Quick overview of filming work

Our preliminary task helped us gain many skills which we may now apply to our main task. Getting experience using the equipment was especially important as some of us found them difficult to use at first, by the end of our preliminary we became much more adept with the equipment and gained many skills such as setting the camera up on the tripod, and using the tripod effectively in panning shots. We also learned how to operate the camera well, for example using the zoom feature. Learning how to switch to viewing mode so that we could look over the clips we had shot was also very useful, as it allowed us to check we had filmed them correctly.

We made some mistakes in filming the preliminary which helped us to know what to do and what not to do when filming the main task. For example, we realised that sometimes the clips we shot started too suddenly, we realised that it’s better to film more than is necessary, as the unnecessary parts can then be deleted during editing if not needed anyway. To do this we waited a few seconds after starting the recording on the camera before we started acting, the seconds at the beginning can then be deleted if not needed later on in editing.

To some of our group, the editing software was new and alien, and therefore difficult to use, but after completing our preliminary we became more efficient at using it. We learned how to cut clips to the desired length before inserting into the timeline, how to organise clips into a sequence, how to delete sound if not needed, and much more. We struggled at first in achieving smooth continuity editing, the clips had to have smooth transitions and look continuous, without jump cuts, however after a few attempts we soon got better at it.

During planning for the preliminary, we originally made a shot list of each of the different shots we were to use during the preliminary. Upon beginning our filming however we revised these and made a few changes, as we realised some of the shots would be difficult to achieve and would not fit in the sequence well, or would be too long. Therefore, we made some of the shots more simple and short in order to fit the 30-second time duration, even with the tweaks however we still went over the time limit, to around a minute. We therefore misjudged the length of time the clips would take, and will try to do this better in the main task.

We were, however, pleased with some aspects of our preliminary. The conversation-scene for example, in which we filmed the conversation between the two characters, went well. We managed to get a variety of shots such as over-the-shoulder shots and 2-shots. We also managed to use shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule efficiently. One difficulty we faced in this scene however was in the acting, at first we tried to improvise the dialogue in the conversation. This however did not work well as the actors (Rapheal and Laura) found it difficult. We therefore instead wrote a script which we used.

To ensure we kept to the 180-degree rule we made sure that we kept shots in the correct perspective, by keeping to one side of the camera, if we would not have done this correctly it would have been confusing and disorientating for the viewer.