Evaluation Of Preliminary Task

What did we learn?
As we have done the Childrens film project before this project we had a good idea of how to construct a short preliminary film. We knew how much camera work we needed for a 40 second clip so we were able to construct a realistic storyboard.
We learnt from previous tasks that continuity was important and which shot types followed other shot types. With this knowledge we were able to use a variety of shot types for example pans, point of view shots, mid and long shots. It enabled us to create a flowing film which used continuity and correct match on action. This allows the audience to follow and understand what is going on throughout the sequence.

Were there any difficulties?
We found it difficult to find a suitable location to film the sequence. We were not allowed off college site and many rooms we wanted were being used. As we are in a college site it was also difficult to maintain continuity due to the amount of people walking around. We had to film shots two or three times because of students walking past. This would interfere with the continuity of the sequence if we suddenly changed to a different shot and the person disappeared.
In the clip there was lots of background and ambient noise from classrooms which definitely creates a different mood from what we wanted. We were trying to make it tense and dark but due to this noise the atmosphere wasn't really created.
As we were only given one lesson to film this we weren't able to prepare costume and props for the sequence and had to make do with the clothes and props we had at school. We used a hand as a gun which made the sequence not as realistic as we wanted. We did add sound to make the audience believe it was a gun that was fired.


How we constructed the sequence in relevance to the 4 micro areas
For our sequence we were asked to film a conversation, use the 180 degree rule, match on action and use a variety of camera shots.
When filming the conversation instead of using over the shoulder shots which we were asked to do we used point of view shots and a long shot. We decided to use point of view shots to give a bigger sense of realism for the audience watching. The point of view shot also helped to show the reaction shot in the sequence as the character looked up sharply as a reaction. We then used the long shot in between the conversation to allow the audience to see the whole of the scene and all the characters involved.
When filming we kept to the 180 degree rule for example in the classroom we always filmed one side of the characters. We also kept match on action when the shots were changed for example the door opening flowed from the close up to the point of view inside well.
Our mise-en-scene wasn't very realistic as we weren't able to get props and costumes for the sequence. We were able to find a fairly suitable location for the scene and we couldn't change the lighting in the scene as we did not have the equipment or the time. However we did make sure not too much natural light was used to create a sense of tension and darkness for the thriller theme.
When editing we tried to have quite short shot duration during the conversation as it was meant to portray some action. We added a sound effect for the gunshot to create more realism for the audience. Diagetic sound was used in the form of dialogue and ambient sound and the gun shot was an example of non-diagetic sound.