Evaluation

The brief for this preliminary exercise was to film a short conversation including certain filming techniques such as 180 degree line, match on action and shot reverse shot. The 180 degree line of action is used when filming a conversation to prevent the audience from losing track of where characters are in a shot, by giving the camera a imaginary line to stay behind when filming. Match on action ensures that when an action is being shot from two different shots, they counterpart. Shot reverse shot is when one character is shown looking at another, and then the second character is shown looking, shot in a way to keep the audience familiar with each characters position.

Once a risk assessment was filled out, the first step was to create a script. Using the software Celtx, I described how a character entered the room, followed by a brief conversation between the two characters, going back and forth at least 3 times. I also chose to add in a additional action in between the conversation, and also at the end when the character left the room. I then drew out a storyboard based on this script, describing what I wanted my characters to do in further detail, and how I wanted them to be shot. This became extremely useful when using this script, as it allowed the other members in our group to understand how I expected the outcome to be. 

When we began to film, we researched into rooms suitable for our chosen script, and chose a location. Once we had chosen our props (the purse, the bag and the money, all chosen to create character and complete the script), actors and arranged the room to be a suitable setting, we were able to start filming straight away. We decided not to film in chronological order. Our main camera operator was Bethany, as one of our group members were ill on the day of shooting, and me and another member were mainly in front of the camera, however if ever the actors were not needed in a shot, we helped out. Our first shot was a master shot of the whole room, in which we filmed our script the whole way through as we did with the majority of our shots. The camera was then placed on the 180 degrees line, to create an over the shoulder shot of the first character to speak. The script was yet again filmed the whole way through in this shot, and then over the shoulder of the second character. 

One shot that didn't work as well as we had planned was the shot of my character entering the room. As we were rather restricted in terms of room in the hall way we chose, it was difficult to judge how fast to pan the camera, and it was also difficult to actually move the camera without being in shot. In the end, we chose to still use the shot, as we needed it and there was no other way of creating that shot. We shot it to the best of our abilities.We also ended up deleting a shot of my character entering the room, as when we looked back at it on the computer, it wasn't quite following the 180 degree rule.

After filming a couple other shots included in the script, we uploaded all of our footage to a Mac, and together we cut and placed the clips as we needed using Final Cut. I took a while, and a lot of patience, but we were able to place the clips with little error. It was rather difficult to get the sound 100% all of the time, but we were able to compromise in most situations, leading to a positive outcome. Our project fulfilled the brief.

The order of our shots was edited as drawn in the storyboard. We started with a wide pan shot of my character walking up to the door and opening, then cut to a close up of my hand unlocking the door. This shot was then followed by a master shot of the room I had entered through the door, and showed my character sitting down opposite Caitlain. As I was the first to talk, an over the shoulder shot of my character followed, and then it went back and forth to my and Caitlain's character as needed. At the point in the script where Caitlain needs to pass me some money, we used quick wide shot of Caitlain retrieving the purse from her bag, then quickly went to a close up of the money being handed to me. This was then followed by a wide shot of me taking the money and swiftly leaving the room. 

Each shot was checked closely, and they all followed the filming techniques mentioned in the brief. As mentioned in a previous paragraph, any shots that did not fulfil the brief's wishes were removed or re-shot when filming.