Preliminary task

By Annie Roebuck

BriefFor the preliminary exercise we had to create a really short clip involving two characters having a conversation. One had to enter the room, sit, speak and then leave the room again. It is a basic brief and we had to create it quite quickly. The clip had to involve basic media aspects such as 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and match on action.

The main task we had to create a fictional film story line and create the first two minutes. It couldn’t be longer than two minutes or shorter. The first two minutes had to involve titles.

Shot reverse shotShot reverse shot is the main aspect used in a typical conversation so we created this in the preliminary task.

After learning how to do this we then did it in our two minute film on several different occasions. I think that doing a preliminary task helped us because we knew what to do and where to place the camera. It helped us to understand how these shots were filmed.

180 degree rule Preliminary:

2 Minute film:

After doing a 180 degree rule in the first task we were able to move forward with ideas for a 180 degree rule. It is used to establish a scene so in our two minute film we wanted to try something a little different from what happened in the preliminary. We decided not the focus on Violet and Lucas but to focus on the tree in front of them. This shot was used to indicate something is wrong and it is focussed in the opposite way to what it should be to. I think this shot was successful because it looks distorted and unusual and it needed to be to lead onto the creepy conversation that goes on between the two characters.

Match on actionOn the preliminary we used a match on action that involved a character walking through a door. It is a simple and easy match on action to so and doing this in this first task helped us to move onto and create different, more advanced match on actions in our two minute film.

I think that doing a preliminary exercise gave us the confidence to go on to create a two minute film because we learnt how to use a camera and what works best when it comes to actually filming. It gave us a lot of knowledge as to what aspects to consider when producing our final film as well. I think that our final film would have been harder if we hadn’t filmed something already because it helped me to notice small things that I wouldn’t have noticed if the preliminary exercise hadn't been under taken.