Preliminary Production

Tom R - Preliminary Task 1 from Tom Ryan on Vimeo.

The preliminary production task was to film two characters arranging a meeting over the phone, and then eventually meeting in a scene where shots/reverse shots are used.  The production also includes match on actions, close ups and long shots.  This means I learned different techniques of filming, as well as different angles and ways to position the camera in order, to, for example show continuity between scenes, or avoid reflecting the camera in glass doors.  I also learned the importance of making smooth transitions between shots, such as when someone is walking through a door from the left, in the next shot on the other side of the door they have to be coming from the right

Something that went well in our task was the variety of shots we managed to include.   We used Long-shot and medium shot of characters, match-on-action of people opening and walking through doors, an establishing shot of the school building the scenes were set inside, and shots and reverse shots of dialogue between characters while observing the 180 degree rule.

Our biggest mistake during this task was probably taking too long to get all the shots we needed to.  Doing this meant that some of our clips seemed rushed, and on the first day of filming we originally didn’t have all the clips needed for the film.  Doing the filming over two days also meant that the people who were being filmed were wearing different clothes, resulting in a few continuity errors which would have potentially ruined the film.

The most productive aspect about working in a group was that each member could be delegated their own roles, which were two people filming and two people being in the production.  This meant we could be a bit more time efficient, as well as having more people to give opinions and ensure the filming was done correctly.  The least productive aspect of working in a group was that it can be harder for everyone to understand what the group is intending to do in certain situations, for example which camera angles are going to be used at different times.  The best way to overcome this problem is with better communication within the group.

I was most pleased with being able to use clips which we had recorded ourselves and edit them in Pinnacle Studio, because the fact we had recorded them personally meant we had a better understanding and could therefore use the clips more efficiently.

The tools we used in Pinnacle Studio were originally quite simple, such as splitting and deleting sections of the film to avoid scenes that were too long.  We also learned to transition between scenes in different ways, such as fading the shots together, or using dissolve between shots to show the passing of time, or a change in location.

I was most pleased about the production with regard to filming and editing the match on action shots for the production.  I think our group did well to record the ‘same’ occurrence from different angles and manage to get a smooth cut from one angle to the next through editing.