Preliminary/Practice Sequence

In today's lesson, we filmed and edited the short sequence we'd planned in the last lesson. Filming started off shakily, as we knew what we wanted, but didn't know how to get it. The idea was to track a person's feet walking towards the camera using a worm's eye view. With just a stationary tripod, we weren't sure how to achieve the overall look we wanted for that particular shot. The original idea was to put the camera on a piece of cardboard and then drag it, but cardboard scrapes the floor and makes a noise that would be difficult to edit out. However, when I presented the fact that I was wearing several layers, and could quite easily take one off, filming got underway. We used one of my t-shirts to place the camera on, so that we could drag it along the floor without any harm to the camera, and no awkward noises.We were very slow filming the shots we needed in the corridor, because so many people were continuously using it, and most didn't like being asked to stop and stay still while we filmed a short section. But we got it eventually, and that's what matters. Then we were almost continuously interrupted during our filming inside the classroom as other students filtered in. It took us a while to make it clear to them that if they were going to be in the classroom, they had to be silent and against one wall, so as not to keep ruining our shots.Eventually, we got everything we needed; however, due to time restrictions, it was not possible to get everything to the degree of almost-O.C.D-perfection that we wanted.Editing was also not without it's difficulties. We had problems with the log and capture process from the camera to the program. It simply stopped working and we were forced to restart twice, which used a lot of valuable editing time. Because of this, our sequence is not entirely complete; however, what we have edited is -if I do say so myself- really quite good! Fatma and I became very obsessed with getting the continuity in the match cuts as close to perfect as we could get them. We added three effects to a few shots to imitate a security camera ("desaturate", "timecode bar" and "video frame"). Unfortunately, we didn't have time to edit the entire section of dialogue.As I wasn't involved with the filming of the first practice piece, I can't really comment properly on whether or not this one went better than the first. However, I'm told it did, as we had planned it properly this time, and had an actual narrative to film for. Since the last practice piece, I've learned the importance of getting the same sequence in a variety of different shots and angles for match cuts, and I've learned I can get a little obsessed with continuity both in filming and editing which -at the end of the day- can only be a good thing really. The lighting in the classroom was bad, as it was difficult to see Yarohey because of the light from the windows, but when we closed the blinds it was too dark. We decided to keep the mise en scene simple, and just have the characters, clock, tables and chairs, although there were varying papers and bags in the room that we tried to hide, along with the computers that we couldn't move. I think our group stuck to the conventions of real films, though we'd probably have preferred to challenge them; however, we weren't inventive enough to do so with such little time. I think, and it may just be my interpretation, but I think our film represents the overall view of our group, in a way. If we had been able to finish editing, it would have been clear that it was a short comedy piece, which just shows that our group is definitely about having fun, and those little absurdities in life, which I think is quite a nice message. It shows we're willing to make ourselves look ridiculous in order to get the work done in a way that is both fun and productive. (And I can guaruntee that both Fatma and I looked just a ridiculous filming as Nicole and Yarohey did being filmed.)