PRELIMINARY TASK EVALUATION

For our preliminary task I was with Cat, Steph, Lauren and I. We all were on the same 'thought' track in terms of how we wanted the scene to look and what image and message we wanted to portray. First of all we began by finding some actors to be in the scene. We picked James Sneller and Fiona Winter. The basic story was that the girl (Fiona) was about to be pressurized into killing someone, and it’s about her journey of the pressure from the guy (James)

We were given the'dedit' suite to film in - more usually known as the old media suite (hence the dead). This worked really well for the mood that we were trying to portray as it had a 'spooky' feel to it from the beginning. Probably sue to its white brick walls that weren’t painted evenly - or the mass amounts of wires that were surrounding the room. Also there was a door that was needed in the room, so we had all the neccesary equipment, props and staging in order to make the scene make sense and work well for us as the directors and the actors aswell.
In our group we had Cat, Steph, Lauren and I, and we each took on a role that helped make the filming easy. I took more of a 'camera' role, for example I positioned the camera for filming and I worked closely with Steph for the call outs - Standing By, Camera rolling... ACTION!

For the lighting we used a hard light, as it made the scene more 'intense' looking. This worked really well, as we positioned the lights in a way that we would have a shadow on the back wall - this was very effective for the mood setting. Therefore this carried on with the horror and spooky feel to the scene.

We managed to set the camera up with success, as we all helped each other. We went through a system of checking certain aspects. I.E - Making sure it was bubbled correctly, making sure that the camera was securely attached and securely on the tri-pod. We each checked it to make sure that everything was done right, so we could begin filming. From the screen check we made sure that none of the lighting equipment, bags or another 'off set' objects were on show.
After the equipment and staging was checked for any imbalances or inaccuracies, we began to go through the different shots that we will need. We found a way of doing this that would make it easier for us to film, and so that it wouldn’t take up as much time. We filmed the entire scene in wide shot, close-ups and over the shoulders from both character and then we decided to add a few extra shots of the gun being slammed down on the table, eyes, door handle, shadow and an extreme high shot from a 'birds eye' view.
Another main fact that we needed to make sure we had correct is the '180 degree rule' - and I feel that we managed to stick to this rule, making sure that each character was on the right spot. This was hard at first as it required some forward thinking but we managed to complete this.
We all enjoyed the common 'call outs' that bounced back between the director and the camera man. Steph and I usually called these out and it became a natural speech after a while.

I feel that I've learnt a lot from this first filming session, and I never thought about the intense amount of thinking that is required from everyone pre-production and during the production. But apart from that it was a very educational experience, as well as being fun. Our group wanted to make it a good experience for all :)