Preliminary Task Evaluation

The preliminary task that was set was to film someone walking through a door, sitting opposite someone else and exchanging a few lines of scripted conversation. To film this I used a Sony Handycam a tripod and used iMovie to edit, I had never used this type of video camera but I found it to be very simple to use and was easy to attach it to the tripod. To use the camera I just had to press one button to start and stop the recording and used the handle on the tripod to control it and film a pan shot.

Editing the video proved to be quite tricky. I had never used iMovie before but I soon got the hang of it. The first obstacle I came across was actually finding where the imported content from the camera went, after this was located I finally got on with editing. This took me a lot longer than anticipated and I did get very frustrated. Editing has to be very precise and even half a second can make a difference, I realised this when editing the match on action clip. Looking at that clip now I realise that  my actor's foot was still on the step when I was behind her, yet she had already got off the step when I filmed her front on. This could be overcome by starting the 'inside room' shot a few frames earlier. The effect of this makes the video look jumpy and jarred.

In preparation for filming I drew up a storyboard and planned what my actors were going to say. They were going to discuss whether actor one was to invite a certain boy to a party. This topic of conversation was basic and easy for my actors to remember. I referred back to the storyboard when I was filming to make sure I was sticking to what I planned. I found using a storyboard a good way to make sure I included the three techniques and didn't miss out any shots.

Seeing as it was my first time using a proper camera to film certain techniques, the first shot was interesting to say the least. I managed to crop actor one's head out of view and wasn't fast enough when I was panning, meaning my actor was out of shot. I did get used to the camera and after multiple attempts, managed to include the three different techniques.

After I finished editing my video, myself and my peers watched it and they gave constructive criticism. The key things that would need to be changed if i re-did it were;

• Try to follow actor one out the room from actor two's eyeline 
• When filming, need to make sure the actors are in the same position if I have stopped filming e.g actor one's arms are folded, when previously weren't 
• Get rid of the empty room at the end, I could have avoided this by maintaing continuity and filming my actor exiting from the other side of the door
• Tell actor two to lean in towards actor one, so she doesn't seem so far away
• Match on action when actor one leaves. I intended to do this but sadly ran out of time.    

After these points were made, my peers also gave me some positive feedback;

• I pan well on entrance
• Manage to include the photographic technique, the rule of thirds, when actor one opens the door
• Good head-room
• Good eyeline view when using shot reverse shot. 
• Smooth tilt to follow the actor when she stands up

To conclude, I really enjoyed constructing the preliminary task and found that all criticism will be useful for the tasks I have to film in the near future.