Preliminary Task Video

Preliminary Task Lesson Four- Editing

In today's lesson I thought that the footage we filmed last lesson was a waste of time so we tried capturing the original footage again but with no success. However we then tried capturing it straight from the camera rather than putting the tape in the capture machine and it worked! When we started to edit, the seperate clips didn't seem to play which frustrated the group as it appeared to be another problem but it was sorted out quickly when we restarted the program. The first part of editing is quite time consuming and boring- searching through all the clips and naming them. We had to delete a lot as we had lots of cuts with mistakes or versions that we filmed over and over again- which was probably unneccessary. After a while when we plugged the headphones in to listen to our chosen clips the sound didn't work. This seemed to be because we captured from a different camera to the one we used when filming- so we had to start from the beginning which was annoying after we spend the time searching through the clips. It wasn't too bad as the organising did not take too long. I found the editing software easy and enjoyable to use and liked cutting the unneccessary parts of each clip off and putting it together on the timeline. It is satisfying after a few tries to see that footage flows well together. It was good to experiment with the different angles you could use and I think when we filmed it was a good decision of the group to film the same lines from different perspectives. Once we started editing for the second time we did not encounter any problems and it was an enjoyable process even if it can be trial and error. I think I should have let the other members of the group do more but everyone put there ideas and suggestions in so we worked well. Even though there are things about it that could be better I am proud of the end result after all those problems. Overall, this was a good lesson as we were able to overcome the problems and work well to get the task finished and as such is a good quality practice task.

Preliminary Task Lesson Three (25/1/10)

In this lesson the group hoped to start editing however as we began to capture our footage to Adobe Premier Pro we encountered a problem. The footage was working on the camera and on the computer before we captured but once it was captured a few shot were shown but then it went blank for the rest of it. None of us knew why this happened because when we were filming we didn't do anything wrong to cause it. We tried it a couple more times but it didn't seem like it was going to work so we decided we would film it again on a different tape. Although this was frustrating it would allow us to make it better with more shots, angles and movements.

However we did not really make things better. We couldn't get the same room as there was a class in there and the one we were in was a little cramped. We found we could not do the first shot which was outside the room because there was noise from another class and the scene was not suitable to have music put over it as its too short. Although some of the shots were better the room was not the same and was to close to get good angles or pans without schopping parts of the body off. We did not get a lot of filming done because we kept swapping who was acting and filming and I was very picky about the shots which wasted time. Overall, not a good lesson and we are in a bad position for the next.

Storyboard

This is the storyboard for our Preliminary Task.

Planning Sheet

This is the planning sheet for the task.

Preliminary Task Lesson Two- Filming

In this lesson the group got started on filming for the preliminary task and did this throughout the lesson. I found how difficult it must be to be a cameraman as there is alot to think about and it is easy forget tasks like setting the white balance. The tri-pod we used was broke and this meant we could not create any pans or tilts without the top falling off. Although we got the filming done we did a lot of takes of the same sequences which were only seconds long- this was due to the person filming which was sometimes me making mistakes or ending up with bad footage. People laughing and forgetting what to say also delayed but we did get all of it done. The group worked well together but I think the footage could be better with more camera shots, angles and movements however the movements could not really be helped but overall the quality could have been better.

Preliminary Task Lesson One- Planning

At the start of the second lesson the class watched a video clip on how to effectively use shot/ reverse shot in a scene. This told me that shot/ reverse shot is used most commonly when two characters engage in dialogue and the camera cuts between the two people. The clip was helpful as I learnt that the shots that should be used when using shot/ reverse shot are (in order) an establishing shot (most likely a two shot), a mid- shot, an over the shoulder shot and a close up. A close up should be used last to show the reaction a character has following the dialogue. This information is useful to my group as we will use these ideas when filming the sequence for our preliminary task.
The group continued to work on planning our sequence for the preliminary task and the video clip helped our ideas to be more focused- particularly on what we had to do, which is to have a character approach and open a door before sitting down with a second character and exchanging a few lines of dialogue how we are going to do it. As although it seems simple there are many possible ways to film it. We focused on continuity and as we started to fill out the storyboard we used my phone to practice the shots rather than struggle to visualise them in our head. On our final attempt we filmed the door before Alex approaches it then move to a shot from the other side of the door as she opens it and walked in. The transition was smooth and quite effective. I would upload the video however the format does not match they type blogger shows.

The First Lesson

After being introduced to the coursework the class was divided into groups for the preliminary task. My group consists of me, Alex and Daniel. For the rest of this lesson we started to discuss ideas for the preliminary tasks. We decided that the shots that we felt should be in the scene were an establishing shot/ reverse shot, two shot, close up, over the shoulder and mid- shot. Due to the limited time left in the lesson the group did not discuss any other ideas. The plan will be scanned into my blog when it is completed.