Evaluation of Preliminary Task

Question 1: 
For the planning of our preliminary task we first decided on the plot of the short film. Our plot was that Toby had left his coursework at Luke's house. Luke had then forgotten to bring the coursework in after copying it and this has resulted in Toby becoming angry at Luke. After developing our plot we created the storyline for our preliminary task which we recorded with storyboards. Our storyline consisted of Toby walking into school, realising he is late so he then runs, goes through the first door and then walks down the corridor. He then opens the second door and sits opposite to Luke. The conversation begins until it reaches it's climax which is Toby getting angry, knocking over his chair and leaving the room. The film then fades to black. When the storyline had been perfected, as a group we came up with a detailed shot list for each scene of our task. We decided to incorporate as many camera angles and filming techniques into are video to show we were experimenting with the feeling each camera angle gave to the scene. We wanted to use shots like "over the shoulder" to make the audience see the events from Toby's perspective. 
          All of our planning helped to make the filming of our preliminary task easier and more structured. It allowed us as a group to film our video in a logical and chronological order. The planning really aided us in terms of what we actually filmed, it gave us to structure and really sped up the whole process. The planning also allowed us to see what each scene would look like before we filmed it, the planning aided us in ensuring each scene would look good when editing and in the final production. It took us around 3 hours to film the whole of this task which means we filmed over two days. We took special care in ensuring there were continuity errors when filming. We made sure everything stayed in the same place in each scene and both Toby and Luke were wearing the same thing on both days.  

Question 2:
The 180 degree was very important when filming our preliminary task. It mostly applied when we were filming the conversation between Toby and Luke. We decided as a group where the imaginary line would be placed when filming and made sure we didn't cross it when filming. We didn't actually break the rule when filming the conversation but we did however break it in the birds eye shot before Toby said his first line. We took the shot from the other side of the table so the two boys were the wrong way round. We fixed this problem when editing the film. We simply turned the shot upside down so that Toby was now on the right and Luke was on the left.

Question 3:
As I mentioned in Question 1 we tried to incorporate as many camera angles and filming techniques into our preliminary task as possible. Each shot we used was to help emphasise a certain aspect of each character. We used several close ups throughout the shooting of our film, each was was to either bring more focus to a certain action (e.g. opening of the door) or show the audience the emotion that character was feeling (e.g. Luke's eyes showing he is nervous/scared). Throughout our preliminary task we ensured the audience new what location was where at all time, this means we included a few location establishing shots. These were two birds eye views (shot 6 and 13 from our shot list) and a single panning shot (shot 4). As a group we all included ideas for each scene, when it came to discussion of what camera angles to use for the conversation we all agreed we should mainly use over the shoulder shots, so that the audience was viewing the conversation from the characters view. I then came up with the idea of the first two shots in the conversation being 'profile' shots (these are shots taken from the side of the persons face). These are all the camera angles we used. The shot types we used are: match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule (explained in Question 2). We used the shot type of match on action mainly in the beginning of the film. Match on action is when one shot cuts to another shot to portray the action of the subject in the previous shot. This shot type was used as Toby walked through the school gate, the motion of his walk was carried on into the next shot so that these clips flowed well together. The last shot type we used was shot reverse shot, this is when the camera switches between two people having a conversation to show they're looking at one another. We used this shot when Toby and Luke are having the conversation and looking at one another. This was used to make it obvious to the audience that they were both sitting opposite to each other and maintaining eye contact.

Question 4:
I have only ever done a small amount of editing before completing this task, so there was a lot of learning to do when it came to using Premier Pro Cs5. The first editing skill I really learned was how to select the required section form the video clip and then take it out and apply it to the timeline. This process is done by opening the needed video clip into the preview window, pressing I (in) when you want that frame to be the first image of the video and then O (out) when you want the clip to stop. After selecting the needed footage inside that clip you simply drag it down to the timeline at the bottom of the screen and it becomes a scene within your video. After putting all the footage together I then adjusted any sound that was either too quite or too loud. This was done in scene 4 (from my shot list) and one of the cuts in which Luke is replying too Toby. Scene 4 was too loud due to their being a lot of background noise from the wind and the footage of Luke talking was too quite. I adjusted these problems by changing the volume of the clip in the timeline. After the sound, look and flow of the film was perfected I began to apply some effects to selected scenes. The first thing I applied was a fade to black at the end of the video. This was to give the edit as smoother ending that looked more professional. I realised some more emphasis could added to a couple of different clips (shots 10 and 11 from my shot list) so I slowed down the speed of the footage so that it was in slow motion. Slow motion gives the audience a longer period of time to focus on an action,so in our short film more emphasis is put onto Toby pulling the chair back and Luke's eye showing his nerves. I slowed these two clips down by around 20%. The last effect I applied to our preliminary task was making everything from the second Toby opens the door black and white. This effect lasted till the very end of the video. The black and white look gave the smaller details a larger amount of emphasis and it made the conversation in our task feel almost like a flashback. After editing my preliminary task I can safely say I can use the editing software confidently to complete simple processes. I can easily select the required footage and insert it into the timeline of the software. I can also apply video effects such as black and white, dissolve and fade to black. I can currently only edit simple things, but as I move onto the next part of my coursework I hope to develop more editing skills that will result in a more professional final product.