Introduction to the preliminary task

Day One is the day where we where given our preliminary task and we where told that we had to be in groups between 2-4, no more then 4, and no less then 2. The preliminary task was given to us and we where told to film anything we wanted but in the film we needed to show a person going through a door, and show a close up of the door. We where told that we needed to include a shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. We where also told that out film should only be 30seconds long.
Before we started filming we had to make a storyboard of the preliminary task. This was like a plan of what we wanted to film. We where then told that we needed to include every single detail of what we did and stages we where at on our blogs which we where given. We where told that we needed to include an evaluation of preliminary task, we where told to explain what we learnt from this task about filming and editing, what went well and what we needed to improve on, explain how we use a shot/reverse shot combination, and how we are going to achieve matched cuts and how we ensure that we don’t break the 180 degree rule.


Day 2
Day 2- Storyboard and Intro on cameras and tripod We all sat together making the storyboard coming up with ideas of what we can do, we all come up with different ideas, so we all had our disagreements, but we did manage to put our ideas together so that way every member of the group was happy. We finally managed to finish our storyboard. Then later that day we where given an introduction on how we should us the cameras and the tripod, we where given a presentation on how the cameras worked.We where showed how a camera can be mounted on a tripod. We where told about Tripod usage, and how they are used for both still and motion film-nary to prevent camera movement (as the camera is mounted on the tripod). Tripods do reduce camera shakiness which helps achieve sharpness. We where told how the tripod is helpful in achieving framing of the images. For example using a tripod for close-up of people of anything will allow us to use a slower shutter speed without worrying about moving the camera as we take videos. We where also told about what to do and what not to do with the tripods. We where told to make sure that the camera’s are always charged to prevent them from turning off while filming, we where showed how to use the camera.



Day 3 Started filming -Is the one where we starting filming, we went around college trying to find a location to film at. We learnt how to use the camera and tripod. We came up with different ideas on what and where to film. we started filing some shots in a classroom, where one member of the group had to walk round the corridor then enter a classroom, we then decided that we would show a close up on the door. We filmed this, showed it to one of the teachers, and we where told to do it again since it didn’t meet the criteria. So after reviewing it ourselves as well we decided to make a couple adjustments. We looked for a new location, so we started filming in the canteen. The plot for this was Nakeem (one of our group members) walking down the stairs then enters the canteen to meet his friends) We made sure that we filmed a lot of different camera angles to help us when we came to the editing part. We finally finished filming. Meaning that we had to move on to editing.



Day 4- We started editing, we saved our film on one of the editing computers, and we where showed how to view it using cut-pro. As we where unaware of how to use the editing computers, we had to teach ourselves by trying to do different things, we finally got a hang on using it. So we started putting our work together, included some effects etc. We had a few disagreements on how we wanted to edit the film, as we all had our own ideas. We then decided that two individuals from the group should do the editing while the other two is doing the blog, that way we will be able to complete the preliminary task in time. While the other two members where doing the editing, the other two where given the password and username for the blogger, we where showed how to access it and where told that any individual in our group can access it whenever they wanted as long as they had the password. In the blogger we made some few changes, by changing the layout of the blogger to make it more interesting.



Day 5- Still editing Still editing at this point, We where told to use the 180 degree rule, which basically means that two character in the same scene should always have the same left/right relation to each other, the camera should stay on one side of an imaginary line going between the characters. We broke the 180 degree rule a lot of times and reasons for this is very simple its because we moved the camera while shooting across the line, making this mistakes helps us because that way next time when we are filming we will make sure that we do not move the camera, this will refer to keeping the camera position within a field of 180°.We used shot/reverse shot on our preliminary task, this is where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. The characters are shown facing in opposite directions, so the audience will assume that they are looking at each other. Shot/reverse shot was used in our preliminary task when Nakeem (one of our group members) went to the cafeteria to meet his friends (Paige and Lillian) we used short/reverse shot when they where having a conversation with each other, first we shot Nakeem then we shot both Paige and Lillian to make it look as if the characters are talking to each other.


Day 6-Completed Finally finished filming and editing, just making adjustments to our blog. Looking forward to the real task, and hoping to improve it. This task as helped us because we learnt how to use the cameras and the editing computers, so this will make it easier for us on the second task.


Foundation Portfolio evaluation

What did you learn about the cameras and editing software during the preliminary task?
In the making of the preliminary task we learnt how to use a tripod. and to use a camera correctly and also to make the shots match up we need to film it all on the same day as then it kept its consistency, we also used editing to make the prelim more exciting so it wasn’t boring, although some of our edits didn’t work in this task, in our main task we will be able to use more edits as we know how to use it. We learnt about the edits and the cameras by just using them we needed to be able to play around with the camera and edits until we got the right fit


In the filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved?
There was some things that worked well in the fact that we worked well as a group, the only thing that could have been improved is that we could have had a clearer idea on what we was going to do for our preliminary, and about how many shots we needed to include in the preliminary, and what kind of shots which we needed to include, the problems we faced when editing is that we didn’t know how to use the final cut pro so we kept making mistakes which couldn’t be altered this slowed down editing time which made it harder to meet the deadline this also made editing a problem, also we didn’t know how to use the camera for example to do a shot reverse shot and a 180 degree angle as we didn’t want to break the 180 degree rule so we had to keep within the boundaries.


Give a detailed, specific example of how you have used a shot/ reverse shot combination in your film?
We used a shot/reverse shot by making the actors talk and then editing the piece to look like a shot/reverse shot, this was hard to do as we had to keep the consistency of the talking and so it looked the same and didn’t look mismatched.


Give a detailed, specific example of how you achieved match cuts during the editing process?
We didn’t achieve a matched cut as we didn’t show the character from behind just through the window, we would improve this by doing a view of the character from behind and also from the front, we needed to do this to show continuity.