Preliminary Exercise/ Feedback

The above image is my story board for my preliminary exercise

My Preliminary Clip

Clip the adove title to go to my Preliminary Clip

Preliminary Exercise Storyline

In my preliminary task I used to character one boy and one girl. The boy who was in my task had a role of a local gangsta, the girl had a role of a unknown frightened reporter. The storyline for this particular scene was that the boy named Tank goes to visit the girl called Hannah at her office. He comes into the office to see her and after a short conversations he leaves with a tape in his hand. The short conversation is about Tank wanting a tape from Hannah, on the tape it has recording of him taking drugs from someone. Tank doesn't want any one to see it, so he takes the tape so he can destroy it and then there will be no evidence of him buying and selling drugs.

I only used one location that was the classroom in the college, this was meant to look like the reporter office.

Camera Angles and Movement

In my scene I used many different types of angle movement that were close ups, long shot, over the shoulder shot and shot reverse shot. I used close ups to show the characters facial expressions, to create tension when Tank knocked on the door also to show the audience that the object that I have done a close up to has an importance in the scene. I did a close up on the tape to show the audience that this object has an importance in the scene, because Tank the actor wants the tape. When the character Tank walks in and out of the room I used long shot. I used the camera angle over the shoulder shot when they were sitting down having a conversation. Also I used was the shot reverse shot when Tank walked in and out of the room.

180 degree rule

The above picture is to show the 180 degree rule, this is a key point in a scene, without doing this right you can confuse the audience to were the characters are looking. This when the camera can only be used be half of the room.

Filming
My first attempt I never used a tripod and just used the camera. I thought I did well but when we watched it back in class I realised that I didn't follow the 180 degree rule and this confused my class. With the feedback I received I made another attempt, and in my second attempt I used a tripod and I followed the 180 degree rule and it was a success. In both attempts I would first position my characters and tell them what to say, after I would do a practise shot then I would record. I only did one take of each shot this is because of this scene we never done any editing.

Comments received on Attempt One

1. The storyline worked well with the match on action.
2. I failed to follow the 180 degree rule.
3. At one point the camera moved, due to I was holding the camera and never used a tripod.
4. Shot-reverse-shot worked well with the scene and how it was done was good.
5. The different types of shot was good.

Changes I made to create my attempt two were due to the feedback that was I followed the 180 degree rule (number 2) and I used a tripod so the camera doesn't shake (number 3).

Comments received on attempt 2

1. The camera didn't move.
2. The characters were really good, as they kept a straight face.
3. I included the 180 degree rule.

My thoughts of the Preliminary Exercise

I am happy that I received my feedback because if I didn't then maybe I wouldn't have noticed the two areas that I failed at, even though my first attempt was not accurate but at least my last attempt was. I found it easy to think of a quick storyline and setting for my task because I enjoy that part of the task as well as doing everything else.

When I got my camera off Paula I looked for my characters and went straight to film my scene. When I was filming it was hard to instruct my characters on how to act, it took long for a few scenes because they kept laughing or getting the words confused. That's how come I kept doing each scene stopping, practising then filming.

I was really pleased with the finishing of my preliminary task and if I had a chance to do it again I would have used a office rather than a classroom.