Preliminary Task Evaluation

1. My group was myself, Simon, Aarti and Tanya. While me and Simon played the role of the two classmates in the film, Aarti and Tanya were in charge of filming, directing and sound. However on a couple of shots such as my entering the room, Simon filmed and for Simon's speaking shots I took the role of camera man. When we edited we took it in turns to do a few shots each to fairly distribute the task at hand.

2. To plan our shoot we made a rough script of the scene on paper. We then drew a diagram of the room and decided how many different shots we were going to use and where we would position the cameras. From this we established that we would have 4 linking shots of one character entering the room and 4 different angles of the conversation meaning we'd need to film it 4 times. Once we had done this we storyboarded the script into 16 individual frames and made notes on the dialogue, sound and timings of each shot as well as the shot type. We then made up a shooting script from this so as to make an easier filming process. We also planned all the cuts in advance so that when it came to editing it would be a lot easier to make the clips into one continuous scene.

3. We used a mini-DV camera and a mini boom mic on our shoot. There was no lighting as we filmed at daytime and only wanted natural light in our shoot. We used the mini boom mic with headphones for the speaking clips to check that the actors were speaking clearly throughout so as not to lose any important moments of conversation. To make sure we had steady shots we used a tripod which also greatly helped when doing the pan at the beginning of the clip. To edit we used Adobe Premier Pro, which allowed us to arrange the clips in a linear time line and cut and trim them to the right length. It has multiple editing lines which made it easy to edit our clip and also the source monitor so we could constantly refer to the original clip. We put in titles and a fade at the end using the editing tools on Premier.

4. During the planning process it was important that we thought about what the characters looked like. For instance I dyed my hair half way between planning and shooting so we had to re-do bits of the storyboard to fit the actors involved! We also planned in advance what clothes we would wear on the shoot. We did not need to worry too much about background noise or weather as we were indoors but to insure we were not interrupted while filming we put on a red light while filming to indicate to other students not to enter the room. This was useful as we didn't have to redo any shots due to distractions or extra noise. We also had to make sure we left room at the end of takes for editing purposes and also planned any action carefully so that we could match it between cuts.

5. I think in general our clip went very well. It runs smoothly without any noticeable continuity errors (there is one where the book is taken out of the bad where if watched a few times doesn't quite work). All the matches on action worked out really fantastically which was a great relief and these include when I open the door and walk through it, when I retrieve the book from the bag, and when Simon glances at the book over my shoulder. A couple of the beginning shots weren't too steady especially the pans which we would need to work on better next time. Although mine and Simon's acting talents may not be up there with the rest of Hollywood I think we spoke clearly throughout so the dialogue works very well which is useful as it is the main point of the clip. I would have liked to say no in a slightly more horrible voice and get the entering the room sequence even more smooth in hindsight but other than that I was genuinely very pleased with the whole task and how we worked as a group.

6. From this task I have revised shooting and editing techniques as well as learning the importance of matches on action and continuity. I have learnt how to use Adobe Premier Pro which is what we will be using for our final project and so hopefully next time the editing process will be even quicker. It is clear that due to a good plan, storyboard and shooting script we were able to film everything very easily and know exactly what to do which I will definitely take on board when filming a more difficult and more complicated clip. I think it will be useful to have practised all these techniques and methods so that I can have a really successful group project.