Preliminary Task

For the Prelim task me and my group decided on a small scenario where a student enters a room to speak with a teacher about coursework. I was chosen to play the role of the student. We decided on this small scenario since it is simple enough and works with the classroom environment that we were filming in, also it allows us to in cooperate the three rules of the Prelim task easily without the whole shoot becoming to over complicated.

The three rules we had to stick to were;

1. The 180-degree rule: the 180° rule is a basic guideline that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. 
2. The Shot/Reverse Shot - is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other. This helps in creating the idea that a conversation is taking place. 
3. Match on Action: Match on action is an editing technique for continuity editing where one shot cuts to another shot, this creates the impression of continuity. So viewers cannot tell that the different parts of the film are cut into separate shots, the match on action technique makes it look flowing and continuous, drawing people away from the subtle hits that a shot has just changed. 

From this task I learnt the basics of film making, I learnt to work around the set and the actors and to adhere to the most basic rules of film making. After the final edit was created, we took a final look at our Prelim film and decided on three areas that we could improve on that would help us create better films in the future.




These improvements are;



Use different camera angels- Our Prelim task was very basic, we just position the camera so it was looking straight forward to capture the action that was taking place. Though this is a good usage of the camera in film making, being more diverse with our camera angels would of improved the quality of our Prelim task.
Use different camera shots- We used the basic Medium Head shot in our Prelim task and a wide shot to cover the character walking across the room. If we had used more shots and camera tricks such as panning and zooming it would of given our Prelim Task more of a professional feel to it.
Set Arrangement - Even though the classroom we filmed in did suit the feel of our teacher/student conversation. We had a lot of difficulty getting the shots we wanted due to the set out of the classroom. We realized that if we had taken the time to stop and rearrange the set it would of helped making the filming process easier.