Preliminary Exercise

For our first task in AS Media Studies, we had to create a short clip, around 30 seconds long. There were several requirements we had to fill - in terms of content, it had to include two characters - one of whom had to enter through a door, and cross a room. The two characters had to then exchange a few lines of dialogue. In terms of cinematography, we had to display three different skills. These are listed, along with the definitions, below.

180 degree rule is a rule that allows for a sense of continuity in a scene. When filming using the 180 degree rule, there is an invisible axis drawn parallel to (or straight through) the placing of the characters, meaning whatever angle you view them from, they will always have the same left-right relationship. If you cross the invisible axis, the character who originally appears on the left will then appear on the right side of the shot, which is potentially confusing for the viewer, especially in a situation where the background is very similar. This rule is almost always followed, apart from in some situations in which it is purposefully broken to cause confusion.

Match-on-action is a technique used to cut between shots when there is a character/moving object involved. For example, it's commonly used when someone is moving from one room to another - there's a shot of them opening the door from behind, and then the shot cuts to one of the door opening from in front. These two shots don't necessarily have to be taken at the same time - often, the action is just repeated twice as similarly as possible, and then the two clips are edited together to make it a smooth, natural looking transition.

Shot-reverse-shot is a technique used when two characters are in close proximity and facing each other - typically during a conversation. This allows the viewer to focus on one person's emotions during a scene - if it is shown the other way round, the tone the audience will get from a certain interaction could be completely different.

In this scene here from Fight Club, shot-reverse-shot is shown several times. From the start of the clip to 0.08, the camera switches from Tyler's face to the Narrators and back several times according to who's speaking. Match-on-action is also continually showed throughout. When Tyler and the Narrator are just about to have their first fight, from 0.08 to 0.17, there are four examples of this. This allows several different angles and actions to be shown within a short amount of time, whilst still keeping the scene smooth and flowing. Throughout the entire clip, the 180 degree role is demonstrated, as the camera never goes the other side of the two characters, therefore sustaining their left-right relationship (making it a lot easier to understand whilst watching).

Our Preliminary Task
Our preliminary task was a drug deal. We chose this as we felt it would allow for a lot of different camera angles and a potentially really interesting location.

Location
We wanted our location to reflect the mood we felt the topic should have. Therefore, we decided to try and find a place which was dark and small, that looked like it was unused and hidden away. We decided to hold it in an underground boiler room - it had the perfect look, and it was dark but not too dark as it had some natural light coming in from a skylight type small window.

Casting
It was quite difficult to find an appropriate cast for our Preliminary task. Since we were filming it inside of school, and in school time, we had to base our cast around anyone who had free periods in the time frame we had to film it. However, despite this, we did manage to find two people who fit the cast quite well, one of whom had a GCSE in Drama. To help our actors fit with the role better, we had them wear specific clothes that we felt would fit with the scene - baggy jumpers, jeans and one of our actors wore a backward cap.

Characters
Since our characters only had a couple lines of dialogue each, we didn't really have to focus on much else about them apart from how they presented themselves. The clothing we had them wear mostly made the scene adopt the right mood, but in addition we had to tailor the dialogue so it showed the power dynamic between them.

Equipment and editing
The equipment we used was quite basic - just a camera and a monopod. We decided to use a monopod over a tripod, as the location we had chosen meant we had a variety of angles to choose from, and so using a monopod would allow us to take advantage of every angle we could (tripods aren't always as easy to place as monopods, as they are a lot bigger).

Editing was also fairly simple. Some parts were difficult, but only due to the fact that it was our first time filming and so we didn't know what makes match-on-action really effective - small, subtle movements of the camera/actor following the previous movements etc. Apart from that, it was fairly easy as all it was, was cutting out excess parts and matching up the shots correctly.

Here is our finished piece.

If we had the chance to do the task again I would change a lot of things, but mainly the two biggest problems we found during editing, which were the jumpiness between cuts and the lack of different shots to evaluate during editing. To fix the jumpiness, there were a lot of things we could have done. After doing some research, I found that to make a cut more smooth, doing things like panning e.g. left to right just slightly at the end of a shot, then carrying on this at the start of the next shot is a very subtle but effective way to make it more smooth. The same can be said for the actors - I would definitely make sure that, for example, going on from a full body shot to a close up, they are still moving e.g. left to right just very subtly at the start of the next cut to carry on leading the eye, allowing for continuity. I think that as it was our first time filming in a group, and since we weren't completely comfortable sharing our actual opinions, we were probably too nervous to say that maybe a specific shot needed to be re-done, or to share an idea for a different camera angle. I think we weren't all too sure on how to manage our time, and so some parts were a bit rushed as we only had around 40 minutes to actually film.