Preliminary filming task

• This is my example of the preliminary tast where we had to film a character opening a door, crossing a room, and sitting down in a chair opposite anothe character with whom she/he exchanges a couple of lines of diologue. With this activity i worked with Myles. As there was only two of us this meant we needed a tripod to film the sequence, as we didnt have a thrid person to control the camera. Therefore this meant a lot of cutting to move the tripod and camerawork backwards and forwards for the over the shoulder shot which is one of the techniques that our film had to show. We had to express camerwork techniqes such as shot/reverse shot during the conversation between two people which was expressed through the over the shoulder shots. We also had to include:
• 180 degree rule- when filming two actors you need to keep the camera on one side of the imaginary line. 
• Match on match action- the cut from one shot to another. This should be smooth and continue the action being filmed.  

 Firstly before starting our preliminary task filming we had to write a brief script for our scene, we decided to base it on somthing that might be included in a thriller film. Therefore we decided to do a police interview. We looked at other police interviews on youtube to get an idea of what type of questioning that the police would use as inspiration to make it sound a bit more professional.  When we were finished we were ready to film our scene with the use of the camera and tripod as our equipment.

We created the 180 degree rule by making sure the camera stayed on the one side of the scene to make sure that continuity made sence with the person on the left and the right staying in the same place at all times. This was also easily done as we had a wall on the right so that the camera couldnt cross on to the right anyway.

With the shot reverse shot this was done in our conversation by using the over the shoulder camerawork.  This worked particularly effectively in the composition and context of the preliminary filming, as we made sure we got both characters facial expressions and focussed on main lines being delivered.

Match on match action was delivered when we opened the door, this was brought together as we edited using final cut express, as we have a shot of the person walking to the door, a close up of the hand on the handle and pushing and then a medium shot on the other side of the door of the door opening and the character walking though.

The editing on final cut express gave me more experience using this particular programme, for further reference such as uploading our sequence, rendering, and cutting the sequence down to make it easier to edit. I mainly left it at a simple edit, however if i could improve it, i would get rid of the noise at the begining of the sequence, and also cut out the part where i stumble on a word, either that or i would have recorded this sequence again. We also included a sidewise medium angle within our sequence which i think looks particularly effective, however the composition is a little off as Myles isnt clearly in shot. However as we didnt have a third person working on the camera and directing we short of had to position it and guess that it was good enough, so it was a little off target, however i still like the effect. What i learned by doing the preliminary filming is the fact that it gave me a more clear and focus idea of each of the above techniques of the 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and match on match action. It was also good to put these techniques into practise when actually filming them rather than just understanding the processes. I also learned that auditory has to be clear and loud to be made effectively as sound is a little off in this preliminary tast and there also appears to be noise over the top of the recording which i may need to look into on further reference.