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.