Practice Filming Session

We were given the task of filming a person reading a newspaper in a thrilling way. We drew out our storyboard and then we had a video camera tutorial on how to use the camera and the stand, such as the different levels the stand can do and what the different buttons mean on the camera, using this information we went to film. Filming was quite difficult as half our group were absent so me and Yarohey had to find someone to be filmed. When we did we used a range of different shots such as high angle, this was hard because the a lot of wiring was in the way from the balcony we filmed from and was getting in the way so it was hard to center the person in the middle of the screen. The low angle, over the shoulder shot and close ups were more successful as we were able to have more control of the camera.

The next lesson the whole group was here and we look over at what we had filmed and we had realized that we needed more shots because a lot the ones we had taken did not make sense as they did not match each other and some shots the camera was wobbling but I was happy that we did get the exact shots that we had planned from the storyboard and included the extreme close up, point of view shot and over the shoulder that the brief had said to do. I felt that we could have done a lot better as our filming lacked quality and quantity, however considering the situation of last lesson we had done our best. We then went on to editing, first we transferred the film from the tape to the Mac and cut the footage into separate clips of the different shots, I then realized that although we filmed the extra 5 seconds before the shot we had forgotten to film the extra 5 seconds after the shot but luckily it still worked well. We then place the clips onto to the timeline in continuity and played it back, we then noticed that it did not make sense because of a shot that went a from a low angle shot that zoomed to a extreme close up. We then decided to reverse the shot so it zoomed out and as a result it looked much better. Afterwards we added music which had a build up in it to make the film look effective.

I learnt that the mise en scene worked well as we filmed it in deserted area which made the girl in the film look vulnerable so it created suspense, the girls' costume was ordinary everyday clothes so it lures the audience into a false sense of security before something happens to her and our prop, the newspaper, worked well as the headline said ' 88 dead' giving a sense of foreboding to our film. I do not think we used much conventions from a real thiller as because we did not have enough shots, therefore there was not a complex plot to create suspense nor a heavy focus on everyday life.