Preliminary Excersize Evaluation

The task at hand was to compose and shoot a series of scenes in which a door is opened, a person crosses the room, and exchanges at least four lines of dialogue. Our group was assigned and we set off.

During shooting the obvious starting positions were assigned with focus in mind, we made sure each leg of the tripod was steady, and that the autofocus was working before recording a scene. This made for some quite clear and crisp shots. We also tried to fill up the frames to the rule of thirds, this was difficult at times, as the area in which the camera could be placed was restricted, and so this didn’t always work exactly as we wanted. Such as during the shot reverse shot sequence, the back of my head takes up too much of the camera view. Each subject was clearly visible, and the eye line was kept in mind.

There is one sequence in which Faye is walking down the corridor, however, and during this she walks up to the camera and away at a reverse shot in order to demonstrate the camera ‘going through her’. This went right to the edge of the 180’ rule, and unfortunately didn’t work at all. The fade to black appeared to give the impression that time was passing, which was not the case, and it made the walking sequence far too long.

If any shots could be redone, we agree that the shot in which the camera pans to follow Faye across the room would be re-shot. It looked fairly amateur and she disappeared from the shot completely at one point. This broke the flow and looked very out of place. It displayed the setting well enough, but whilst Faye was the main subject the camera should have just shown a still shot of her walking by, rather than just following in her wake. Also the shot (as previously mentioned) in which Faye walks towards the camera failed to deliver the impact which was originally intended.

In an attempt to improve the ‘walking through the camera’ shot, a fade to clack was inserted that gave an even further poor workmanship impression, and so this would be removed to make the shot a little better.

The match on action is fairly successful, and a sense of fluidity is generally maintained throughout the piece. One aspect, although flawed, worked quite well in my eyes, and that was the door opening scene. It was quick and would have worked better if the handle was at the same point during all shots, as it broke the flow a little, and seemed more of a jump cut.

The shot, reverse shot worked well but didn’t particularly stand out to me. It was smooth enough and worked well, but there were little things such as the positioning of a paper that Faye was holding, which we forgot to take into account, and so broke the illusion when the over the shoulder shot was displayed. The pace was fine and the conversation seemed natural, but a little quiet as I failed to remember that the microphone of a camera alone cannot pick up quiet whispering, as fellow classmates pointed out when watching the sequence.

A couple of shots had objects of different positions about them, and so this seemed unnatural and broke the flow.

The dialogue is appropriate but not clear. The conversation consists of a knock-knock joke being told, but my speech is near whisper volume, and so cannot be heard. There is a lot of fuzz and static as Faye walks down the corridor also, which is unavoidable, but ruins any silence that may have been needed for effect.

The lighting is good apart from the establishing shot. The light glares in from behind Faye from the windows, shifting the point of focus dramatically, and making the room seem much darker than it is in actuality. The background and setting of a school works well as the situation is of two school friends. We didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter as it was to be filmed within school, but simple ideas are often the best, (unfortunately not applying directly in this case).

As a team we all worked well. We had no arguments, problems were resolved, and everyone got an equal share in working on camera or behind the scenes. As well as getting the job done, we had fun in doing so, and this makes the ordeal seem a lot more memorable as our first true technical shoot. It was a good experience and we all contributed to an acceptable result. I enjoyed and took part in the editing most as I’m familiar with its basic ways of working from working with flash, which works in an astoundingly similar manner.

Over all this was a fun experimental piece to take on. In doing so our strengths and weaknesses were brought forward, and we got a taste of working as a group on a project. I look forward very much to future pieces, with the knowledge of what works well, and what doesn’t in mind.