it easier for us to film.

The hardware we used:
- Canon HDV camcorder which used a mini DV tape format - we used the record button to start and stop filming and the rewind button to view what we had shot
- An extendable tripod which made our shots steadier and allowed us to avoid the shaky, home video feel making our video seem more professional
- We opted for a shotgun mic rather than a boom mic simply because we were shooting in an enclosed space and there was no real need for the microphone to be up closer
- We used headphones so the sound technician could hear what was being recorded by the shotgun mic without hearing out
- We also used a clapperboard to record each shot before we filmed any action so that we could separate each shot - this made it easier when it came to capturing for editing
- We used a PC based editing suite

The software we used included:
- We used Adobe Premier Pro - a PC based digital editing suite - to edit our sequences on the computer. The tools we mainly used were; the razor tool which allowed us to cut up each clip and delete the clips we didnt need such as those of the clapper board and mistakes made whilst filming we also used the drag icon to transport clips between the timeline and the over-view window and also to move clips up and down the timeline to fit our sequence together. Another tool we used was the title tool to add text the beginning and the end of our sequence and also the source and output monitors which allowed us to watch, pick and choose sections of footage we needed.

What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?
When we were planning our sequence one of the most important factors we had to take into account was the fact that we only had four group members and on a professional shoot there are usually many more needed. To get around this problem we designated more than one role to some group members for example in some shot's Michael is the director and the camera operator as other group members were actors in the shot. We also had to consider the limited space we would have on location - we had to work out where would be the best place to shoot our scene, taking into account the lighting of the location - as this was uncontrollable for us - and also the background noise we could possibly hear from other groups around the location. We had to seriously consider continuity when planning and shooting our sequence to make sure we had no errors in our continuity. When it came to editing, time management was important as we were limited to how long we were allowed to edit for. Therefore, we had to make sure our sequence flowed well and made sense whilst also keeping an eye on the time it took us.

How succesfful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what you would improve/do differently.
I think overall the shoot was not as successful as i had hoped as there were several errors and the finished sequence was not as seamless as i would have liked. However, there are definitely some positives that can be drawn from our sequence on top of the fact that i learnt alot about shooting a scene like this. For instance, i think we observes the continuity rules very well and none were broken by the time we had finished editing which is a great positive, we also included rules such as match-on-action and shot reverse shot which i was pleased with. I also think our sequence runs well and as seamlessly as possible which is definitely a positive thing. I think a shot that worked particularly well was the second shot the actor walks into the room, this works very well as an establishing shot for the sequence and reveals the setting. Also successful were the reaction shot's at 0:12 and 0:20 - i felt they were very effective as the camera captures good emotion of the characters' face and the shot is well framed. A shot which also reveals the space between characters' well and helps further establish the scene is between 0:16-0:17 - a shot which would in my opinion help the audience. Given the chance to re-shoot this sequence, i think i would find another location - one where there was more room to manouvere the camera and with less background noise - and also slow down the pace of the conversation between the actors to give more time for the audience to take in what is happening and to make the editing more seamless and effective. The framing of our whole sequence could be improved and i think this would have been easier to achieve with a different shoot location.

What have you learnt by completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?
By completing this preliminary task i have learnt several things which will help me in future and in the rest of my foundation coursework. Most importantly perhaps, i have learnt about continuity - this is vitally important, for example at one point in one of our takes we broke the 30 degree rule and I know that I will now never break the rule again. I also learnt a key lesson in working as a team - our group had a huge problem in that the camera man made an error, losing a lot of the scene's we thought we had shot. Personally i think i dealt with this situation quite poorly and let the stress get to me and in hindsight i can see that in situations like this it is best to keep calm and try to resolve the problem as a group instead of getting frustrated. I learnt that storyboarding is very important to get a clear idea of what the group is trying to shoot and also learnt the roles taken by crew members on a professional shoot such as; the director and director's assistant, camerman, lighting and sound techinichans etc. I was also taught the dialogue used by these members to communicate such as calling 'Camera rolling!' to signify that they are ready to shoot. I think all of these things will help me when i come to shoot my coursework sequence as they can all be put into practice as things that will benefit me and my group.


Group 3C - Preliminary Exercise Paperwork (Storyboard, Shot list, Script)

Evaluation Of Accident

1. What did you think was the point to this activity?
I thought the point of the task was to show us the possible difficulties that can be encountered when filming an un-edited sequence - it showed us that achieving continuity can be hard especially without the oppurtunity to cut and edit shots. It also proved useful in showing us the methods and techniques of continuity as we were able to learn from our mistakes.

2. In regard to your finished sequence, what worked well?
In my opinion there weren't many successes in the short clip my group made. One positive point that can be drawn from our video is that we definitely left enough time on each shot, giving the audience time to absorb what was happening, although this could also be seen as a negative point at times as some of our shots were too long. If i had to pick a best shot it would probably be the establishing shot as the camera work was good, with the camera following the subject as they walked. The low-angle shot also worked well but it didn't really serve any purpose.

3. What would you aim to improve about your sequence?
If i was to re-film this sequence i would change quite a few aspects of the video. To start i would change the length of the first shot - although i understand it is important to give the audience enough time to absorb each shot, i think the length of it is far too long and i would make the shot at least four seconds shorter. Secondly i would probably get rid of the low angle shot, as although it was successful as a shot, in terms of establishing the right mood of the sequence it served no real purpose as it seemed quite dark and mysterious - more suited to a thriller sequence than ours. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, i would make the subject of the video more clear to the audience - from just watching the video you get absolutely no idea what is going on so i would perhaps add a shot of the untied shoe lace to set the accident up give a clearer idea of what is going on. In terms of creating continuity, i would make sure we did not break either the 180 or the 30 degree rule as these are both important if you are to maintain continuity in a sequence although i was not aware of this beforehand. Lastly i would make the cuts and transitions between shots more smooth, this would be hard if we were not editing but it would definitely be achievable to make the shots run from one to the other more smoothly.

4. What did you learn from doing this activity?
From this activity i learnt a few things about shooting without editing and also the concepts of continuity. By shooting and analysing the sequence i've learnt that maintaining a smooth, logical sequence without editing is difficuilt as going back and re-shooting shots is almost impossible to do seamleasly. I also learnt the main continuity techniques such as; match on action, the 180 degree rule and shot-reverse-shot and how to apply them.