Prelim Task Part 1

Recently in our last Media studies lesson we were given the task of the first part of our 'Prelim. task'.  During this lesson we were all separated into groups of four to film a short sequence given to us by our teacher.  My group had the amazing opportunity to be able to film our scene in the film and TV studio which also had the benefit of a professional set.  In our group we all assigned ourselves roles to participate equally during the task.  Whilst Nancy and Tash were given the roles of the actors in the scene, Vick was assigned the director of the piece and I was given the task of filming it which initially I was concerned about as I hadn't had much experience of  filming, but during the exercise I discovered that I thoroughly enjoyed it and  I also learnt a lot about the different camera angles and levels that I was able to use.

At the beginning of the lesson we were told just to do the camera takes as they were described and shown on the story board.  These consisted of a wide shot, an over the shoulder shot and a close up of both characters.  Then, afterwards, we were able to explore different camera angles using different directions.  During the process of filming the scenes, we were told instead of just filming a small section of the scene as it was shown on the story board, we would find it more useful to film the whole scene as a new camera shot as it might help us when we piece the clips together in the second part of the prelim. task. 

Through practising and learning from the previous introductory  lessons on cameras I felt quite able to set the camera up and to operate it using the focus and zoom and brightness as I often had to alter these depending on where I was filming.  I enjoyed it more than I imagined, especially when I could see our shots all pieced together.  At times, however, I did find it a challenge to alter the height of the tripod and to bubble it by myself.  This was another problem that I personally faced because sometimes I was unable to see to the "bubble" because of my lack of height, but help from our teacher solved this problem. 

Even though the majority of the filming process was all executed well we did incur a few problems, for example when we wanted to film a shot of Tash walking in from the door, we couldn’t get a full take of her walking in as we were in the way at the door with the camera.  We were able to solve this by filming only a small section of the scene for this clip.  Another shot that we wanted to take was in the same area.  I wanted to take a shot of Tash walking through the door with the handle turning and her hand pushing through but the door was fixed into one place so we were unable to create the effect that we wanted.

One thing I would have liked to have done differently during the filming process is that I wanted to make more use of  levels during filming.   I had the idea of using security cameras placed in the corners of the set that could have been added to our second part of the task  which could have be added as an effect into the picture. Unfortunately though, we ran out of time before we could film these but I still think we have some really good shots that will create an interesting and good piece to watch.

As a group we learnt how to act and behave responsibly on set, especially the actors of our sequence as they had to perform the exact sequence over and over again.  They also had to listen to directions from the Director.  Even though I was mainly in charge of filming the scene, the director, Vick, gave some useful input and ideas about the camera angles that could be taken.

For our upcoming thriller shoot which begins in a couple of months this exercise has taught me the number of different angles and  possibilities when filming a scene. Obviously, unlike in this task, I would make sure my actors know the dialogue prior to filming, because in this exercise they were not able to learn the dialogue as we were only given the script prior to starting.  I enjoyed having the opportunity of using the Film and TV studio as I felt it was a great experience and gave me a bold insight into the industry.