.

1. ThabssoomIslam
AS MediaStudies
PreliminaryTaskReview
Our preliminarytaskwasapractise sketchthat our grouphad to do,Gabby, NinaandI decidedtodo
an interrogationsketchbasedonatroubledschool girl andan angryteacher.Thistask was setto
give usan ideaof whatour final projectwouldbe anda practise run,thisgave us a chance to adjust
to editingandcameraworkand simplytomake mistakes.Thispreliminarytaskwasessentiallysetto
use the varietyof skillsneededtoeditourshotand use the 180 degree rule.
Our groupwas a small group and each of us had manyideasto putforwardbut itwas difficulttopick
because there wasonlyfewof usand the sketchesthatwe chose neededatleast4-6 people.Sowe
thencame toa decisionthatthere hadto be twoactors and one camera man.Ninaplayedthe role
of the troubledschool girl,Gabbywasthe strictschool teacherand I wasthe cameragirl.Thismade
thingsmuchlesscomplicatedandwe all agreedwitheverything.
The concept of the preliminarytaskwasthatwe had to filmandeditan interrogationbetweena
teacherand student,the troubledstudenthasbeengettingherself intoalotof trouble andthe Head
teacherjustwantedto getto the bottomof things.Inthissketchwe had useddialogue,the 180
degree rule.Thisallowedustocomplete all the shotsthatwere required forthe preliminarytask.
Whenfilmingthe shotswe hadexperiencedsome difficultyinthe room, the sunnatural lightingwas
verylightat one pointandthenstartedto fade,the camera wouldnotpickup the facial expressions
and the problemiswe couldnotmove locationbecause we hadalreadygotmostof the shots.We
had to waitand see if the lightingwouldcome back,eventuallyithadandwe startedto filmthe
shotsagain.Alsothere were some technical soundissueswhere the camerawouldnotpickupthe
dialogue,thismade usrealise thatwe neededtochange locationoruse a bettercamera.
Aftercompletingall the shots,the editingtooksome time asthere waserrorwiththe cameraand
lookingbackat the shots we needtoadd some picturesinthe middle tomake itlookmore defined
and accurate.So to do thiswe thenhad to go back to positiontotake a picture of the initial shot.
Thishelpeduscreate a bettershotand the videowouldrunsmoothly,alsoreplicate the mise-en-
scene effortlessly.The troublewiththe computersinschool wasthattheyweren’tashi-tech(the
school has low- budgetsoftware) butthiswasn’tabigproblembecause we couldimportthe footage
and do the simple cutting,exporting,addingtextandmusic.
Thiswhole taskwasfinishedwithinanhourthisincludedre-shootingsome shotsandtakingsome
picturesaswell.The taskcame outto be a lotof funand verysimple.Were obeyedall the rulesthat
were seteventhoughthere wassome difficultlydoingso.
If we were todo the task againI thinkare whole groupwouldagree todoadd more propsand
people andalsotochoose a more creative preliminarytask,alsoimprove alotof soundsand camera
work.
Throughoutplanning,filmingand editingIhave learntalotof skillssuchas;how effective and
reverse shotis,alsothatthe 180 degree rule isverydifficulttostructure.Thiswasone of the first
sketchesthatI have editedandIhave learnta lot fromediting.All of these skills mayhelpme with
my final videoplan.