Preliminary

Preliminary Task

Our task:
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening the door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of a dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Key Features:

Match on action: Match on action is a technique often used to portray a constant pace so that the visual image appears to be smooth. Match on action distracts the audience from any continuity errors and keeps everything flowing.  It also makes the scene appear to have continuous time so that the viewer isn't confused. 

Shot reverse shot: 
This technique is usually used when dialogue is exchanged by two actors. By switching from a view of one actor to the other, the dialogue looks real and flows smoothly. It als0o shows different facial expressions to understand the dialogue and emotions in greater detail.

180-degree rule:

This shot can be used to show different angles of one scene. Rather than just an over the shoulder shot, other shots will be filmed to show different aspects such as emotions, height and costume. This can help to show connoations of power, psychological state etc.

An example of these techinques are:

Our idea:

We wanted to add a small narrative to our preliminary rather than just doing the camera shots within the task. Therefore, we began to come up with ideas. Since our main task was going to be a thriller, we decided that our preliminary should have some form of thriller elements to lead us up to our next task.

    First of all, we wandered into a small room so we could think quietly  Within this room, was a window which sparked our idea. We liked the idea of someone being stood at the window with their back turned away from the camera so we began to work around this idea. After quite a lot of thought, we came up with the idea of filming a short conversation about assassination since the setting was just right. We hoped to have a male figure walking into the room to find a powerful woman offering him business (to kill someone.) We liked this idea but the question was: who was going to be the victim? We quite liked the idea of having fun with our preliminary so we decided to make it into a thriller parody. Thrillers tend to have twists so we decided to make up our own; the victim was going to be a cat. The three of us loved this idea so we began to storyboard.

Storyboarding:

Once we had our starting idea, we had to storyboard the camera shots, dialogue etc. We all contributed to the drawings and ideas so we all had a fair share.

Here is the storyboard:

Shot No.1 

For our establishing shot, we wanted to have Daniel (the assassin) to come around the corner whilst Iain was at the desk.

An over the shoulder shot was chosen so that Daniel was in the background and Iain was in the foreground (representing the idea that Daniel was a secretive character who didn't want to be the center of attention.)

Shot No.2

This shot was framed so that Daniel could walk into the shot. We wanted Iain to turn when Daniel walked by him, as if Iain had sensed his presence, and  then we wanted Iain to say "Just go straight in." We liked this idea as it held a little bit of mystery as to what was behind the door.

Shot No.3

We wanted Daniel to walk towards the door so that we could see his face and shoulders (medium close-up to close-up.) This still held mystery as he was behind the door and something was within it.

Shot No.4

For this shot, we wanted to use a close-up to show the door handle opening. This was used to keep the film going at the same pace and to make sure we used match on action like the task requested.

Shot No.5

To make sure we had match on action, we made it so Daniel entered the shot and sat down at the same pace he'd walked in the previous shots.   We planned that I would turn and say, "I've been expecting you..." This was to add a mysterious effect but also to add slight humour. Also, we wanted to use hidden identity, like usual thrillers, so we didn't want my full face to be shown when I spoke.

Shot No.6

For this shot, we wanted to have a close-up of my hand crunching a picture of the victim up. This was used to show anger and frustration.

Shot No.7

For shot number seven, the group decided that I should finally show my full face. Since we wanted to make my character quite powerful, we decided that she should throw the papers across the table.

Shot No.8

We then wanted a close-up of the images face down so that the audience couldn't see what was underneath. We wanted Daniel to begin to turn them off so that we could use a cut to stop the whole image being revealed.

Shot No.9

For the dialogue, we planned to use an over the shoulder shot. "So how shall I do it?" was a line was Daniel was going to say to hint towards assassination.

Shot No.10

Since we needed a reverse shot, we decided to use it at this point. An over the shoulder shot was planned so that you could see me say, "I don't care as long as it's done."

Shot No.11

For this shot, we wanted Daniel to ask a question that made the female character quite angry. "Why do you want him dead?" not only told the audience that it was an assassination but also angered the female. We wanted me to rise at this point so that I was higher than Daniel within the frame. This was to show my authority and power over him.

Shot No.12

For our 180-degree rule, we decided to have me stood above Daniel shouting  "That is none of your concern! So are you in...or not?" 

Shot No.13

Our final shot was going to be the revealing of the photo. We wanted to camera to tilt down to reveal that the victim was a cat. This was to add  a twist (like a thriller) but also comedy to turn it into a parody.

The practice:

Once we has storyboarded, we decided to do a practice run through of the film. This was just a quick test to make sure the camera shots would work. We filmed it using Iain's phone as it was just a run through. The shots of me and Daniel speaking were filmed wrong as they should of been on the other person's shoulder (e.g when I am speaking, it should have been filmed looking over Daniel's shoulder not mine.) Since it was a run through, we realised the mistake we had made so we would not make the same error in the real film.

Here is our practice with the bloopers included:

Costumes

For this mini task, we even decided to make sure the costumes were correct.

Iain- Iain was the secretary so we decided that he should wear a shirt and tie. This was to show sophistication.

Daniel- Daniel was the assassin so we wanted him to wear a hooded jacket and dark clothing. This was to represent secrecy, mystery and a darker side to him.

Lizzie (Me)- I had to wear a skirt, blouse, blazer and heels. This was so I would appear taller, formal and powerful. We also decided that I should wear red lipstick to help me to look slightly more mature and formal.

Editing:
Once we had filmed the piece, we edited it. We began by using a fade in, followed by many cuts. The cuts were used to keep the pace of the film and also to build suspense. For example, we used a cut when Daniel goes to look at the photos so the audience doesn't see the image. We also decided to add a black and white effect to the film. This was to represent the secrecy of the narrative and to keep the lighting quite dark. I think that this film noir idea really worked nicely. We also used a dissolve between the shot of me stood up to the shot of the images on the desk. This was used instead of a cut so the suspense was kept a tad longer as the shot tilts down towards the images. We also used the dissolve to experminet with editing techniques ready for our main task. To finish we faded to black to show closure and to lead onto the credits. For the credits, we were going to use the dramatic music 'O Verona by Craig Armstrong' but for copyright reasons we decided to use our own sound effect from the bloopers. This added more of a parody effect.

This was the music we were going to use but didn't for copyright reasons:

The final piece:

What we changed from the storyboard:

1.  In shot no.1, we didn't use a tracking shot. We liked it better as a still frame so that Daniel could walk into the frame.

3. In shot no.3, we didn't change into a close-up fro the mid-shot. Since it was quite a quick shot, we preferred the camera to stay fixed.

12. In shot no.12 we changed the dialogue from "That is none of your concern! Are you in or not?" to "That is none of your concern! Now kill him!" We did this so it sounded melodramatic to add slight humour.

Bloopers:Here is the bloopers to our filming. As you can see, we realised some continuity errors (e.g the door was open at the beginning so we closed it.)

Overall:Overall, I was very pleased with our preliminary as it was funny and well thought out. I really liked the shots we used and the ideas behind it. I think it gave us good practice ready for our main task and it was a lot of fun to film.