Media Studies 2009-2011

Looking back at our Preliminary exercise i feel that we did a really good job with our first attempt. For our first shot we had someone run into the hall and run up to the door. In this shot we had way too much head room as the person was seen at a distance, this shot should of been split into a multiple of shots to get every angle of the path to the door. The shot with the hand on the door was good as it was taken at a good distance and angle however the editing was too slow when the hand touched the door as it should of been straight away. Throughout the shots we had great lighting even when the person walked through the door in the room. After the person walked in she looked into the mirror and thats when we had a point of view shot when we filmed her looking into the camera as if it was a mirror, i felt that this was really effective and was the best shot in our exercise. However in that next shot there was a huge jump cut where there wasnt enough film when walking in. When the person walked into the room the door closed to show a sign that read “office”, at the time it seemed a good idea however looking back we all thought that the office sign needed to be before opening the door so that we knew where the person was going before she opened the door. When we came to the part when both characters exchanged dialoge we had really good sound so you could hear them really clearly, however when we exchanged dialoge we didnt include a shot/reverse shot which was an important part of our exercise. Our Preliminary exercise could of gone much better than planned, however despite our numorus mistakes i felt that we did a good job as a group yet we were’nt succesful.   

 Our Final piece of our Preliminary exercise

Once you’ve captured your idea onto paper, then you can visit the innumerable sites created to help writers turn raw ideas into workable scripts. Once you have received tons of encouragement and suggestions, you need to turn the description you have into an outline or a more technical treatment. The terminology can, at this stage, get confusing, as different approaches to early development are referred to in different ways (such as outlines, synopses, treatments). The essential thing is to develop the idea into a structured story that will work as a screenplay.

At this point you can show your work to others and get feedback, you can then rework the idea and think about what makes it cinematic. Who are the characters? What is the plot, the premise, the theme? When these components have come together in your mind it’s time to put your story down in script format. Production companies and directors are used to scripts that look a certain way, so it is worth getting to grip with industry conventions early on.

Sticking to industry standard formatting will help to give you a rough idea of the length of the film. Standard formatting roughly equates to a page per minute. You will need to continue developing your project, responding to criticism and absorbing new ideas into your script. If you are working with film and/or TV professionals, it’s very likely that you will go through a number of drafts.

A “video shot log” is a written record of the shots on a tape or disk. It can be made either as the shoot progresses or after the shoot finishes and it really helps to do the shot log during the shoot if you want to save time. If you are working in a larger team environment you will probably have a standardised format so everyone uses the same system and gets the required information.

here is an example of how a shot log can be formatted:

For our Preliminary exercise we began a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, where both characters exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. We will be demonstrating a match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

We will be planning, filming and editting a 30 second sequence in which a person walks down a corridor and opens a door. We could use a point of view shot for when the character enters the room, In the room another person is sitting. We could use the 180 degree rule and match on action for when we show the characters sitting opposite eachother. We could also use over the shoulder shots or shot-reverse shot for when the characters exchange dialogue. When the package has been given to the other character it representes the end of the sequence and may offer a resolution or establish an enigma.

We would have to try to use at least one close-up and one extreme close-up during this exercise and it is also important that you observe continuity rules and not break the 180 degree rule. All shots must be taken using a tripod. In our work we would have to show appropriate sound levels, Correct composition, framing, lighting, white balance and appropriate use of story telling to make it easy for the audience to understand.

We looked at one example of this exercise by Mr Marshall and Mr Manix and evaluated it. all through the exercise there was just the right amount of head room however for the first shot of mr Manix and the reverse shot of mr Marshall the head room could have tightend a bit as there was a little bit of unwanted head room. There was a wide range of camera shots and the camera panned steady and slowly which was effective, the close up of the door handel and the chair was effective and used correctly. The only dissapointment was the sound as it was a tad fuzzy and difficult to hear, other than that this was the perfect example of a prelinary exercise which we could of learned from.