Preliminary task Evaluation

Last week we shot the camera work for our preliminary task. I took on the role of camera man, meaning that it was my position to set up the camera and tripod as well as to operate the camera during the shoot, taking into consideration, the primary features of the camera such as zoom level, white balance, focus, light filters, exposure etc.

Our group of four based our shoot in the film studio which proved useful as we were able to adjust certain variables such as lighting and shadows, set design and due to the fact that the majority of the set was painted in the same shade of white, the process of white balancing was quick and easy. We did however take some footage in an exterior location in order to get a long shot of a character walking towards a door from the outside and opening it, we also did this as a point of view shot (POV).

The Primary issues that we faced when filming in the exterior location were due to light and shadows. Because we were not in a controlled environment, we found ourselves having to adapt to the natural conditions that we were presented with; in this case the fact that it was a very bright day at the time of filming. We overcame the excessive light through use of both light filters and the exposure setting on camera. The second issue we did not entirely manage to overcome was inconvenient shadows. This was an issue when attempting to film the POV shot because we could not avoid the shadow of the cameraman (myself) when opening the door from the outside. As a result of this, we will most likely find ourselves not using that particular shot in the final cut of the preliminary task when we come to editing.    

While in the studio, lighting was an easy feature of the shoot as this could be easily adjusted. Personally I feel as if it was the correct decision to have strong lighting on the characters and set all the way through in order to give the idea that we are conveying a very high-stress situation and creating a tense and overpowering demeanor to the situation which would not have been possible with soft lighting as this would have given the scene a completely different tone, perhaps scary which is not what we, as a group were aiming for.

Throughout the task, i took great care in ensuring that the camera was set up correctly and that all relevant checks were made before the actual filming commenced. We did however, find that we had to re-take one studio shot for the soul reason that once we had cut, i realized that i had not balanced the tripod level, we then had to repeat the scene. After this incident, i made sure to check the tripod level before each individual shot was taken.

I faced difficulty in framing the shot correctly when a character was instructed to walk into the frame and continue the script. This is because, at risk of leaving too much head space in the shot, i wanted to keep the frame tight over the actors head, this meant that a few shots had to be taken as a result of the fact that the top of his head was continually being cut out of the frame as we could not accurately anticipate what level he would come to when he stopped to present his lines. We overcame this difficulty by giving the actor a marker on which to stand, then before the shot was filmed i tested the frame to ensure the perfect amount of head space was given when he stood on the marker. When we filmed the scene, the actor would walk to the exact same point, therefore perfectly framed in the shot and eliminating the issue.

We specifically made sure that we conformed to the 180 degree angle so as not to give the illusion that the characters had swapped sides of the set. This was successfully done and no mistakes were made in this area.

      While filming, correct terminology was used to ensure effective communication amoungst everyone present on set. Before filming a shot, the director would shout "Stand by", everyone on set must then reply "standing by", followed by the director insturcting the camera man to "roll it", replied with "rolling" at which point the camera man will press the record button, the director will wait a moment for the sake of post-production editing and then shout "action" at which point the diegetic action will comence.

      Each shot consisted of the entire scene, for example we would film all of the dialouge in wide and repeat the procces in close up and then mid shot and so on. Different parts of the scene will be cut up and interwieved in the editing procces so that we may choose the most appropriate shot for any one part of the scene at any given time. This methodical procces would not be possible if it were not for the fact that we had a storyboard to conform to, which gave us an clear idea of what shots we needed to take for the overall scene as well as the storyline. A copy of the storyboard can be seen below.