Preliminary Task Evaluation

Preliminary Task Evaluation

In my Preliminary task, the camera shots and angles worked well together, especially the shot reverse shots. When watching the footage the shot cuts from one to the other very smoothly, this allows the viewer to see each character, their response and reaction. I was really happy with how smoothly the camera shots ran. The camera was hand held as it tracked the main character down the corridor, which could have made the shot shaky. In this case that did not happen and was a big benefit as it made the footage look accurate and focused on the main character. Another thing that worked well was how the 180 degree rule was not broken, this is shown in my footage as the camera stays on one side of the characters at all times. It makes it clear for the viewers to see where the characters are placed in the scene, which is very important as its not confusing. As the main character walks down the stairs there's a close up of her shoes, this worked well as it fitted in with the other shots on the stairs, even though it was filmed separately. When you watch the footage it looks like a continuous shot when its not, this keeps the viewers engaged. Throughout the first section of the footage the main characters face is not shown, only when she walks through the second door do you see her face. This was intended as I wanted to build suspense and tension, that's why the first section is made of long shots, mid shots and close ups, which all worked really well. Altogether, I think my whole group worked as a team and came up with some great ideas such as the footage being of an interrogation, which is very interesting to watch, and fits in with the types of shots and angles we needed to use.

Shot Reverse Shot

Shot Reverse Shot 

Close up of shoes 

180 Degree Rule

However, there were some things that did not work well. One of them was that in the footage there is no visual of the main character sitting down once she has entered the room. The shot cuts from when she enters through the door to her already sitting down in front of the other character. This is because it was not filmed as it was forgotten. My group didn't actually put this shot in the storyboard, even though we discussed it, because we agreed that we would film it. This doesn't work well in the footage as when viewers watch it they will see the editing, which will pull them out of the footage and confuse them. Match on action is another technique that was shown in my footage, this is used to show continuous action being matched in two separate shots put together. I thought I could improve the match on action because I'm walking through the door at a  slower pace than when I walk through the other side. This looks a bit odd in the footage, but is then only a very small problem. My group did have some technical issues, when filming as the camera ran out of battery, but apart from that everything went well.

Character already sat down

No visual of the character sitting down in the shot, 

as it goes form this shot to the shot shown 

on the right

Match on action

Match on action

Overall in order to do well in my main coursework piece I will need to make some improvements. This will include checking that the battery is charged before I use the camera, to avoid any technical issues, otherwise it will be time consuming. Another one would be camera work, to try and not forget to film a critical shot that might disengage the viewer from the footage and confuse them. By including key shots in the storyboard will ensure they are not overlooked. Lastly, would be to make sure that the character walks at the same pace when taking a match on action shot, as this would make it easier for when it comes to editing, it won't look odd when you watch it back. Apart from that I think the footage looks really good and suspenseful hence the dramatic music in it.