Preliminary Task (completed in January)

One mistake that was made during this task was the breaking of the 180 degree rule and the principal reason behind this was that in order to film from the correct plane, more space was required to place the camera in the correct position. Because of this, what you see in instead at 6-8 seconds is the reversal of planes. However, following further research into the 180 degree rule, it became apparent that this rule in today's industry is seen as more of a guideline as opposed to a 'rule'. The sole purpose of the 180 degree rule is to prevent the audience from becoming disorientated, thus breaking the immersive experience of the film/clip. It is one of the techniques used to establish a logical coherence between shots and is most commonly associated with conversational shots.

In this example, we see a clear violation of the 180 degree; it is far more applicable to conversational shots as there is no particular reasoning behind it. A breaking of the rule is usually for added emphasis. Ultimately the breaking of the rule in the preliminary task is far less intrusive than this example, mainly because it is a close-up and that the shot duration is only 5 seconds, subsequently making it harder for the viewer to notice the discontinuity.

Another, more minor mistake was the lighting issue that takes place from when the girl is walking to her seat at 12 seconds and the conversation which follows. As the girl is walking to her seat, we can see a fair amount of light being shone on her character with the use of the key and fill lights. However as she takes her seat, we experienced a significant drop in lighting and because of this, the light was compensated in post-production, by increasing the exposure levels. Despite losing added detail and an increased amount of noise, the lighting in the final clip seems to be relatively consistent.

This was my first experience working in a collaborative environment whilst filming, and the dynamics of the group was managed with significant ease because everybody was assigned a different shot to take. I was delegated the role of filming the first two shots and also playing the person who found the wallet. Having had previous filming experience, I decided to take a more directorial approach, outlining to my group where I felt the camera should be placed throughout the shoot. 

This was also the first time I had experienced a professional camcorder, but having my own camera was helpful in that I knew how to adjust the settings, e.g white balance, aspect ratio etc. My main issue was working with tape as opposed to an SD card. My initial problem was working out where to film from on the tape, for fear of overwriting previous shots, however this problem was only short-lived. 

In terms of meeting the deadline for this task, proceedings were fairly straight forward. We were given one, one-hour lesson in order to film all the necessary shots, and then the editing took place in the following week, where the group spent several hours over the course of two-days editing the shots together. 

As this task was filmed within the confines of the school, we didn't really come across any health and safety logistical problems. This task was shot in our media suite, so in terms of logistics, everything that was required for this task was already set up e.g. the cameras, the lighting and the editing software. 

Managing human resources was also straightforward. Because we had all delegated different shots to take amongst ourselves, that meant two of the four people in our group would have to act in the conversation. Costumes weren't used in the task and the only prop that was used was the wallet which was someone's from the group. 

As we completed this task from school, the cameras were already set up for us to use, however the settings needed to be adjusted throughout the shoot, for example the lighting difference between the corridor at the beginning and when the girl enters the room. Things like white balance and exposure needed to be changed, but this was handled well by our group. Also the placement of the camera was done with efficiency, for example changing the angle or the height of the camera or tripod. 

When managing the lighting, we used some of the lights provided for us in the media suite. We used two fill lights which were aimed above the characters because we didn't want too much light in the scene, in order to match the feel of situation. Because of this, we got some nice looking contrast, particularly on the girl.

The editing for this task was completed in Adobe after effects 7.0. I chose to use this program because I am familiar with its layout from other projects I have edited. For the final piece, I will probably use Adobe Premiere pro because as a group we need to all be able to use the same editing software. In terms of the editing itself, I cut the single raw file into the sections I needed for the task and overlapped them at the appropriate time in order to demonstrate the match-on-action cut. Apart from straight-cuts, the only other effect added was exposure compensation in the conversational shots.  

Project timeline 

As this was only a short task, the storyboard was fairly simple and only outlined a rough idea of what we wanted to achieve as a group. This was also due to the fact that this task requires a specific set of shots, so in this case we were limited to the kind of shots we took. Because of this, many of the specific shots we took were improvised, because we already knew which shots we had to take. In terms of the story itself, we knew we wanted to have some kind of an interrogative scene and made good use of lighting facilities that were available to us. The script only needed to be brief so for that reason, we only needed to write down a few lines for the actors to rehearse.

The digital technology available to us certainly helped us develop creativity because having the ability to cut clips easily with the use of the editing software not only allows for efficiency, but also the way in which the clips are cut helps for continuity, e.g. match on action as well as helping with the pacing of the clip. Through these techniques you can emit either a sense of danger (with fast cuts) or calmness with slow-paced cuts. The use of the cameras also helps to tell a story, for example in our task, we chose to track the girl throughout the scene, mostly with long and medium shots and we felt this helped to create a sense of tension and uncertainty, in particular the close-up on the opening of the door. The breaking of the 180 degree rule could also be interpreted as a way of emphasizing the importance of the door being opened; what is through the door?

In our piece, the girl represents the common behavior of people when in tense situations like being interrogated by someone. In a scenario such as this, humans have an innate inclination to deny an accusation ("is this your wallet") even if they know they are lying. As the story continues, we later find out that the wallet was in fact the girl's and that she had stolen it. She knew the consequences would be more severe if she didn't own up, yet she insisted on taking a risk and lying. It was this character trait that we were trying to represent in the piece. 

The realism in this piece is created through the girl's decision to deny accusations of stealing. There are many people who will watch this piece and relate to it; they are willing to take the risk of lying and not getting in trouble or being found out and landing in increased trouble. 

The mise en scene helps to further enhance the realism of this piece. The setting in a school helps to ground the piece in reality and make it more relevant to the audience. The actors are two college students which again strengthens the reality of the piece because many viewers will be able to relate to these two characters in their everyday lives. The style of the camerawork is conventional as opposed to using canted angles or abstract shots and this also helps emphasize the reality of the piece; the absence of ambiguity helps the audience to relate to the piece, like it is just an ordinary occurrence that anyone may experience in their day-to-day lives.