Preliminary Task Part 1

      

  

We once again made our way down to the studio to shoot a new set of clips that will be put together to create a whole scene. However in this particular session we began one of two lessons about the preliminary task. The OCR definition of the preliminary task is:
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

We were put into groups of 4 and given the story board shown above and each given a different location to shoot the scene. My group were put in the main studio which had a house set built into the centre that we used to make the task look realistic. The storyboard was basic but we had to shoot the scene from at least five different shots if not more. We firstly began by making the decision of where the camera should be placed for filming the establishing shot, As always we started with the safety shot (wide shot) to make sure that the whole scene and everything going on is easily visible. We made the choice that Eduarda and Ella will be the actresses reading and performing the script whilst me and Marija worked behind the camera. Although we were working in two separate halves we would continually stand in for one another and each person gave input as to what shots they thought would look best in this sequence. 

After filming the wide shot we began to shoot the other angles that were displayed on the storyboard. Although the storyboard was there for us to use it was only a guideline and other ideas were welcome to be tested to see if we could make our final tasks look better.and this allowed us to experiment with our newly found knowledge. We created a set of over the shoulder shots filmed from behind both Ella and Eduarda and we did 3 takes per side to make sure we had the best shot possible. Matt taught us that too many shots is never a problem and that it actually makes the later editing process easier because when one clip doesn't work there is always a back up, however, not enogh can lead to falling  behind if needing to re-shoot becomes a problem.

We then continued on to shoot some close up shots, we did full face close ups of both aElla and Eduarda but also close ups of just their eyes which although not on the story board we decided would be add to the sequence and build it up to make it more interesting to watch. After this Ella suggested we try a focus pull. I stepped into her spot while she helped Marija angle the camera, as a group we decided that we should have the camera on a close up shot of the door handle but the handle should be out of focus, after saying "action" we would then pull the shot to focus seconds before the door is opened by Eduarda.

Furthermore the whole shoot let me learn different ways of shooting only once scene and how input from other people can lead you to creating more interesting and gripping shots that I would not have yet thought of. I also realised the importance of shooting the same angle multiple times so that it doesn't matter if it ever goes wrong because there will always be back-up footage and this is something I will remember when I come to shoot my thriller sequence.