Story Board- P- EXAM

Story board
                                               

Pleminary exercise- Evaluation

                                                      Pleminary exercise- Evaluation


Our film was a brief conversation with two students which lasted no longer than 2 minutes. The video demonstrated the 180 degree line, shot reverse shot and match on action.

 Firstly, we had to make sure that we followed the rule of 180 degree line. This is where you film only one side of the room, making sure you do not cross the line. This prevents the film having low continuity so it flows smoothly. Next, is the match on action. A match on action shot is used to help the film flow continuously by placing two shots together, it also creates a visual bridge which draws the viewers attention away from slight cutting or continuity editing. Finally, we have shot reverse shot, this is where we see two people conversing together. The camera is placed behind one persons shoulder so the other person becomes the subject and we can focus on them talking and see their response. The camera then switches to the other persons shoulder therefore we can then see the response of the other person.

Before we shot our film we had to prepare and organise our self's to ensure that we fully understood what we were going to do. We created a short, brief script of a conversation between two people so that it was easy to remember and could therefore focus on shooting our film. We also created a story board. We did this so we could plan out the film and the camera angles we were going to use and were familiar with what to do. Finally, we choose a suitable location in the college building to shoot our short film. Also, we carried out a thorough risk assessment to ensure there was no potential hazards. Then, we were ready to film.

We used a camera and a tripod to ensure that camera was steady and the shots flowed smoothly. Our first shot was a long shot of me walking down the corridor, putting my hand out for the door, opening it and walking in. The camera was placed on the tripod and was positioned so that you could see both myself walking down the corridor and a full view of the door I was about to enter. The next shot was a close up of my hand pushing down onto the handle and opening the door and walking in. Then, the next shot was again a long shot but this time filmed from inside the room and showed me walking in, sitting down and the door closing behind me. This shot showed difficulty when filming as the door had to be open at a certain point when I was walking in in order for it to flow smoothly from the close up shot and to demonstrated match on action. Our next shot was a medium shot of myself and demi having a conversation. This meant that myself and demi had to learn our lines in one go. This was quite difficult and time consuming as we had to repeat the script until we got it right. After we completed this particular shot, we then moved on to filming our shot reverse shot. Firstly behind Demi's shoulder making me the subject then behind my shoulder making Demi the subject. We had to again, run through the whole script at both sides, ensuring me made no mistakes. We managed to complete the film in the required time.

We then moved on to editing our film using Final Cut express. Due to us being unfamiliar with the software, we experienced some slight complications. But we soon got the hang of it and felt confident and comfortable using it. Firstly, we cut the long shot of myself walking down the corridor as it was too long and we needed to make it flow smoothly with the next shot which was a close up of myself opening the door. This made the match on action flow continually. The next shot we used was the shot where I walked in and sat down. This shot proved difficult when editing because we had to ensure that the door matched the close up shot and wasn't opened too much. We managed to edit it so it looked smooth and continuous. We then cut the mid shots and shot reverse shots so the conversation flowed smoothly this increased the continuity of the film. When this process was completed, we proceeded to adding a title to the beginning of the page and the names of the people who created it. We also added a fade in at the start and a fade out at the end of the film in order to make it look more professional.

In our film, we were able to demonstrated the 180 degree line rule as during the shot reverse shot, we did not cross to the other side off the room and marked out points in which we could not go beyond.
We also successfully filmed a shot reverse shot as filming over the shoulder shots of both me and Demi. This showed clearly our responses clearly and the viewer's were able to see which of us was the subject. Finally, we included match on action which was demonstrated when I opened the door and walked in.


                                                       Match on Action shots

 

Shot reverse shot and 180 degree line

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Character profile 2

Character profile 2- Jessica Shutt

Name: Jessica Shutt
Age:16
Occupation: Student
Character Traits: Jess has long brown hair and green eyes. She wears plain, casual clothes and dramatic makeup. She is enthusiastic, bubbly, hard working and sociable. Jess walks in the room to talk with demi about her homework.

Character profile 1

Character profile 1- Demi Cash

Name: Demi Cash
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Character Traits: Demi has long blonde hair, green eyes and  dresses smart/casual. Demi wears subtle makeup and a nose ring. She's clever, dedicated, hard working, enthusiastic and sociable. Demi's texting when jess enters the room.

Preliminary Exercise –Evaluation

Our brief was to film a conversation between two people for a duration of no longer than two minutes which demonstrated shot reverse shot, match on action and the rule of the 180 degree line.

We had to ensure that our film demonstrated 3 types of filming techniques: Match on action, Shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree line rule. Match on action is useful as it involves making sure the film has high continuity, by making sure different shots flow together. Shot reverse shot was also included in our film. This is when you see two people conversing with each other separately, so we can see both parties talking one after the other. We also stuck to the rule of the 180 degree line. This is when you make sure you only film from one side of the room, ensuring that you don’t cross the line when filming your next shots. If you do this, it can make your film have low continuity.

Before we shot our film, we had to put certain measures in place to make sure our film could be shot more easily and concisely. Firstly we devised a script in which we learnt before we shot the film. We made the script as basic and memorable as possible, to make our film easier to shoot. We also designed storyboards to give us a basic idea of how we wanted our film to look and which points we were going to shoot from. We also researched the different filming techniques that we were advised to use in our film, so we were clearer on what we were being asked to do. Lastly, we had to ensure that the room we chose to shot our film in was safe to shoot in and there were no potential hazards, so we carried out a risk assessment. Then we were ready to film.

