Preliminary Task- Miss Miller

Introduction:

In my group there is Luca Khan, John Mavideniz, Sasha Wallage and Myself. The purpose of the preliminary task is to be able to show our understanding of certain camera movements such as close-up, Mid-shot, Long shot, Panning Shot and Oss. We had to get two people from our group to have a conversation, we made up the narrative for this as it was to demonstrate our understanding of the camera angles that we had to do in our clip we filmed. The sequence was only a minute long with editing we done on the computer, when we edited it we realised that it looks better with special effects which made the clip more realistic and entertaining for the audience. When we quickly edited the scene together we realised that a sequence looks more effective with certain camera movements, it makes the scene more effective to the audience by showing it from different perspectives.

Within our sequence we used certain iconography such as a spanner this was used to portray John (The aggressive boyfriend) in a negative way; the spanner was to show the audience that he is the more dominant character and is violent, this shows the audience this as it made the audience think that he abuses his girlfriend (Sasha). However with other iconography in my sequence it didn't go well with the storyline, so therefore I would change certain iconography in my sequence in further sequences; also the background music towards the end wasn't relevant to the storyline as the soundtrack didn't create tension. Next time I would research popular soundtracks. My group and myself struggled with certain camera angles; as we didn't know where to place the characters due to them being on stage and the Tripod and camera being on the floor which was at an awkward angle to film. However my group and myself did well with deciding on our storyline and what we would need to do to make it look effective such as the weapon that John used to show his violence as a character.

We used a close-up whilst it being hand held when John was getting angry at Sasha when he found out she cheated on him. This was to express to the audience the aggression in his face and make it clear to the audience who was the violent and aggressive one in the scene. The long shot was used at the end of sequence when John realises he hurt Sasha this was to show the audience what was going on in the scene and shows the audience both of their characters body language towards what was going on this was used on the tripod as we had to get the shot precise. The panning shot was used when they was both seated down having a discussion the panning shot goes from Sasha to John this was to show to the audience in slow motion the emotions that they were both feeling and was to create suspension as to what their reactions were; The panning shot was used handheld as it had to be moved from one person to another to create an effect. An over the shoulder shot was used from Sasha's point of view when arguing with John it puts us in her shoes and makes the audience feel sympathy for her, due to her being accused of stuff she hasn't done and being verbally abused by her husband. This was used on a tripod as it would create more of an effect as it would be still and focused on John from Sasha's point of view which will show the audience that this is a serious part of the sequence.

My group together did well as we all agreed on a narrative straight away, which made it easier for us to plan where to use the camera shots/angles. With struggled with the long shot

as we done it on a stage the camera and tripod was on the ground so it look lower when it was suppose to be a long shot. Next time we could do this differently by ensuring the characters and tripod are on the same level. With the opening sequence I feel that a specific soundtrack in the background will help me with my opening sequence as it will create a foreboding atmosphere, for example if I was to have noises in the background whilst the sequence is going on then it would create an enigma as you don't know who is out there and will have the audience thinking who it is; which will engage them more, so within my thriller sequence I will ensure that their will be a specific soundtrack that will help set the atmosphere for my sequence. Looking back on my footage I realised that there was a lot of faults in it such as unnecessary acting, When I begin filming my sequence I will ensure that the camera shots/angles In some parts of the clip there was laughing which needed to be cut out when we began editing our sequence I realised that when we begin film every clip in the sequence is key, so when the filming begins every shot needs to be precise otherwise there will be a lot of work that'll need doing when we begin editing the final project.

When we used an over the shoulder shot we used the tripod this is to show the audience the seriousness of the scene, as it's still and concentrated on one particular thing/person. We did well with filming the close up shots as we had a still camera that got a precise shot of what was going on.  We did particularly well with setting up the tripod as it was simple to set up and wasn't time consuming at all.  As a group, we worked well when setting up the equipment because we knew what to do, as it wasn't a complicated task. When using the camera it was easy for my group and myself to understand how to use it which caused no complications in this process. When filming our close up shots to keep the camera steady we use the zoom in button on the camera which worked well.

My group and myself worked well together as we all discussed on how each camera shot shall be used where in our act we made up; it was easy for us to come together as a group and discuss what needed to be done in order to make a successful preliminary task; we shot everything in time as well which made us have spare time to add on different effects, working as a group made it easier to make up a plot where we could use every camera shot Miss gave us.

When filming our close up shot we stood the tripod still and used the zoom-in button on the camera we done this as it made it look more effective as the camera wasn't moving at all. When filming our panning shot it was a bit complicated as we didn't unattached the tripod making it difficult to carry it around whilst tracking the scene. The long shot was done in a similar way to the close up; but this time we used the zoom out button on the camera to make it look as if it's further away then it originally is. Mid shot was used the same way the close up was used however we didn't zoom in as much as we did with the close-up.

When we put our preliminary task on to the computer we began editing, we had slight problems such as accidentally cutting out parts in our task that we needed which made the preliminary task a tiny bit jumpy when we watched the overall finished one.
 

Overall this helped my planning of my opening sequence as it gave us a clearer idea of what to add for the opening sequence of my thriller film and not what to add; the reasons of doing a practice sequence is to get use to the use of editing after and also get a clearer idea of what camera angles to add and what camera angles not to add. Moreover the sequence was to get a clearer idea of how to film my thriller opening sequence. I've learnt that when I'm filming my thriller opening sequence I need to keep both the tripod and what I'm filming on the same level so it won't be on an awkward angle to film the scene and characters.