ROLE SPECIFIC TASKS

In our group of 4 I undertook many tasks here’s a list of the tasks I personally completed

Art director 
I thought about location for shooting, and also location dressing.
I contributed my house as a location and therefore added the majority of props used at the main location.
I also organised collecting equipment such as camera, lighting, tripod and also microphone.
As well as in college preparation I also searched and bought coloured plastic to use for lighting filters for filming.


Other roles
I also drew out a storyboard and wrote out a script for our finalised group piece. As well as this I also acted within our final production and Chantelle and myself recorded and co wrote the voiceover script and added it to the opening edit.
I also added in my artistic input during the filming and editing stages and I think the final outcome is very effective

PREPRODUCTION PAPERWORK I COMPLETED

For the preproduction paperwork I completed the hand drawn storyboard along with shot directions and timing. I also typed out the script complete with voice-over and stage directions correctly formatted using a program called “celtx” . I wrote out the shot list for the shoot we completed and I typed up some prewritten editing notes for the group that I received from another member of the group.

GROUP IDEA - SCREENPLAY

OUR IDEA-STORYBOARD

GROUP IDEA SYNOPSIS

Synopsis for opening
Open with a man sitting in a corner, head in his hands covered in a hood. The man appears emotional as he throws objects from nearby over the room. He sits in the room as he thinks. As he thinks he has a flashback, seeing a man walking down a road and seeing a girl, their eyes meet and the problems begin. The film goes back to the man in the room he has various flashbacks which could link to the story which will follow, leaving an enigma for the audience.
Synopsis for rest of narrative
Later on the man is getting ready for a party with some of his friends, they talk about the girl he saw earlier that day anf he finds out from his friends that her boyfriend is a physco drug dealer.
 At the party the guy and girl begin to talk then they get together, the boyfriend bursts in on them and hit’s the guy then proceeds to chase him out the house where he catches him and they both fight. During the fight the guy picks up a metal pipe that’s laying on the ground and brutally attacks the drug dealer, killing him in the process.

THE EXCHANGE

In a group of 4 we were asked to create an “exchange exercise” where we would use our previous knowledge of filming and editing and learn new techniques and stylistics in order to create a better final piece . This project further increased knowledge of group work and also got us familiarised with the group we would be in for our final project.

Our brief was to create a minute long scene with a minimum of two character who exchanged an item. The scene wasn’t allowed dialogue but needed non diegetic  music over the top -in order to set the mood for the action. We needed around 8-12 shots to create this scene and we did ours in around that amount. In this exercise we used a wide variety of shot including, close ups long shots cut away shots and also shots through objects such as a fence, which creates effects which are similar to those which are used in classic noirs. 

In our piece we kept to the 180 degree line rule, so our piece made sense and kept continuity. Even though we kept to this rule our group had a small problem with continuity where the held object switched hands, we realised this as we edited and that shot was cut from our final piece.

All In all I would say our “exchange exercise” was very effective, it fit the brief very well and I am very pleased with the final outcome. 

If I could re-film this piece I would film a larger number of shots so we had plenty of shots to create our piece out of, I would also keep track of shot continuity throughout filming, which would have prevented the lack in continuity which we experienced in one of our shots when we came round to editing.

PRELIMINARY FILMING EXERCISE

In groups of 2-3 we were asked to create a preliminary filming exercise, this was in order to get familiar with the equipment we would be using to film on this course. It also gave us practise of working in groups to create a finished piece, from filming and acting, to editing and finishing the scene.

We were asked to create 4 lines of dialogue between two actors and to incorporate different shot types within our scene. We had a 6-8 shot limit to create this scene.

In our Preliminary exercise we used a wide variety of shot types such as close up, long shot, medium long, two shot and over the shoulder/reverse over the shoulder shots. We followed the 180° line by always filming the same side of the characters on screen, even when using shot/reverse shot, we did this to keep continuity within the scene and avoid confusion for the audience. When framing our shots we always kept the focus on the character who was talking, to show the dialogue clearly and make it easy for the audience to understand. Within our piece we use both still shots and panning movements with the camera, panning was used to show movement in the corridor, which worked with the movement of the feet. In contrast we used stationary shots for the dialogue, as on screen camera movement would have been confusing to watch, we did however change shot type and position to show dialogue pattern and character change throughout the shots.

Within the shooting of the footage we forgot to include handles on the shots, so some of the shots are short and appear slightly rushed, because of this the sound within the scene is a bit rushed and so seems the scene seems unnatural, if I did this exercise again i would remember to include around 3-6seconds of handles at the start and end of eat shot in order to give the scene better flow.