Prior to starting media studies at AS I had never had any experience filming never mind understanding how to use a DSLR camera. I thought that i would be able to film both portrait and landscape but this was not the case as i learned you can only film landscape. I also learned that there were two settings on the DSLR cameras one for filming and one for taking photos- all data is stored separately.I knew some basic terminology e.g long shot and close up shot but there were many that I wasn't familiar with. Soon I learned the terms 180 degrees rule, shot reverse shot and match on action.
The prelim (an event which precedes or prepares for another in particular:) task was a continuity task where we had to film a character opening a door, walking across the room, sitting down with them and having a conversation. The characters involved were the people who weren't filming. This was when we were able to put the 180 degrees rule and shot reverse shot to the test to give us a better understanding of these terms. We were told to follow the 180 degrees rule but also break it in order for us to see how critical it is to follow this. Once we had gathered out footage it was down to us individually to edit it these using Final Cut Pro X. We made four different edits: prelim basic, breaking the 180 degree rule, prelim with titles and prelim with SFX and titles. This was the first time we were introduced to final cut so generally people were quite daunted as this was a professional piece of software. For this process we only really needed to use the simple tools such as the cut and select tools so this was pretty basic. I also learned how to to transfer the footage from the SD card to the desktop and how to import it into final cut. Our planning was minimal for the preliminary task as we had only created a basic story board but we had no screenplay or shot list to follow. We didn't use any props or a cast as we used the people who weren't filming. Also we stayed in the same location so no planning was needed there.
The swede was our second experience with filming and editing. We first watched the existing film example of the Paddy Consindine film Tyrannosaur which is produced by Warp Films. Our aim was to recreate the story line but we were turning the Warp style film to a Working Title style film. We looked into the other typical working title film and we found that they generally use a well known stereotype of an upper class man from the south of England, London. We changed the lower working class character in Tyrannosaur to this typical Working Title character. In the opening of Tyrannosaur it shows a drunken man using vulgar language so we transformed him to a well spoken upper class man. At first we tried to do the swede without any planning, the outcome of this wasn't good. I learnt that the planning e.g storyboard, screenplay and shot lists were vital factors that helped production to be more efficient. Following this each one of us was then designated with a separate role e.g Screenplay, shot list and storyboard for scene 1,2 and 3, props used in the swede and a director . By using this technique it enabled us to be more independent and gave us the knowledge and preparation to go out and get the shooting completed. We all took turns to to film a different part of the swede, from this I learned how to use the equipment more independently and think about different types of shots and depth of field without any support from the teacher. Once we had gained all of the footage it was then down to us to complete the editing. After brief contact with final cut in the preliminary task our knowledge was still fairly limited. Once we had simply used the cut and select tool to created a rough version we then went on to include SFX and titles. This helped us create the humorous feel we set out to present.
From the swede the key aspects I learned was that planning a major step in order for the production to he successful. Independence when it came to filming and editing- the filming showed that it was better to hold the camera using a tripod as it made it more sturdy and had a more professional look, and for the editing I learned how to use the tools more effectively in order the give the swede a better look overall.
After the swede, we went in to research more into Warp and Working Title to see how their companies develop so we did film opening analysis to help get a better fame for how we want out AS film openings to look. From this we pitched our film opening ideas to the class. Milo, Tom and me all chose the social realism genre to research further and pitch. We found that it was generally warp films that provided social realism films e.g This is England so this influenced our ideas. As we all pitched the same genre ideas, it was down to us as a group to decide on which was most likely to work best, eventually we came to a conclusion that we were going to work with Tom's idea. Each of us looked into 3 other social realism films: I had 'The Guvnors', Milo had 'Harry Brown' and Tom had 'Ill Mannors'. These analysis's helped influence Toms idea further which helped us get the idea setting stone. The two main protagonists would be opposites and the locations would include council estates etc in order to follow the conventions of these other social realism films.
Once we had our idea set we each had a role in terms of the planning. Tom completed the storyboard, Milo completed the screenplay and I completed the the shot list. Whilst doing this we has already thought about cast and location and what would work best for our film opening. For the cast we used Milo to represent the teenage protagonist and Tom's dad to represent the older protagonist. so we didn't have any complications in finding the characters, For the locations we were able to include council estates as we knew of some due to us living in close proximity to them. We were also able to use Tom's dads bedroom and Milo's bedroom to shoot the bedroom scenes, so there was no accessibility problems in terms of locations. We had already thought about the type of shots we were going to use as we created the story board trying use a widest range and variety we possible could. This included:
Sliding Scale
Movement
Angles
Common Framing
Sliding Scale
- Close Up Shot
- Medium Close Up Shot
- Medium Shot
- Medium Long Shot
- Long Shot
- Extreme Long Shot
- Establishing Shot
Movement
- Panning Shot
Angles
- Low Angle
Common Framing
- Over the Shoulder Shot
- Two Shot
As I had already used the majority or these shots it was easier to incorporate them into our film opening. In terms of movement- the panning shot worked well as it enabled the audience to see what Michael was looking and gave them a better sense of what he could see. The low angles also helped in the bedroom scene to show the characters sat on the side of their bed, we could fully see their faces even though they were looking down so the audience could see their expressions and emotions. And the two shot of the characters coming together at the end helped us include common framing.
By the time we got to the editing stage everyone seemed very comfortable with the process and using Final Cut Pro X due to the fact we had had experience during the prelim and the swede. After using the basic and more simple tools through out the prelim and swede we were then able to advance these in the process of editing our own film opening. An example of a more complexed tool we used is when we created a time lapse by speeding up the clip. We did this by choosing "Show Redtime editor" from the Retime pop up menu (or Command-R). Then we chose a speed and applied a fast preset speed setting. By learning this it helped us incorporate another technique into our opening and also helped represent the passing of time at the end our our film opening.
Throughout the process I have progressed and developed my skills immensely. I have learned vast amount to do with the camera and all the different parts of to to work it as I never fully understood the filming side to the camera. Cinematography was another thing i learned a lot about, the framing of shot types and how this and the mise en scene creates exposition with the characters. I never realised that it can influence how the audience perceives a character. In terms of editing my skills have increased massively and contrast with my limited skills and lack of understanding at the start of the course.
