Preliminary Exercise

We completed our preliminary exercise where some-one had to walk through a door and sit opposite a person and have a conversation. We had the think about the camera work, editing, mise-en-scene and sound when filming and editing our preliminary exercise. In my group there was 3 people (Me, Becci Taylor and Laura Pinkey). Me and Becci acted where-as because Laura was absent, we had Faye Gibbs from another group help us film. All of the shots were steady and in focus, but we had the re-film some of the shot reverse shot shot because we didn't frame the shots using the rule of thirds, so we changed the height of the shots so the position was correct. Both subjects were clearly visible although I was made to look much darker than Becci because of the sun shining through the blinds casting a very dark shadow on me, which wasn't deliberate but did look good seeing as i was a drug dealer. We followed the 180o rule and didn't cross the line so the viewer doesn't get confused. Most of our shots consisted of long/medium shots, especially when Becci was entering the room. If we were to film it again I would probably have changed the shot where Becci enters the room as you cannot see me and therefore the viewer might get a bit confused as to where she is going. We had a bit of trouble filming that shot as the room was quite small so it was hard to fit everyone in. The shot reverse shot worked well although due the the lighting we didn't really look like we were in the same place. Our match on action was probably the best part of our preliminary exercise as we edited it really tightly. There is a jump cut to a close up of the door opening which we wouldn't use if we were to do it again but doesn't look terrible. The shot reverse shot was good as we edited it well and the conversation had a good pace to it so it flowed well. All of the transitions are invisible making it all flow well. If I were to change any editing shots i wouldn't but I would probably include more shot reverse shot, but we were overall pleased with the editing. We had a major problem with the sound when we first filmed the exercise as we originally filmed outside. It was very windy therefore you couldn't hear any of the dialogue. It was quite annoying because we filmed all the shots but when we imported it onto the computer we found that we could not here the speech. So we re-filmed in a different location - this time inside, where it worked much better. I think that the sound could have been clearer and louder but it is okay. The lighting on Becci during the dialogue and when she enters the room is good but not when the camera is on me due to the sun. Before we filmed we tried to clear as much as the background as possible to make it look less messy but the mise-en-scene wasn't really appropriate for the conversation. Overall our group was very pleased with the outcome and we realised what elements we could improve on. We worked well as a group by all doing the same amount of filming and editing each.