Preliminary task - Miss Miller

My group includes myself, Charlie Stewart and Ryan Samuels. We did a preliminary task so that we could practice on the cameras. We did this so that we could get used to using the equipment and how it worked, it gave us a practice run figuring how to positions the camera for certain angles and shots, how to adjust the camera and move it. In our task we had to film two boys in conversation, and how it started and ended by this I mean how they got there; for example the first boy walked up to the bench were the other was sitting and sat down. We had to include certain shot and angles like a close up, long shot and shot reverse shot. The clip didn't have to be long it just had to fit in the shots given in a suitable time. After we filmed out shots we had to edit them, we had one lesson, which is one hour, In this time we had to complete the editing and look back over it to see how everything was. In the editing lesson we have to put the shots in the correct order and crop down to the right length so that they all ran smoothly together, we didn't need to editing any sound which made it easier to complete within the hour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nK1KqlPBhE (will not allow me to add in our clip)





In our preliminary task we had to include a few shots and movements these were; Panning, Shot reverse shot, Close up, Longshot and an over the shoulder shot. All of these shots were are most simple to create so they were good for practice when getting used to how to work the cameras. The over the shoulder shot and the close up helped us to learn how to position the camera so that it looked good and to make us aware of what angles and zooms which looked suitable. To create theses shots we had to play around with the height of the tripod and the zooming in, in order to perfect them. We also had to use the tripod when shooting our clip, this was so that the camera was steady and looked professional. The tripod included some handles so that we could smoothly turn the camera, this part helped us a lot when filming the panning movement, it made it easy to turn and follow the characters as gracefully as possible.
 
When we filmed our clip I think we worked well together and listened to each other so that we could come up with the best ideas and scenario's. The part I think we did the best was the long shot and the panning, we joined them both into one shot and it came out quiet well, the camera followed the  character well and the long shot was a really good distance away. We managed to get this by discussing where we should place and camera and doing a practice run to see if it look right, the fact that we communicated with each other whilst positioning the shots gave us a good outcome because all of our opinions meant we have less mistakes and more advantages.


We struggled a bit with the shot reverse shot, because it was hard to keep the camera in the same spot as it went back and forth. As we had to keep changing the shot onto the other character it was hard to place the camera back into the same place. Also the close up wasn't very imaginative and the shot reverse shot changed to quickly after we edited it because we hadn't made the dialogue long enough, it ended up looking rushed. If we did our preliminary task again I would take more time coming up with a narrative and think about how it could go with the shots before we started film to ensure that they worked well together. I think my group would have put more thought in the film schedule for the shots so that we could keep the shot reverse shot consistent and also have better ideas for content.







I think the whole task has helped me practice for creating our opening sequence, it has allowed me to work with the equipment and practice with them. It has also showed me the wrongs and rights for creating a film, I know what mistakes we need to work on for our opening sequence and what will help us when making the real thing. When we watched out footage back we could see the mistakes that we didn't realise we made when filming for example the shot reverse shot was to quick. This has shown me that we need to pay more attention to what we are doing and try not rush when filming the actual sequence. The preliminary task has been very useful to us because it meant we were given the chance to understand how the equipment work with different movements, angles and positions.






The preliminary task helped me prepare for the filming of our opening sequence, it has allowed me to use the camera equipment so that there isn't any major mistakes in our real film. We now also know how to use the macs to edit our sequence which as prepared us for when we have to user them again, we know how to do the basic tasks that are the most important for the filming process. This task has organised us for the opening sequence filming and allowed us to get comfortable with the equipment hopefully meaning the real thing will run smoothly. From this task I learnt how to use the camera equipment and the editing equipment, also that we mustn't rush our work because it creates mistakes giving a bad outcome. I am going to keep our team work the same by comparing ideas and coming together to make it the best it can be. I am going to try to stop rushing the work to unsure that we don't create faults and mistakes in our opening sequence and make sure it looks good.