Preliminary Review

For the preliminary task I went in a group of three with Rebecca Robson and Brad Cabras. We got told that we had to do a small scene in which a person opens a door, crosses the room, sits down and then shares dialogue. Media Elements that had to be featured are the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot.

We planned the scene with a small process this included brainstorming and then thinking of which would illustrate our task the best. We wanted our scene to be simple yet effective in showing all of what was expected of us. We wanted it to be about a couple as we wanted the characters to have a relationship which made the scene understandable in the sense that they would be comfortable with each other and why they would live together. The idea we came up with for the dialogue was something simple, an argument over a remote. This is relatable and something an audience would understand. We then developed this in to the girlfriend having a bad day therefore escalating the argument a little further than before.

Acting in this was me and Brad. Rebecca filmed it. We choose for me and Brad to act in it because we are a couple in real life also. This ensured that we would feel comfortable in front of each other therefore we didn’t feel awkward when filming. Also, we have had small arguments like that before so we could add higher levels of verisimilitude due to knowing how we have actually acted in these situations. We filmed this at Rebecca’s house because it was the most convenient place to do it. Also, the size of the room we did it in was complimentary to the scene. It was a room with quite a bit of space therefore we could put the camera in a wider range of spaces rather than just have a small amount of room to play around with. Another point is that her living room also let a lot of nice light in. It was natural lighting which created no shadow, this is called high key lighting, no shadow was achieved because we had the back light and key light still incorporated. It created a light, relaxing vibe to be incorporated in the scene. It showed that it was just a normal day also. The light made the characters likeable despite having the argument. This is because an argument like this isn’t a reason to like or dislike a character. Thankfully all of the sound within it was diegetic. This was mostly down to the location because not a lot of people or cars pass that area.

Our story board was successful in the sense that it told us what we should do whilst filming instead of having to think it over which would take us off of task. Despite the drawings on it not being amazing and to its best ability, the storyboard clearly indicated what actions we should do with which lines. It also showed us what camera angles to do with each section. It increased our ability to visualise what we was going to do before we actually went out to do it. As well as our story board our script was also successful. It had clear lines and had stage prompts also. We didn’t completely stick to the script as we said different words. However, we did stay along the lines of it and said very similar things. All of the narration within the piece is restricted, the audience only know what they are seeing.

Whilst filming we had a small handful of minor struggles. We found it hard to create flow through the entire film at some stages causing us to have to film it a few times. However this also ensured that we had plenty of film to work with when it came to editing. Another thing we found slightly difficult was making sure things stayed in the same place rather than jump in between shots. This is important to keep to higher levels of verisimilitude. If the audience see that something has jumped in different shots they won’t feel as much as a part of it. We did make a mistake with this that we only realised after editing. There was a pole in the first few shots and then it suddenly disappeared randomly when it came to doing the shot/reverse shot. In future we would have to avoid accidentally doing this. The editing was very hard to do. It was very challenging because it was really jumpy. This meant that when editing there was no flow to the shots at all. This made finding the ends and the parts to cut out very difficult. In the end with struggle we was able to edit it all together. It's important to make sure that you keep everything realistic because it may change the way that the audience read your work (Hall). I feel that this tasks reading would have been preferred. This is where the audience respond to the piece the way you want them to.   

Our preliminary task was in my opinion successful. It had a continual flow throughout it which meant that there was no jumping, overlap or glitching with in it. The story line was easy to follow and obvious to what was going on. We found that the simplicity of it resulted in the successfulness of it. However, despite this it has one or two enigma codes (Barthes) which would make the audience want to continue in viewing it. One of these was, what happened in her day which was so bad?  All of the camera angles made sense also. The over the shoulder shots ensured that the audience follows with what’s going on and doesn’t get confused at where it has gone to. This use of shot/reverse shot was good and most of the time didn’t change place. To do this we filmed all of my lines from over Brads shoulder and the same with Brads lines. However, despite this being successful in most of it there is one shot where it zooms up slightly more from behind Brads head. This isn’t obvious to an audience however and doesn’t ruin the effect of the scene. We kept up with the 180 degree rule as we didn’t break it once. We also did well with the match on action. This was used when I was walking through the front door. It flowed and was consistent with the actions in the previous angle. In the future, as well as avoiding the disappearance of objects and the zoom of one shot, I would like to add in a wider selection of angles to give more perspective for the viewers.

From doing this task I have learnt that planning has a correlation with success. If we didn’t plan before doing the filming, I don’t feel that it would have been as successful. One thing that I think we could have done extra to plan is to run through the actions and script without the filming. This would be good to get our bearings and go over the script and story board again.