Planning - Preliminary Task - Mr Smith

Purpose of a Preliminary Task
The purpose of the preliminary task is to give us a taster of a simple 30 second scene filmed and edited by ourselves. This is so we can have a flavour of the work we have to do before we start our thriller openings. This is also to show us what we need to do to improve and create in our thriller openings. Also, this allowed us to see what the roles in the production consists of and how hard the job is. The preliminary task also taught us how to share roles out.

 

The Scenario
The scenario in our preliminary task was two girls talking about a party coming up. One of the girls invites her friend to come along to the party with her but she doesn't seem to want to go. In the conversation, shot reverse shot is used to show the 2 girls having a conversation clearly. One of the girls say something offence to her friend and this makes a reaction shot to convey the emotion on her face.  Long shot was used when both characters were travelling towards and away from the scene. In the editing process, we used a fade from one scene to another to show continuity. At the end of the scene we used a fade to black to show the scene coming to an end.

Group Roles
In our group we shared the roles out fairly:

Director - Katie.
Katie was director because she has very good leadership skills.
Camera Operator - Emine.
Emine was camera operator because she has experience in filming and holding the camera.
Editor: Emine and Carlie.
Emine and Carlie both edited as they have some experience in using the editing software.

Difficulties Encountered Whilst Filming
Difficulties whilst filming was the continuity in the scene, for example, in the last shot a chair is in show, when it wasn't there before.

Difficulties Encountered Whilst Editing
We found editing quite hard as the majority of the group because we haven't got much experience in the editing room. We had to figure out how to cut shot sizes and how to add effects. We was all new to the software (except for Emine) but still got the hang of things on the computer and was learning new skills off of each other whilst editing the preliminary task.

What Have I Learned?
I have learnt how to use the software for editing in the editing room, whilst learning new skills on the computer. Also, I learnt how to vary in shots for filming to show different angles of a film. Another thing I learned was what shots fitted best in particular scenes and the reasons for movement/angles.

Conclusion: How Has The Task Beneficial?
The preliminary task was beneficial for my group because it gave us a taster of what its like to shoot a scene with all the filming techniques and how to operate the camera properly. Also, this helped us understand the process and how hard it is to get every shot correctly and the meaning of taking repeated shots to have a multiple choice in the editing room. This saves time in the process of filming the actual thriller opening because we have already practiced the filming process beforehand.