Preliminary Exercise:



Evaluation of our Preliminary Exercise:

In class, we were asked to create a short film sequence as part of our preliminary exercise demonstrating the use of continuity whilst filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. The aim of this exercise is to demonstrate all the techniques we have studied in lessons and put that into practice. These include techniques such as match on action, shot/ reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

1) Discuss how your group came up with the idea for the script. How efficient was the discussion? What key decisions were made?

In class we were categorised into 4/5 different groups, our group consisted of myself, David, Nimesh and Keval. We began to discuss the different genres in the film industry today and what we believed would be a powerful, gripping genre that would hold our audiences attention. After several minutes of an intense discussion, we finally came to the conclusion that we wanted to film a horror, mystery and suspenseful thriller. The discussion was extremely efficient as each of us took turns to explain our thoughts and ideas whilst the remainder of us began to write these ideas down to include them to our script and storyboard. It wasn’t long before our script slowly began to come together, clearly demonstrating the shot numbers, pictures/titles/graphics, and types of shot, duration and music, dialogue/sound effects. The key decisions that we came up with as a group were that we wanted the film to be a mystery so that the audiences were unaware as to what scene would take place next.

2) Reflect on the planning/storyboarding stages and upload these:

In my opinion, I believe that we worked extremely hard and effectively to produce our storyboard and script. Whilst we took some time to decide the order of shots and the different camera techniques and angles that we were going to use in our film sequence. We were consistent throughout and continued to ask each other what we thought about our thoughts and opinions on the script. Illustrated below is the planning stages of our storyboard and shoot schedule:

Shot 1 – Title of the movie, screen fades into a black backdrop and slowly we see Nimesh sitting down at the desk working away on the computer. This type of shot is a high angle, medium shot. Thriller music can be heard in the background of the scene.

Shot 2 – An extreme long shot of Nimesh sitting down at the desk working away on the computer. Thriller music can still be heard playing the background of the scene.

Shot 3 – This type of shot is a medium shot of David who passes by the window and smacks the glass, standing eerily up against it before slowly backing away. The camera gradually moves towards Nimesh who is staring towards the window horror stricken. Thriller music is played quietly in the background.

Shot 4 – This type of shot is a reaction shot of Nimesh as he is in shock and disbelief about the strange occurrences that seem to be taking place around him. The shot then changes to a medium shot as we begin to track Nimesh moving away from his computer towards the window to see if his “stalker” is still outside the building.

Shot 5 – We continue to film using a tracking shot of David outside of the building as he begins to walk away from the window down the street. The music begins to increase its tempo due to the speediness of the scene.

Shot 6 – This particular shot is a pan shot as we turn the camera away from Nimesh to focus on the bang/smack which is heard on the door behind. Thriller music is still being played quietly in the background of the shot.

Shot 7 – The shot used in this scene is a POV (point of view) shot as we zoom onto David’s face, which is only visible through the window frame in the door.

Shot 8 – We decided to use another tracking shot of Nimesh as he begins to walk around the room heading in the direction of the classroom door.

Shot 9 – Close up of Nimesh’s hand gripping the doorknob.

Shot 10 – Medium shot of Nimesh opening and walking through the door way into the main corridor of the building.

Shot 11 – POV shot of David standing at the end of the corridor, head bowed down.

Shot 12 – Tracking shot of Nimesh walking towards David.

Shot 13 – Close up of David as he looks up gazing into the camera.

Shot 14 – Tracking shot of David walking up the corridor towards Nimesh meeting him halfway.

Shot 15 – Medium shot of David stabbing Nimesh. The camera begins to turn away from the scene and slowly changes to a close up of David as he looks into the camera.

3) How efficient was the shoot? Additionally, embed screen grabs demonstrating the required techniques from the brief.  

I believe that the shooting of our film sequence was extremely efficient for the reason that we all worked well together to co-operate and succeed in making a great thriller movie. Whilst we had a few hiccups where the camera stopped working we managed to fix these errors and threw ourselves back into our filming working harder than ever. Thankfully, we worked tremendously well together as a group and what’s more, we had lots of fun whilst filming our movie as well.

Screen Grabs Demonstrating the Required Techniques From the Brief