Preliminary Task

In the preliminary task we used cameras in addition with Macs and software Adobe Premiere, to create short films. We create a film titled ‘The Box’ which saw a secret agent take a mysterious ‘box’ to his boss. Our films intended to look professional so such methods like the 180 degree rule, eye line shot and match on action had to essentially be included. The 180 degree rule is fundamental to ensure that on-screen a spatial relationship between a character or character and object within a scene makes sense. A line is imagined and one side of this then forms the perimeter in which the camera cannot cut across unless seen to visually pan round on camera. This rule ensures that the first character will always be frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. If the camera passes over the axis, it is called crossing the line or jumping the line and causes the audience’s eyes to not follow causing it to not make sense. We ensured we stuck to the 180 degree rule and this was shown well in scene 8 during the interaction between the agent and boss. This was guaranteed by the boss always being framed right of the agent, who is then always frame left of the boss. Eye line shot is a sequence of two shots. In the first, you are shown a character looking; in the second you are presented with what he or she sees, as if you were looking out of that character's eyes (in other words, an objective shot of a character followed by a POV shot focalized through that character). We used eye line shot when the two characters are in conversation. However this proved difficult due to the height difference and therefore was not as successful as we had hoped however this helped us learn for next time. We also incorporated a match on action; this is an editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot which portrays the impression of continuity. We feel we used this well in our film during the handover of the box from the agent to the boss, as it looked continuous.

Our whole film was shot within the college grounds. The opening shot was the only one using outside as the background. It featured the agent walking down the path towards the building and therefore the camera (located inside). Due to the shot featuring outside we faced the issues concerning the weather. The first filming of this scene the weather was pleasant however the tripod was positioned off centered meaning that we wished to film it again. However it began to rain; consequently meaning we could not film the shot again so had to instead edit the initial shot. Our shots within the lobby also presented us with problems. This is because of the time of filming which was lunch time. This meant the presents of many students who obstructed some shots causing us to have to re-shoot a couple of them. This thus wasted valuable time. Permanently we also faced the issue of sound intrusions not just from other student’s voices but also vacuums, footsteps and bustling. Despite this the college is modern and this benefited our film as set the desired scene of a futurist business place/ office. Also the added bonus of the lift and obscure angles of the rooms helped make it also look modern and important. Yet all the glass also created problems such as troubles with lighting and shadows. Subsequent to filming we needed to edit our shots to create our short film. We all had previous experience of using apple software therefore the use of Macs was not an issue. However the editing software, Adobe Premiere, was new to use all. This consequently meant it took a little longer to understand, but we soon picked it up. Adobe Premiere allowed us to organize edit and enhance our shots. We first learnt how to import our clips onto the software subsequent to this it gave us control and allowed us to view and pick the best quality and needed shots. From there we learnt how to drag and drop our thumbnail shots into an organised fashion. This organisation was key as we did not film in chronological order. 
We then learnt how to edit our clips and the software allowed us to do this with ease and convenience in one place. The dual large monitor screens, the Macs gave use, allowed for us to view multiple things at once without limiting there size. We could then learn how to easily trim and split clips, meaning the previous issues of filming could easily be resolved. Also the software allowed for us to drop effects right on a frame, which allowed us to tailor our shots to the purpose we intended. We could then also learn how to add effects like transitions which benefited of film as made it look more professional as helped it flow with more ease. We were also able to add text directly onto the shots so therefore we could include titles which also added to making it look more professional. Furthermore Adobe Premiere allowed us to amend and insert sound. We learnt how to adjust sound in ways such as volume and pitch. This helped as previous unwanted sounds such as vacuums and other voices could easily be removed. We could also place in additional sounds; like a background song that we added throughout the film which gave it more atmosphere and tension. We retrieved such song clips and sounds from Garage Band and offline then Adobe Premiere allowed use to easily import and insert these in the desired part within our short film.