Evaluation of preliminary Task

During the production of the short film created by our group, I learnt many of the aspects of filming and editing. They include setting up the camera, learning the rules of filming and how to use many editing techniques on the movie making software. One of the key rules of filming is the 180 degree rule. The 180 degree rule is when you are filming two people talking and you must keep on the same side with the camera. This is so that the viewer is not confused when watching the film. The only time the 180 degree line may be crossed is if the camera goes round the back of the characters so that the viewer can see. This is a very important filming rule. An editing technique which I also learned about and used in the short film is a match on action shot. This is where you take 2 or more shots of the same action done by a character from different angles, and when editing, they are put together as if it was all done at once. This is a very difficult technique, however when it is executed well, it looks very good, as a result our group used two in our film. The two match on actions in our short film were one of the things which went extremely well. Both looked like it was on action filmed from two angles simultaneously and gave the film a great feel. Another thing which went well was the J cut used in our short film whereby one character walks in the room, and the sound of the other saying 'good morning' begins before the image of her saying it, this also gave the film a professional look. Something which went wrong slightly were just small things such as the pan at the beginning of the film was slightly shaky, so it made the film look less professional. The most productive thing about working in a group is also sometimes the least productive as there are loads of ideas coming in to make the film look great, this is a good thing because it means the quality is consistently good, however it is also bad because it can cause argument about what would look the best which can result in an unproductive group. This problem could be addressed by ensuring everyone has their say and are allowed to use their ideas at some point in the film. I have learnt many things which will improve my AS coursework production such as, how to use the camera and it's many functions, how to use many techniques when filming and to efficiently use the movie editing software. What please me most about the whole process was the finished article which was the short film, this is because it looked extremely good and professional. The most pleasing part of the production itself was the match on actions in the film as they were done road very high standard. The thing that pleased me most about my role in the film was being able to use some of my ideas in the film as it was great to see them on the final article.

Preliminary Production

CODE66 Preliminary task from Alex Hetherington on Vimeo.

My name is Alex Hetherington and I am studying Media Studies at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School Sixth form. This blog is to show evidence for my coursework for my AS Portfolio for making and opening trailer.