Preliminary Task - The Video

I believe that we completed this task successfully. Although some of shots are  little jumpy, we managed to use the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot, along with a range of camera shots and angles.
This has been good practise for when filimg my thriller, because i've managed to grasp a good idea of how to use final cut express, and what do when filimg next time i.e. time manage a bit better, plan locations beforehand, film each shot a little longer for editing.

Preliminary Task - What did we do?

There were 4 tasks that we needed to undergo to successfully complete our preliminary task;

1- Storyboard our shot sequence
2- Film our shots
3- Edit our shots on FinalCut Express
4- Upload the final sequence to youtube

After storyboarding our sequence, we went off to find a suitable location (an empty classroom with a hallway outside) whilst filming in the hallway, we had to redo several takes due to people walking past the camera or appearing in the background of the shot, but eventually after around 7 takes we got it.
All filming was going well, most shots being filmed only once or twice. But we soon ran out of time and only finished half our filming, this meant the people being filmed had to bring in the same clothes they wore on our first day of filming later on in the week.


During our next lesson, we went back to our location to find there was a class inside. We thought we'd have to leave filming to another day, but we managed to find another classroom that was near enough identical to the last one to film in.
After filming was complete, we uploaded the clips onto final cut express for editing. All went pretty smoothly, all though some of our shots were cut a bit short after cutting them down to size, making it look a bit jolty. This means when i film next, i will have to film a little before and after the actual shot to leave enough size for it to be cuttable and still smooth.

Preliminary Task - The Brief

For our preliminary task, we had to storyboard, film and edit a short sequence featuring the following;


-Person A walks towards door

-Person A enters through the door and crosses the room to person B

-Person A and B exchange lines

-Either person A or B exits room


It also needed to include the following 'film rules';

-Match on Action;
(when we see a character start an action in one shot and then see them continue into the next shot)

-The 180 degree rule;
(a basic guideline that states that two characters in the scene should always have the same left/right relationship to eachother. If the camera passes over the imaginary line connecting the two subjects it is called 'crossing the line').

-Shot/Reverse shot;
(when you have the camera on one character whilst they are talking and this switches from character to character depending on who is talking)

Denotations and Connotations

Denotations are a literal description of a object, concept or idea. For example, the denotation of the colour Red would be a particular wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum. 

Connotations are what are associated with that same object, concept or idea. For example, the connotations of the colour red could be anger, violence, love, passion, blood heat etc.

Switching Focus

We can shift focus between the foreground and background, it's called Pulling Focus.

If the foreground AND background are both in focus, it's called Deep Focus (Audience can choose 

where they wish to look)