PRELIMINARY TASK - Miss Miller

PRELIMINARY TASK

For my preliminary task i have created a short clip which includes myself and the other members of my group.  The other members of my group are Oliver Longshaw and Hannah Hobbs.  The purpose of a preliminary task is to get used to equipment that you will be using for filming your opening sequence and to understand how it works and to experiment with different camera angles and shots. 

For our preliminary task we has to create a short clip under one minute which had to include; long shot, panning, shot reverse shot, over shoulder shot and close up. When filming with my group we had to include all of these shots. When filming we had to take film many different scenes and then edit them together. We had very little time to complete this short preliminary task and did the best that we could when preparing. Our preliminary task had to be between 30 seconds and 1 minuite.

Above is the preliminary task which we made. This clip is 35 seconds long and includes all the above shots. In the first scene there is a panning shot, where the camera follows me walking along the corridor into the room. A panning shot is by turning the camera horizontally on a vertical axis and keeping it i the same position to give the effect the camera is watching the person walking past and has a full eye view on them. This panning shot has helped to include an introducing of the character and see a full view of her.

We decided to use this and thought it would create an effect on the audience by creating an introduction and letting the audience get to know the character, this works well as it gives a feeling that the audience are actually there watching instead of being behind a screen. The second shot me and my group included is a long shot. We included two long shots in to this short clip, firstly when i walked in at the opening sequence and secondly when myself and hannah are walking out of the room for the ending sequence. Long shots help the audience to see a full picture, not just of the character but of the scene. It is important for the audience to capture and understand what clothes the charachter(s) on screen are wearing and why, aswell as the background in which It is set. In this short clip the scene is in a kitchen, and a large open planned room. This helps to show the audience what is exactly in the room. For example, in most thriller films, women wear a sexy black or red dress, this may implicate to the audience through a long shot that she is vunrable and can be taken for granted easily. Furthermore the background, a long shot shows the full background, this may show to the audience what type of house/setting it is and whether it is night or day time outside, also showing the amount of lighting used. Looking at long and panning shots in my preliminary task has helped me and my group come to conclusions and helped us find out what works well in a thriller and why them certain things should be used, whether they are bad or good. 

We also used another camera shot which was zooming in. This shot helps to show close up images and facial expression/features for the audience when watching. For example, this can work well when the killer is angry of the victim is scared, zooming in can show the real fear and emotions and can help to create suspence for the audience. We found when looking into this it worked well and zooming into my face was just a trial, but found that looking closely at emotions helps create different emotions and thoughts for the person watching. In this preliminary task, we zoomed into my face when talking, although this didnt really show any emotion, it was a trial for us and helped us consider using it in our opening sequence.

When filming, me and my group used a tripod, this gave a better effect on the camera as it was kept still and we could move it up, down and side to side easier, for exmaple when filming the panning shot we oplaced the camera on a tripod and moved to round when filming me walking. Although when we filmed over the shoulder shots, the person holding the camera (ollie) held the camera in his hand as it was easier and found it better to get a full picture of the face, although we did find this difficult as the picture wasnt perfect as the camera kept on shaking a little. Although when filming these shots we was careful not to break the 180 rule. The 180 rule means that the camera overlaps when filming and goes past the 'wall', is this rule is broken this is bad when filming and gives the film/shots a bad image. When filming our over the shoulder shots, we had to keep the camera on the same side of our shoulders on me and hannah, this meant that the audience got the same picture when watching the clip.

This preliminary task helped me and my group to see the pros and cons of the techniques we used.  Although, after creating our preliminary task, it helped us research into differenct camera shots and editing techniques that we can use when creating our opening sequence.

advantages we found went well

The first advantage that i felt went well was the panning shot. A panning shot helps show the whole background as the camera moves around slowly. When using our panning shot, the camera followed me round a corridor, this was the first introducing of our charachter. We have discussed and found that we will defiantly use a panning shot in our opening scene and this trial has helped us to see this.

Secondly, i feel when watching back our preliminary task, that the long shot went well. Although this does simliar things to the panning shot, it can also show two or three peoples whole bodies, and in out clip it showed a full conversation and a leaving of a scene. Also, we came to the conclusion that we will use a long shot. Long shots help show the whole scene, and this is good in a thriller film as it can give away clues to the audience and also create tension and suspence.

disadvantages we feel that need changing

The first disadvantage we came to a concluion of was zooming in. Zooming in for our preliminary task didnt go so well, we thought that it would show emotions and facial features. Although we found this didnt really happen. Although we do want to include a zooming in shot in our opening scene, although make sure we research into it properly and use it in the correct places. Zooming in to objects also works well from previous research i and my group have studied. For exmaple a phone ringing, this creares tension and can create the audience to feel nervous, i feel this works well when watching a thriller film.

Watching our preliminary task back helped us to look at mistakes that we made aswell as the pros. A mistake that we made when filiming was leaving the tripod in the background. This was a common mistake and has helped us to realise what little mistakes can be made when filming a short clip.

Overall, creating a preliminary task has helped us to experiment with the camera itself, camera shots and editing styles. The research we had done before creating the short clip helped as we knew what we was doing. Although we used a small amount of editing styles, i feel that we used them well and have learnt from our mistakes. I feel that the disadvantages has helped us correct and look further into research for our opening sequence.