Preliminary Task - Evaluation

Planning:

As a group we planned the whole scene via a storyboard and we also had a small script, but left some of the speech to spontaneity as we thought that the footage would be better as raw emotion rather than an entirely scripted piece. However, we didn’t use the initial script because we found that it might not work. In the end went for something much simpler than our original idea for the conversation and dramatic moment, but in the end kept to the same idea as we started with in terms of camera angle and shots that we wanted and used. Our first idea was to use have a person walk into a room bragging and talking talking about how great their coursework was, then the other person in the room shouting at them because they couldn't say anything as the first person was talking too fast and too much. We tried out this idea, but in the end we thought it wouldn't work as we found it difficult to get the person bragging and talking a lot because they kept laughing and getting confused on their own words as they were speaking so fast. In the end we settled for a much simpler idea of somebody walking into a room asking the other person if they had seen their media folder because it had all their work inside it and they couldn't find it. As they were getting more and more worried, the dramatic moment was when the other person pulls out their folder from on their lap - it being there the whole time - and then the first character gets really angry and storms out of the room.

Camera skills:

I have developed the use of camera skills in the area of camera angles, in our film we used a variety of camera angles, from a very low angle shot of a person walking past to a bird’s eye shot of the same person walking into the room where the conversation took place. This is used to create interest for the audience and therefore contributes to the overall feel of the film. I think my confidence in using a camera, efficiently, has increased because we didn’t break the “180 degree rule” nor did we have many out-takes mainly due to the fact that we planned ahead of time. Our dramatic moment took longer to film because it was difficult to make the characters feeln natural when talking and not laugh at the stituation or triviality of the conversation. In the end the dramatic moment was our second idea of a person getting angry after the other person had given it back to them after saying they hadn't seen it.

Editing:

I already knew, vaguely, how to use editing software, as most software is quite generic and offers the same kind of options and editing techniques. However, I think am more confident with editing a film and taking out unwanted sections and not leaving anything behind in the film which would obviously show that an edit had occurred. We also used a ‘dip to black’ function both at the beginning and end which meant that the clip of our name at the beginning didn’t jump-cut into the first scene of the film and it also meant that the end of the film didn’t end very abruptly and instead it was smooth. I don't think there are any areas in editing where I lack confidence and I know that the more I use editing software the more confident I will become anyway.