Preliminary Task Evaluation

Preliminary Task Evaluation - Friday 21st September.

        Last Friday we split into groups to film our preliminary task, this worked with a basic set script was then left to our own devise. My group included Maggie Campbell, Georgia Powell, Simon Sandved Smith, Leile Toulmin and I. We decided to have a mysterious sequence, leaving the audience with a cliffhanger. We decided that we would have one of our characters (Georgia) pacing up and down looking nervous. Our other character (Leila) would then storm in and throw a gun into Georgia's chest telling her to 'Do It... Go On Do It' with Georgia replying 'I can't!'. We ended the preliminary task mysteriously as Leila storms out with the gun claiming 'I won't wait for you' and after a few seconds pause Georgia runs afterwards yelling 'Wait!'. This would leave the audience in wonder as to why they had the gun and what they were planning to do with the gun. During the filming process Maggie was the director, Simon was the camerman, Georgia and Leila were the actors and I was the continuity girl. This involved me putting markers on the floor for where the actors should be standing at different times and making sure that the gun was held with the same hand in the same position. If these things were not the same then the footage would look unprofessional.

                 I really enjoyed all the filming and the camera work, it was quite hard to remember about all the precautions we had to do before filming, for example bubbling the camera everytime it was moved. We made sure to stick to the 180 degree rule (as previosuly described). We first filmed the wide shot, filming it a few times just to make sure we had plenty of options for later when editing. We then followed with doing over the shoulder shots (making sure we stuck to the 180 degree rule) from both of the actors perspectives. For some variety we then did close ups of both actors faces which could then be useful for cutting between during the conversation. We did a close up of the gun being passed over to Georgia and slammed into her chest and then a close up of the gun being passed back to Leila. We filmed the door as Leila left with the gun and the door closed slowly. We did an extreme close up of Leila's face saying her last line 'I won't wait for you'. We filmed georgia's hair flick as Leila walked into the room, showing Georgia's nervousness. We were going to film Georgia's pacing feet but then we ran out of time which is a shame. I learnt about how long it must take to film a movie as it took an hour to film what will become a 30 second sequence. Out of all the filming, the thing I liked the least was the amount of time it took and our communication was a bit difficult as we all had ideas and talked over each other and we were a bit pressured for time. We filmed it in the editing suite, a room with many computers.

I think our group worked quite productively together, we had moments where we didn't get anything done due to talking or lack of communication or when we disagreed with ideas. I would say that everyone contributed together quite effectively and had ideas. I think I could have contributed more. I would have preferred to have done some more camera work. If I had the chance to do it again I would shoot Leila walking into the room and Georgia's pacing so we could have two sets of feet. I would also have a close up of Leila's lips saying the final words to make it more meaningful and dramatic. Our choice of prop definitely affected our sequence of shots as without a gun we would have used a completely different prop and the shots wouldn't have the same effect if it was done with a pencil case. The gun creates drama and intrigues the audience almost immediately because the gun brings a sense of death, destruction and crime. I don't think that the location would affect our sequence of shots in any big way as it is an everyday location. However if we could have done the sequence in a back alley then it would have added to the mystery and would have fitted more with the storyline that the gun itself creates. We definitely shot more additional shots, we chose to shoot close ups of Leila's face, Georgia's face, the door being opened and closed and the gun being passed back and forth. This was done so that the final piece is more interesting and the audience knows exactly what they are supposed to be looking at. It gives our preliminary task some diversity and originality. I managed continuity which is very important and helped with moving the camera around but hopefully next time I will be able to do more filming and camerawork itself. Overall I really enjoyed it and I can't wait until we film our Thrillers.