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Prelim Task AS Media Studies, King Alfreds.

Screen shots of filming before the main action.

Storyboard of prelim task.

Prelim Report

Our main idea for the prelim report was to do an action type thriller. We thought that this was the best option for our group as we felt that the task would be simple and a lot more creative for us all. We based our film on an intense scene with two people. The introduction to the second character starts with a sentence of, 'Why are you here' then the first character being Dom replying with 'You know why I'm here', Our purpose of this selected dialogue is to create a sudden confusion to the audience but also an interest where the viewer WANTS to know what's been going on. Before this scene, we filmed the first character (Dom)  walking to the main action which ends with a sudden twist as the first character is out for revenge but ends up being shot by the second character (Josh).

In our storyboard, we had ideas of different shots and techniques used for each scene however, we didn't really stick to this as we ended up jumbling all the shots around. On our storyboard, we had at least 9/10 scenes but when filming and editing it expanded to at least 12 possibly 13. The storyboard was a good planning process as it gave us the idea on how one scene can blend in with another and also with how it could look on screen. We did stick with the basis of the storyboard but with a few changes here and there.

In our prelim, I was honestly proud with my group and their performance. Although there were a few complications and minor disagreements. We as a group all feel that the ending is the most perfect way to end a scene as we used the effect of Cross Dissolve which separates our last frame/clip to the credits. The effectiveness of this Cross Dissolve is to create a dramatic yet silencing vibe to the viewer because, the clip just before shows a scene where Josh shoots Dom and there is an instant reply (50%) edit used for just that one scene. This has the impression that the scene is more significant in order for the viewer to have another view of the action.

Another thing that went well with our preliminary filming is that we used a huge range of shots to keep the viewer interested. We've ranged from Establishing Shot, Extreme Close Up, Close up, Medium Close up, Long shot etc...This allows the viewer to not feel restricted to the same shot throughout a film because our main purpose is to make the viewer be interested. We made sure that all rules and shots were used to keep the viewer happy and focused.

We have learnt many valuable things during our planning, filming and editing which were that when we are planning we don't want to over complicate with our ideas, keeping it simple was the main key. Our idea included originality with a twist of our own ideas which we felt it was a lot more effective than the other ideas that we could of come up with.

During our filming, Continuity was very important as this would of affected us later on with editing. We as a group did not share the responsibility of the camera (Mutual decision) because we didn't want to mess with the continuity. After a lot of drama with a tripod we were able to do our filming and managed to do every shot which was planned, we included many camera techniques within our entire filming such as: the 180 degree rule, Shot reverse shot, Eyeline match and Match on action. The 180 degree rule was crucial for us to include because the main scene included two characters conversing. This gave us a bigger understanding of when the shot should be used.
Lastly, the editing, which was easy for myself as I'm familiar with Apple Mac and iMovie, however the rest of my group did not have as much knowledge for the editing program,  which meant  teaching my group about all the understandings of every transitions, effects and cutting. In the end, we got it done after the minor complications which we also have learnt that LIGHTING is important! Because, when we shot our film in the school hall, on the camera the whole clip looks reasonably bright however, that was not the case as when adding it to iMovie, it was too dark to even see the characters which meant that a lot of editing had to be done to it such as: Changing it to Black and White because the colour quality of the other changes wouldn't of made it unrealistic, we also had to changed the brightness and the contrast.
We also included many sound effects such as a Gun fire music clip to emphasise the dramatic scene and also an Incidental music clip of the Godfather theme tune to create intensity and throughout the film. We made sure that the music clip did not overlay with the characters speech.

We managed to start and finish our clip in the space of 1 hour and 25 minutes which enabled us to keep with the continuity of the film. This helps as it allows the viewer to believe whats going on. The only issue with continuity that we had was the scene where Dom as his character was walking which was a Long Shot then the sudden change to an Over the Shoulder shot. We noticed this during the editing process but it was fixable with a lot of  cutting. If we were to do our filming again, our key lesson would be to make sure that our selected location has the right amount of lighting as this caused many issues within our editing.
We only had an limited amount of time which luckily for us, we booked the school hall for a double lesson when we only needed one lesson to shoot, but because of the drama with a tripod, it took us a lesson and a half.

Before filming.

With the day of our filming, we did not have a tripod. We relied on our Media Department to have one which caused the group nothing but problems at the start! Luckily, our teacher sorted it..

EVENTUALLY, We we're able to get hold of a tripod then headed to the main hall, where we needed to shoot (Luckily, we booked the hall for two lessons).

We started with our first scene which was an Establishing Shot, which went well with a few adjustments here and there.  But actually starting the filming process was exciting and went really well. Our group (before shooting) were not getting along well due to disagreements etc.. however, when we got to the filming process, we got along absolutely well, Dom and Josh worked really well which helped myself as the 'director'.. And we managed to get our filming done in the space of a lesson and a half. 

REVIEWING, the clips on iMovie back in class.. we came to a problem where the clips were TOO dark due to the lightening. -I will update further on.  

Decisions

The decisions made in the group were limited today as the main focus was on the storyboard planning. We discussed all the important things that we HAVE to include within our storyboard such as; the 180 degree rule, match on action shot, the eyeline match and the shot reverse shot.
Our storyboard still needs a few tweaking in order for it to be completed and it's improved since the first planning stage since our teachers have introduced the different rules that we need to include. Only 3 more scenes to complete then the storyboard is done!