We used a camera and a tripod to shoot our film in order to keep the camera steady and to ensure the shots were smooth and easy on the eye. Our first shot consisted of a long shot of Jess walking down a corridor and reaching out for the door handle, and walking through the door. We then did a close up on Jess pushing down on the door handle and opening the door. The next shot was another long shot, which showed Jess walking inside of the room and sitting down. This shot produced some difficulty in our filming, as Jess had to hold the door open, wait for the door to fall to a certain point and then walk into the room. We had to do this to ensure our shot was continuous and to demonstrate match on action. The conversation between Jess and I was then shot all the way through in medium close up shot. Although this meant we had to learn all of our lines in one go, which was proven difficult, we managed to complete this in a suitable amount of time. We then went on to film into shot reverse shot, firstly onto Jess, and then onto me. This was repeated a couple more times, until almost the end of the conversation. The last line was shot as a long shot, as it is a reminder of the sense of place and that both people are at the scene. We managed to shoot the film in the time required by Simon, our tutor.

We then edited our film using Final Cut Express to ensure our film demonstrated the filming techniques required and to make sure our film was continuous. We had some complications at first due to being unfamiliar with the software, but we eventually managed to grasp the concept of it. We cut our first shot of Jess walking down the corridor to make it shorter as the length of the shot was unnecessarily long. We also cut it to make it flow more effectively with the next shot of the close up of the door handle. The shot, which followed after the door handle shot, had to be cut as despite our efforts to increase the continuity of it when we originally filmed it. Although this was difficult, we managed to ensure that the two shots were consistent with each other. Then throughout our film, other parts of shots were cut down, in order to either decrease the length of the shot or to increase the continuity in the film. When this was completed, we added a title page at the beginning showing what our film was for and the names of the people in our group. We also added a fade in effect in the beginning and a fade out effect in the end.

Our film was successful in demonstrating the three filming techniques we had to include in our film: 180-degree line, Shot-reverse-shot and match on action. We managed to demonstrate the 180 degree line as we did not cross to film from the other side of the room throughout the film. We also demonstrated shot-reverse-shot by doing over the shoulder shots of both me and Jess, one after the other as each line was said. We also included match on action, which was demonstrated when Jess opened the door.

Evaluation of short film

Evaluation

My brief was to film a short conversation between two people that lasted for a duration of no longer then two minutes.  The film had to include a demonstration of shot reverse shot, match on action and the rule of the 180-degree line.

A shot reverse shot is used during the two conversations. The camera is placed behind the opposite persons shoulder to who is speaking so that we can see who is speaking and who is listening. The camera then goes behind the other persons shoulder once they start speaking.  A match on action shot is used to help the film flow continuously by placing two shots together. The 180-degree line rule is keeping the camera to one side of the room and not crossing it. This is to stop the film from having low continuity so it flows smoothly and also doesn’t confuse the viewer.

To plan our film, we first started by creating a script and a storyboard. This is to assure we knew what was going to be said in the film and what shots needed to be filmed. We also found an appropriate location in the college building to film our piece and wrote down a shot list to follow through and help us when filming. Last we took a risk assessment of the room to minimize and potential hazards.

We filmed our piece using a video camera and tripod to keep the film steady. We started by filming a long shot of Jess walking down the corridor, grabbing onto the door handle and stepping inside the room. Our next shot was a close up of her then grabbing onto the door handle, opening the door and stepping inside. The next shot we took was a long shot of her walking into the room with the door closing and her sitting down. We had a problem with this shot as the door had to already be open when walking through it so Jess had to push the door to the wall, let it fall and then start walking into the room. Our next shot was a mid shot of both Jess and Demi having their conversation all the way through. We then went onto filming the shot reverse shots, one of Demi and one of Jess, of their conversation all the way through. We had to constantly change the tripod size all the way through filming as different shots required different heights as we didn’t want to make them high angle or low angle.

We then went on to editing the film using final cut express. We first found it difficult due to not being familiar with the software but soon got the hang of it. We cut the first film we did of Jess walking down the corridor so it would flow continually with the second shot of her grabbing onto the door handle. We cut that shot after she had opened the door but before she walked into the door. We then next included the shot of Jess walking in and sitting down. We had trouble cutting this as despite filming it with the door falling, the shots didn’t flow once put together. However, we fixed this with editing as we made it look like the door was falling behind her.  We then added the mid shot of them starting the conversation together and once Demi and Jess had both said their first lines we started including the shot reverse shots. We did this by editing the films so that when they said their own lines the shot reverse shot was on them speaking. We then went on to adding a title page and a fade in and out at the start of the film and the end. This makes the whole film flow even smoother and look more professional.

We were able to demonstrate the three different requirements through our films. We showed the rule of the 180-degree line as during the shot reverse shots we kept the camera on the same opposite shoulder. Also, on the mid shot of both Jess and Demi at the start of the conversation, the camera was kept behind the same shoulder that the camera was placed behind. The shot reverse shots were shown when the camera was placed behind Jess or Demi’s shoulder and the opposite person was talking.  This was to show their facial expression and show which of them was talking.  We showed that we did match on action as when we did filming, we did 3 steps forward and 2 step back. This was shown when we filmed Jess grabbing onto the door handle and then walking straight through the door, but when we edited it we shorted it down to her grabbing onto the handle and opening the door, but cut out her walking through it.

Match on action shot between 2 shots below

180 degree line rule and shot reverse shots below

shots for evaluation