Thursday, 31 January 2013
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Year 13 Advice Stephanie Head
Year 13 Advice Stephanie Head
Before our group did our Prelim the Year 13s who had previously done the same task gave us advice to make our coursework the best it could possibly be.
One of the points the year 13s gave us was to try and keep a steady hand whilst we were filming, we had to be extra steady as couldn’t use a tripod with the iPhone we had. The iPhone was also advised to be in the same angle the whole way through as when edited the frame of the clip would change.
They said not to be scared to try different things, we should take loads of different shots of the same clip and when editing see which one looks best. They also said not to delete any shots we take as if something goes wrong you have other clips to back up your coursework.
Where you chose your location to be is another bit point the year 13s discussed. They said to choose a location where different angles of the same action can be shot. We were told to make sure the location was suitable, make sure we were allowed to use it and it was safe to film on. We could put location on the risk assessment as well if it had dangers.
We were advised to download professional editing software to assure our clip in the end was the best it could be with the highest standard editing. The better the editing programme was said to make it easier for us as it basically did the editing by a few clicking of buttons.
The most significant point was to make sure you start filming as soon as possible and finish early so you can begin editing that takes up the most time. You may get to the editing part and then realise you’ve made a mistake so have to redo it. They advise you to manage the time you have well and be organised with how you are going to do it.
Overall the Year 13s gave us a good advice to take on board before making our prelim which made us clear of what to do and how to do it well.
Stephanie Head
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Monday, 28 January 2013
Preliminary Log By Callie Richardson, Beth Cass and Stephanie Head
Pre-
Production
When starting the task, we was shown a PowerPoint of what the
preliminary content needed to be, for example it had to have 3 different type
of editing such as: Match on action-
this is where different shots taken need to match the next action shown and
have a flowing transition. 180 degree
rule- the relationship of the characters on screen must stay on the same
side to not confuse the audience. Shot
reverse shot- This is shown to indicate conversation and to see the
characters facial expressions. It needed to involve a shot of a character
opening the door and walking through it, the characters sitting/standing
opposite each other and exchange of dialogue between two characters. We was
then shown some examples of peoples preliminary videos from other schools and
analysed them through a group discussion in class by discussing what they could
improve and whether they followed every one of the MUSTS that the video should
include. We could then use this as a guide for our own ideas and use as advice
on how to make our video look better and what mistakes not to make. We also
watched another example of one of our peers in our lesson, as they had the
right equipment and knowledge of editing, we could see the effectiveness of the
scene flowing and the importance of the shots. After this we got into our
groups and started brainstorming ideas that we could do with the resources we
had (e.g the location of the school) and what resources were available to use
at the time.
Using a storyboard before making our production gave us a guide
and idea to what we wanted our clip to look like. We could then follow a plan
for our production to make the clip flow. A problem that we encountered was our
first chosen location wasn’t available and therefore had to recreate the story
board for another storyline. We also learnt that using a storyboard is a
flexible planning tool and able to readjust to things we aren’t happy with.
Using pictures to illustrate the scene helped us structure our preliminary
video and allowed us to establish what camera angles and shots we would use. Also
allowed us to film the scenes or clips in order to make editing easier. We
decided also for each separate scene to take a few shots at different angles to
allow us more choice when it came to editing.
The year 13s advised us to try keep a
steady hand whilst filming as we was using an IPhone to film, which wouldn’t
fit onto a tripod. Also to keep the IPhone the same orientation in all of the
clips taken, so then when edited, the frame stays the same throughout which
saved any problems like cutting someone’s head out or missing a
movement/action. Another bit of advice they gave was to use a location where different
angles of the same action can be taken, so that when it came to editing we had
a few shots that we could choose from and use which one looked better.
Bethany Cass
Production
Whilst
filming the prelim our group were faced with many problems. One of them was
that it was unexpectedly hard to carry on filming a simple dialogue scene for
thirty seconds. It seemed easy before but after filming once we realised we
hadn’t filmed for long enough, so had to do it again. Another problem was that the iPhone we
filmed with had to stay the same angle to whole way through as the frame would
change size if you turned the phone another way to maybe film a bigger shot.
