Preliminary Task - Planning
The first practical element of this course is our preliminary task, where we have to work in our group (Skye, Jess and I) to produce a short film to show that we understand and can perform a range of different camera shots, can edit the clips together smoothly and create a good final piece.
Our original ideas included:
> 1. Someone being kidnapped
> 2. Someone walking into a room
> 3. Someone playing basketball
> 4. Someone entering a lift
1. Too complicated
2. Too basic
3. Our best idea
4. Too basic
In the end we settled for the idea of someone playing basketball as it was an original idea and would be a great way to include the following:
> Slow motion shot
> Close up shot
> Low angle shot
> Wide angle shot
> Non-digetic sound
> Dialogue
Next we move onto...
Preliminary Task - Filming
The filming of our preliminary task marked the beginning of the practical side of this course, and it was an eventful start! To begin with, it took us the best part of 45 minutes to figure how the equipment worked before we could start filming, but once we had this sorted we were good to go. Another issue we encountered was that the location we had originally planned to film in was already occupied, so we had to find a plan B. Luckily, there is a tennis court outside which has netball hoops so we managed to avoid a crisis.
An accurate representation of my groups feelings when faced with the task of figuring out how to work a basic video camera for the first time...
Once we got started filming, we had to make sure we did not break the 180 degree rule, and ensure all of the camera angles we had planned for each
shot worked out. Halfway through filming, however, our camera battery ran out before we could grab the last few shots. This meant that we needed to go and charge the camera for a while, but needed to keep the tripod angled at the net so that we didn't change the angle.
After a rough start we got back on track and our filming was successful. We managed to get all the shots we needed and we are now ready for editing!
Some behind-the-scenes photos from the filming process.
Preliminary Task - Final Edit
After spending around 5 hours on planning, filming and editing our final piece is finally complete! We managed to include everything we needed to and we're extremely pleased with the outcome, so we hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed creating it!