Planning: Preliminary task - Mr. Smith

The purpose of preliminary task:

- The purpose of the preliminary task was to introduce us to filming so that when it comes to our final
production, we would all know how to play our roles whether it is operating the camera or editing the footage after.. This was mainly for us to get used to filming and learn several filming techniques to help us create an effective short thriller film.

- This task was not planned so we had to improvise and make a quick scene in a short time. This gave us practise in improvising in case we need to when filming the final project.

The scenario:

- The scenario for our preliminary task was two people from our group having a conversation. We experimented on using different types of shot sizes and angles that we had learnt in class. We then tried camera movement when one of our characters were walking towards a different location. We also tried some movement shots to give show a better view of the location and also to show the change of location.

Group roles:
Our group consists of 3 main people;
- Shelah: main character/ editor(Actor 1)
- Marlyn: main character. (Actor 2)
- Joshua: (Me) Camera operator


You can find our preliminary task on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J3AFDSCwcE&feature=youtu.be

 

Difficulties we encountered:

The location chosen for our preliminary task was in the music department of our school during class times. So we had times in which we had been disturbed by students walking pass and by loud noises occurring around the music department. Because of this, we had to stop, wait or retake the scene we were filming.

When we had completed filming our short preliminary task, we had to edit the film to approximately 30 seconds. The software we used was very new to all of us so we had to learn how to operate the software in order to complete our task. Another difficulty we encountered was importing the files from the camera on to the software(FinalCutPro).

Conclusion:
The preliminary task has allowed me to learn how to operate a camera and know what it is like behind the scenes in what is needed to do to make a film.. It has also allowed me to learn how to use a new software that is used for editing many video clips together. This task has been very beneficial because it has helped all of us to now know how to film and edit, in which we need in order to complete the Thriller film we will make.