Evaluation Question 7

Emily Brown

The Preliminary Task

The first media studies task I had to perform at the beginning of the course was the preliminary task. The task had to be completed by filming and editing shots of a character going through a door, walking across the room to sit in a chair opposite another character. The characters then had to exchange a couple lines of dialogue. The shots should demonstrate the following camera techniques; match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

My preliminary allowed me to practice these important camera techniques, which I needed in my film opening and also learnt that editing and continuity is an important factor I needed to consider when filming my film opening.

My ProgressionPanning Shot In my preliminary task, I used apanning shot to show my character walking to herchair. However, it took me many attempts to ensure I led my character with the camera so she didn’t walk out of shot.

For our film opening an extra wide panning shot of our protagonist running to get her boss’ coffee. Due to the practice in my preliminary task, I managed to lead the actress with the camera in just one take so she didn’t run too quickly for the camera. This also helped as we only had an hour to film this whole section.

My ProgressionThe panning shot also adds variation to the shot angles. We filmed using three different cameras. Two on the same side of the road; one as an extra wide shot which was positioned pretty central on the road. The second, situated further down the same side of the road but zoomed in further. The final camera was positioned on the same side of the road as the protagonist and we had her running away from the camera. The three cameras added more interesting shot angles and used the 180 degree rule. Also, editing this scene proved troublesome as we had to ensure there were no continuity errors between the three different angled shots. The continuity for the film opening was much better than for my preliminary task.

Camera 1

Camera 2

Camera 3

What I Have Learnt

• Adding a variety of shots makes footage much more interesting for the audience

• Continuity is key – shots must ‘flow’ rather than jump

• Conventional chick flick shot types are; establishing shot, POV, over the shoulder and close ups.

Conventional Chick Flick Shots In My Film Opening

Establishing Shot POV Shot

Over the Shoulder Shot Close Up