Preliminary task evaluation (camera, edit, overall)

The preliminary task was to shoot a short scene of two people in different angles and demonstrating our ability to film a sequence with an understanding of the 180 degree rule. Our group included two actors (cordie and alex), a director (poppy) and a camera man (myself).

 We had to follow the storyboard above but as a result of the vague dialogue, we decided the tone of the sequence. We made our tone slightly melodramatic involving one actor storming out of the room. We started the sequence with a long shot, which we filmed with throughout the whole scene. We then moved on to an 'over the shoulder' shot of both characters. As one of our actors, Alex, was much taller so we had to adjust the tripod height. We then did close ups of the actors faces. When doing different angles, we shot the whole scene with that specific angle so that at the end we could chose from a collection of different shots.

After the long shot, close up shots and over the shoulder shots, we had to come up with two more angles ourselves. One angle we shot was a close up of Alex (after Cordie left) showing him fall against the wall in anger and frustration. This was an important angle to include as it conveyed the emotions he felt after Cordie stormed out. Our second angle, we filmed a low angle of Cordie, actually in the process of exiting the room but from an outsiders perspective. In order to get a low enough angle, as we wanted Cordie to seem intimidating and dominant, I held the camera in my hands, rather then on a tripod.

In order to make this task professional, we tried to use suitable language such as "standing by", "rolling", "action" and "cut". Whilst I assured the camera was always focused, had the right exposure setting and on white balance, poppy was in charge of making sure the props didn't move and also assuring the actors stood in the same place.

Throughout the task, the main issue was the actors learning their lines. It took them longer to remember the lines then anticipated, so unfortunately we were rushed for time. In the future It would be better for the actors to receive their lines in advance so that things would run with more fluidity. There was also a slight issue with the actors standing on their mark, when watching back the scenes I realised the importance of actors and props being in the same position each scene.

Overall, it was a valid task for me as I really put into practice the 180 degree rule. By experimenting with trial and error, I grasped the concept and now fully understand how to film a basic short sequence.