Preliminary Task - Filming Evaluation

Preliminary Task - Filming Evaluation 

Our Brief: 

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character:

- opening a door
- crossing a room
- sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue 

This task should demonstrate:

- match on action
- shot/reverse shot
- 180 degree rule
- over-the-shoulder shot

On the day of filming, we got our story board and found a spare classroom to film the first few shots of our sequence in. The shots we filmed in this classroom were:

• shots of the clock on the wall which would be used to show time passing
• close up shots of Dave looking anxious and agitated because he has a craving 
• extreme close ups of mine and Dave holding our mobile phones as messages came through
• shot reverse shot of me and Tia having a conversation which is also all over-the-shoulder shot
• close ups and extreme close ups of mine and Dave's faces/eyes for our fast-paced editing to the beat of the Eastender's theme tune to create suspense between the two characters 
• shot of Dave slipping out of his chair and under the desk
• shot of Dave crawling under the desk towards the camera 
• shot of Dave forward-rolling out of the door, creating a comical effect

These were just two examples of the over-the-shoulder, shot-reverse shot as well as being part of the brief that we had to include a conversation with two people sitting at a desk.

This was the shot that we got of Dave crawling towards the camera as he is trying to escape from the room. If we were to do this shot again, I would have also have liked to have filmed from a side-ways angle to show him crawling under the desk and then cut between the two points of view.


After we had finished all these shots, we very quickly watched the footage back to ensure it had all recorded and also that it was good quality and usable. We then took our tripod and moved into the corridor to continue filming:

• Dave running down the corridor and then slapping into the wall when Charley has appeared round the corner
• a close up shot of Dave hiding into the wall and then another long shot showing Charley turn round and walk the other way
• a shot of Dave peeping round the pillar and then moving back in slowly
• shot of Dave sliding down the banisters and also running quickly down the stairs

Again, we checked the footage and decided that we wanted to re-film the clip of him peeping in and out of the pillar and actually have him peep out and then run past the camera as we thought this would flow better in the editing. After this we moved outside to film our long shot of Dave crossing buildings. Because we were not allowed to have other students get in the back of our shots, I had to ask them to move so they wouldn't get in the frame. We then set up a tripod and Dave ran out of one door of one building and then we panned the camera smoothly so we could get the sprint in one shot. By this time, we had to go to our lesson and pick it back up at lunch time. 

 

This was the long shot pan that we got of Dave running across the school grounds. We were going to put this into slow-motion but after having tried it, the group preferred it at it's normal speed as it fitted with the music more.

We decided to film in the library first because we had asked the librarian to high-five Dave as he walked into the library. Mr Chaplin agreed and so we got a shot of Dave walking through the double doors and then giving Mr Chaplin a high-five and walking past the camera. This shot worked really well, however if we were to do it again, we could have got a close up of the high-five and also more camera angles of Dave walking through the door so that it could have been match-on-action.

After this we got a shot of Dave walking towards the aisle which had the mints in. He got the song, that we knew we were going to edit to, on his phone, so he could walk in time to the beat. There were some issues in filming in the library at lunch because it was very busy and there were constantly people walking through so we quite often had to re-film parts which included people walking through the background in. This was quite time-consuming which meant that some of the shots were rushed. If we were to do it again, we would have filmed the library shots during the lesson so all the other students would have been in lesson too. This would have meant that the shots would have been of better quality because we wouldn't have been so limited to a time-frame. An example of when our timings impacted the quality of our sequence was when Dave was walking out of the library. By this point, it was nearly the end of lunch, so we didn't check the lighting on the camera and this resulted in it being too dark.

Part of our concept to the plot, was that the ending would be like an advert to again add humour and also another dimension to the sequence. We had a very long zoom of Dave holding up the pack of Mentos which he had been craving all the way through. To make it funny, the frame lasted quite a long time with Dave just awkwardly smiling into the camera, which was a bit shaky and unfocussed too which helped with the awkwardness and deliberate unprofessionalism of it.

 

It was at this point that we felt we should change our story board's ending. Originally, we wanted Tia to rugby-tackle Dave, but when we were actually there in the library, it seemed unpractical and Dave came up with a new ending which we all preferred anyway. Since Mr Chaplin had so kindly agreed to be part of the video, Dave asked him if it would be alright if he could flick a Mento to him as he left the library. Mr Chaplin agreed, so we did two takes of this shot; one of Mr Chaplin catching the mint and an extreme close up of Dave flicking it off his hand to him.

We then just had the final few continuity shots that showed Dave's progression to the library to film and this was even trickier than the library because it was right at the end of lunch when everyone was using the main stair-case. It took a while for everyone to clear but once they did we filmed the last few shots. Looking back on the footage, there's a continuity error with the placement of Dave's tie either being over his shoulder or hanging in it's normal place, so we should have really re-filmed that part. Having said this, the lighting in this was really good because it was right by a window and there was also a light above Dave and the camera so the quality of footage was a pretty good standard.

 

Overall, we were happy with the footage we managed to obtain and it was good enough that we could make an understandable and humorous preliminary video which included all the compulsories.