First Impressions of Filming

Today my group and I began filming the shots for our preliminary Exercise. We encountered several difficulties whilst filming such as starting filming in one room and then the room have a class in when we needed to film again. To over come this, luckily we had only taken two small shots when we first started as the lesson ended, so we just started fresh in the free room in the next lesson and had a whole hour. Another problem was constantly using the 180 degree rule, it just made us have to be more careful when filming different shots.

We decided to film our task in the hall as it matched the room fairly well that we drew in our storyboard. We also used props in our shots such as a mug and attempted to use shot reverse shot, the 180 degree rule and match on action. Overall it went fairly well and we managed to over come most of the problems that faced us.

We used a hand held camera with a screen aside it, and we attached it to the tripod which helped us have smooth movements in shots. We also included a handheld shot where I carried the camera across the room whilst filming to accentuate someone shakily watching the scene going on infront of them.

I was in charge of the camera for this exercise so that Ben and Thomas could act. This meant that I had to be really careful when filming shots to make sure I was including them in the shot if it was an over the shoulder shot for example.

I also learned how to get that hang of using the microphone to pick up speech as its clearer than the camera. Luckily I had brought my earphones so I could listen to make sure it was picking up sound. This does mean that when we eventually put all the shots together we need to lay the sound recording over the top. I have no idea how difficult it will be to put the sound recording over the top of the video recording, but it will definitely be a learning curve for me.

Overall i think the whole exercise went pretty well as Thomas and Ben took GCSE Media so they were there to help and educate me at the same time as doing the task. Obviously it wont be a perfect video but I believe I have made a good start to filming and understanding camera work.

Key terms and Techniques for Filming

Match on Action- This is an editing technique where one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This is not a graphic match or match cut, it portrays a continuous sense of the same action rather than matching two different things. It is simply a cut that connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement.  For example,  a person begins to get up from a sitting position and is being filmed side on. Then the camera cuts to a shot, which shows the person finishing standing up, but filmed from the front so you can see the persons whole face.

Shot/Reverse shot- A film technique wherein one character is shown looking (often off-screen) at another character, and then the other character is shown looking “back” at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer unconsciously assumes that they are looking at each other.

The 180 Degree Rule-  An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character will always be frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. The 180-degree rule enables the audience to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the immediate subject and is important in the narration of battle scenes.