2. Introduction
Purpose of this preliminary task was to master media studies skills and techniques. For my
preliminary task I was assigned to do two tasks, photo story assignment and video assignment. Me
and my group partner both decided to do photo story individually.
Photo story task was involving taking range of
still images which are placed in a chronological
sequence in order to visually depict narrative.
This task should show my knowledge and understanding
of shot types and framing.
Continuity task I done in group with my friend. We decided to take it to another level because we
were full of ideas, so we chose to film a complete short film. Having in mind the scope of the work
both of us were prepared to produce something that fulfills criteria and at the same time fulfills our
creative need to express our creativity trough moving image medium.
3. Pre-production
During this initial stage of preliminary task I have realized that pre-production is the most important
segment of film production. At this stage I have carried out relevant primary and secondary research.
Prior to starting with this stage I have researched what pre-production entails and on the basis of the
research both of us have carried out range of specific group and individual tasks. The research
involved creating the storyline with the references to mainstream films narrative structure. Besides
coming up with imaginative story and title first we needed to research 3 rules witch we going to use
in our short film : 180 degree rule, shot/reverse shot , match on action. We came up with how our
characters should look like and witch characteristic they should have so we can find actors with
similar look and find costumes. As my individual task I did initial and final script and learned how to
properly compose and structure script so it follows mainstream script writing codes and conventions.
And my group partner did storyboard witch is really useful during filming for having a plan witch type
of shot should be in witch scene. We were looking for where to film and found couple of potential
location witch was hard because we were limited to school and school surrounding. After that we
asked friends from school to audition for actors so we found potential ones and chose the final ones.
They were not perfect but they had free periods when we filmed and they voluntarily did it. We
already had all props and they dressed that day in their costumes so the filming could started.
5. Production
So after preparing everything we were ready to film. We used following camera techniques: establishing
shot, pan, close up, long shot, mid shot, and master shot. We used these techniques to make some effects.
Establishing shot we used to introduce the setting and the character within it. A pan we used to follow the
keys as they as passed across the table, as it highlights their importance and a close up of the clock is
used to convey that girl is waiting. We had some problems during filming, because our camera was turning
of if there was not enough movement. So when we managed to film scene we would happy and we forgot
to check twice if everything is in focus. In many shots the camera is focused on an irrelevant place whilst
the significant part. Such as the hand kissing scene is out of the focus . This occurred because we focused
the camera and positioned it where we needed it. However, we had not realised that we had focused the
camera on the background and then when the hand kissing was brought into frame it was blurred which
may have led to some unintentional ambiguity. Here is a screenshot from the film showing the unfocused
scene
Our film
Example of
unfocused picture
6. Production
Other problem we had was camera shacking
and this problem was a result of time
constraints and a lack of experience with
using a camera. I feel that, next time if we do
some camera work we will be far more
prepared and experienced resulting in a far
more professional looking film.
During editing we relisted that one video has
a bad sound. We did not had microphones so
I guess that was possible scene to happen.
And we could not refilm scene , because
actors have school and it would be almost
impossible to organize everything again. We
will make sure to check sound in our final
task twice.
Scene from our movie where
camera is shacking
Example of shacking
camera picture
Scene that had bad
sound
Lack of microphones
7. Editing
For preliminary task bought of us have
decided to use pinical studio 15 video
editing program. This program is
considered semi-professional and it is
user-friendly. Mein editing problem that
we had encountered is not being able to
insert Photoshop created captions
instead we have to use program pre
designed text credits creator as the
focus was on camera work and editing
so credits are basic and simple
Editing our
film
Examples of
editing
