Preliminary Task - Miss Miller

Preliminary Task

For this task, there were two other people in my group; Cara and Harry. The purpose of this task was to get more use to the filing equipment, so that we are more familiar and effective with it when using it for our opening sequence. The preliminary task helped us as a group understand how the camera equipment worked and also allowed us to experiment with different camera angles and shots. To complete this task, we had to film a conversation that two members within our group had while the third filmed. The duration of this conversation was about 30 seconds long. After we had done all of the filming, we quickly had to watch the whole sequence back and edit it on the computer to make it more effective. We edited out shots that we did not need or parts of the sequence in which were ineffective. In the conversation for this task, was Cara and Harry having a normal conversation and ending with cars walking out.

We used a range of camera techniques and shot techniques in order to complete this task, for example: shot reverse shot, close up and panning. To make these types of cinematography effective, a tripod was used to make sure the camera was steady and was placed where was wanted it to film. I think what me and my group did well was showing clearly what type of camera techniques we was using and getting straight to the point without it being boring and long. We achieved this by making sure what we filmed was not long, a quick conversation and that was it. I thinks, as a group; we struggled with filming and acting in general and it is very unfamiliar to us, that is why having this task was very effective for us as it helped us gain more knowledge towards this, and making sure The effiency for when we make our own opening sequence will be more productive and impressive. As it was the first time for me using that sort of camera, it was sometimes difficult, especially for 'panning,' to move it around as adequate as I could have. By re-watching the footage of the conversation, allowed me to notice the errors in my filming, and motivated me to do better for future reference. If we could have done something differently I would say, repeat each scene twice or more, as long as it is not only once incase or poor camera work or acting skills. By doing this, would have allowed us to become more professional around the camera and gained more confidence as we would have noticed better results. I feel like this whole acting/filming task has helped us for when we produce our opening sequence as the shots we used are most likely going to be used when filming ours, for example, using a close up will help us be more effective for when we actually use it as it helps build tension and see the characters facial emotion for evidentially.

This task helped me in preparing for filming my opening sequence as it allowed us as group to become more familiar and certain with it, which will show in our filming and acting skills. This helped because using it before and playing around with what is what allows us to show our strengths and weaknesses in this certain part of our media coursework. From this task, I learnt that I need to improve with my camera skills in order to achieve the grade me and my group aim for, by taking part in this task, shows where I need to focus on and also my peers in the group. To ensure the same errors are not made, we will re-act the same scene at least twice to make sure there is no dodgey camera work or things like un-easy acting skills which would put off the reader for example, lack of eye contact within the other character. I think this task helped me understand a lot towards the filming aspect, and as a group have critised towards what we need to work on to make sure our opening sequence is the. Ext that it could be. I am very excited to see how our first opening sequence looks once is all finished.