Making sure we got the right shots was another problem as many mistakes could
be made for example shots didn’t flow or the shot before didn’t match perfectly
with the next shot. There could be problems such as the background may involve
a person or prop when it shouldn’t.
Many lessons
were learnt by our group to assure we do in the main thriller task. For example
making sure you use a tripod or have a very steady hand whilst filming. Making
sure the scenes flow and have no hiccups where the scene behind is in a
completely different angle or place. The
more shots you do the better as you can keep them as work and you may need them
in emergency. We also learnt to take our time and not rush each scene, we
realised that thirty seconds is quite a long time to create a story/scene. Also make sure you plan out what you are
going to do before even if it means having dialogue on a bit of paper or a
story board as when filming it makes it so much more easier when you know what
you are doing next. Most clips go wrong when it isn’t planned before as they
miss out what could be written clearly on a story board.
Filming took
a lot longer than expected. Our group created a whole clip in fifteen minutes
and thought we were finished. When we watched over again we realised we had
done it too quick, made loads of mistakes and left vital things out such as
shot reverse shot. On the second try of making the Prelim task we took our time
and made sure we involved as much as possible to increase our mark. You have to
make sure that everything goes smoothly in the clip and this takes a lot of
time.
If we had a
chance to do the Prelim task again I would firstly change how many different
shots and angles we took the film from.
I would do loads of them so you have loads to fall back on if something
goes wrong. I would also take my time a lot more and not rush it as if you rush
you miss a lot out and tend to make mistakes easier. I would film the clip on a
camera this time and edit it on a laptop as we found it hard editing it on an
iPhone which has a smaller screen and lacks the resources a laptop could offer.
Stephanie Head
Post Production
After we had filmed the preliminary clip we found there were
a few different problems with the editing. First when we put all the different
scenes together we realised that the places we started and stop did not match
up making the clip very jolted and didn’t flow correctly. So we had to chop and
change each of the short scenes in order to make the scenes flow well together.
Another problem we encountered was the flicking between scenes, when we put all
the scenes together we found that the scenes didn’t flow into each other and
there was a slight flick, which made the clip very unprofessional and poorly
edited. However we could not correct this as we didn’t have the right equipment
to do so. Last we noticed when we put all the scenes together that we had
filmed the scenes that some was landscape and some were portrait so when we put
all the scenes together it didn’t look right. So we had to re-film a few of the
scenes to make them all landscape and flow well together.
I found that doing the prelim was helpful as we got a better
understanding of how to film and how to edit a clip, as we hadn’t done anything
like this before we thought that the filming and editing would be fairly easier
however it was far more difficult than we thought. As we had a few different
problems with the editing we didn’t know how to sort the problems out with
using the app we downloaded but because we did this before we did our real
thriller scene we now know how to sort out all the problems that we may
encounter.
From having other media students watch our prelim we got some
feedback that was helpful for us such as we needed to correct software to film
our thriller and get a professional camera and tripod in order to film our
scene to a high standard. As we filmed on an iPhone the quality of the scene
was not as good as it could have been and as and iPhone is small and when we
uploaded it to YouTube it was a larger scale the clip was blurred. They suggested
that we needed to get the correct editing software to make our scene flow
better and look more professional as our preliminary wasn’t filmed to high
standard as it was our first time and we had learned how to use a camera
properly yet.
The prelim task did not match our first visualisation as we
wanted to have a complete different scenario but as we could not use the place
we wanted we changed the scene completely to fit another area, however because
we did this I believe that the scene was better as our new storyline seemed to
fit the criteria we needed to match, such as: open a door and sit on a seat. On
the other hand it was different changing the area we filmed it as we had made a
storyboard and had planned to film in the sport hall so we had to quickly
change our clip and re plan the story board.
Callie Richardson
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