Preliminary Task - Miss Miller

In this task, we had to get into our groups and produce a short clip of two people having a conversation. Due to one of my members not being in this task (Ella), we had another member of our class from a different group (Jess) to help with the creation of this small clip. The conversation consisted between me and Jess and Rishika was the person recording it. The purpose of the preliminary task was to get used to the equipment that we will be using when making our own thriller opening sequence. Also to try out a variety of different camera shots and start learning how to create the different shots. The shots that we made in the clip were : panning, close up, shot reverse shot and a long shot. Firstly we took different clips on the camera and once I had all the clips I needed, I edited and put the sequence together on the software, Final Cut Pro. During the editing , what I did was trim the parts of the clips that i didn't want and then put them along side another clip so it could flow. To make sure that the video flowed I repeatedly watched over the sequence to make sure it made sense, after I got my teacher to watch it through as well and give it an approval. 

The equipment we had was a tripod and a camera. The tripod was very helpful when creating this clip as it made the camera more steady so we didn't have any jerky videos which would have been awful to watch. The tripods were quite easy to work with as they have three legs and the screws were easy to learn so adjusting the tripod to our perfect height was not a problem at all. 

Long shot

Jess walking towards music room

A long shot is when the camera shows the entire human body, from head to toe. Whilst focusing on the characters, there is plenty of background detail that still emerges. In my short clip, Rishika recorded a long shot when Jess whilst she was walking towards the piano room. In order to perform this shot, she fixed the camera on the tripod and made it stand still so that she can capture the long shot to show Jess's full body. As this was an easy shot to shoot, Rishika had no difficulties with creating this shot, the only reason why we did it quite a few times was because Jess couldn't hear or see when we were indicating when she could walk in.This showed the audience the background she was in: we can tell she's in the music block as you can see posters of instruments and pegs that convey she's in a school environment. When creating my own thriller opening scene, I will use a long shot to show the audience the setting that character is in which is a forest and to also give them a more of an understanding of why the character is in that place. 

Over shoulder shot

Jess telling me how to improve

Me playing on the piano

A over shoulder shot is when the camera is placed over the shoulder of the character to establish the position of each person, and get a feel of looking at one person  from the others point of view. Commonly between these shots there is a conversation, alternating the view between the different speakers. Rishika placed the camera on the tripod and adjusted it to become More higher so it could reach mine and Jess's shoulder height. Even though we were in a restricted room, she found it quite easy to quickly adjust the cameras height and even place it over our shoulders to achieve this shot. We used this shot when me and Jess were talking about how my piano lessons were going and how she can help me improve on a piece i was playing. This shot helped show the audience what was going and give them a more understanding on both of our positions (Jess the teacher, I was the student). When creating my opening thriller, I will consider to use this technique as it will allow the audience to put themselves in the characters position and make them feel the same way as they do. Also it will allow to clearly show the conversation between the characters and help understanding how they're feeling through their facial expressions.

Close up

Jess playing the piano

In a close up, a certain feature or part of a subject takes up most of the frame. To achieve this shot Rishika placed the camera on the tripod and pressed the zoom in button so that the camera could zoom in closer to the action happening in front of it. As we were in a restricted room, it took some time for her to perfectly record this short close up, as she had to place the tripod in between me and Jess slightly to make sure it looked like I was being taught by Jess to play the piano. In my clip the close up we used was when Jess was playing the piano, this helped emphasise the purpose of why both characters were there and gave the piano a significant purpose in the shot. As the piano was being only shown, this made the audience draw more attention to it making them understand the purpose of the instrument in this clip. When creating my own thriller I will most definitely use a close up on the characters faces to emphasise their emotional state, this is because a close up exaggerates facial expression and conveys emotions. This will make the viewer drawn into the subject's personal space and share their feelings, creating a relationship with the character or subject shown.

Panning

Me walking

Walking outside the door

 A panning shot is where the camera movement moves horizontally left and right about a central axis e.g follows a moving object. This is usually mounted in a fixed location on a tripod or shoulder, rather than a dolly-like movement in which the whole entire system moves. When making this shot, we placed the tripod in a fixed position in the middle and focused it to the frame, then used the handle to help move the camera side to side to create the panning effect. What Rishika did well with this task, was make the clip run smoothly without the camera moving slightly upwards or rapidly. To achieve this, obviously she had a few problems and we did have to shoot this a few times because of the camera not being on the tripod properly or students interrupting whilst filming by accident. As we are making a thriller and ours is not in a school building, obviously when we are shooting properly for our scene, there will be more space and the setting will be isolated so hopefully we wouldn't have difficulties performing this shot like we did on this task. But at the end we did make a successful panning shot for our preliminary task. I used panning when I was walking out of the music room to go outside, this helped to show the environment I was in and it made the audience draw attention of what I was doing because the camera was also following me the whole way. When I make my opening thriller, I will consider using panning shots to show where my characters are moving to and how their body language looks giving the audience a more of an understanding of what is going on in the scene e.g when the protagonist is running away from the antagonist in the woods.





What we did well was that when filming we communicated very well and made sure that everyone in the scene was in the right place for the camera to get the shots. Also, our clip was not blurry at all but what I have learnt is whenever the camera is blurry you should put a sheet of paper in front of it which helps the camera focus more. Watching my footage back definitely helped me highlight the key problems and successes in my clip, as it allowed me to see what mistakes I had made that I was not aware of when filming.
I believe our clip flowed quite easily except from the bit of trouble where there was dialogue said by accident but we couldn't of edited it off because it would have made the shot go from a jump cut to another clip and we didn't want to have that. What I have learnt from this mistake is to make sure that the dialogue said is clear and said at the appropriate time so we wouldn't have the same problem as our preliminary task. Also as the room we were in was kind of restricted and we had a very small amount of space I think we couldn't have recorded our clip to our best ability. What we could improve on next time or when making our opening thriller, is to make sure there is enough space for the camera person to shoot the scene at its best potential. 

To conclude, this task helped me improve my ability on using the camera and creating different shots on a tripod and also start getting familiar with editing using Final Cut Pro. Furthermore, it helped me develop more ideas on what to use in my opening thriller, so that the audience can connect and relate to the characters in the shot. I have learnt that certain shots such as close ups and over shoulder shots help convey the characters emotions through their facial expressions. When I create my opening thriller I will refer back to this post as it was a practise of how to shoot an actual clip, and it will help me gain more understanding on what to use in my opening to make it a successful and engaging thriller sequence.