Preliminary task evaluation

Well that didn’t turn out as expected! As a group, after the planning, filming and editing process, we were fairly proud of the work we produced, but after looking a little closer at the final piece as a class the flaws identified were uncanny. We took the time as a class to go around the room watching each groups video in turn and then evaluating it from a critical point of view, in hope to make the next piece of filming better. Considering that this was the first time most of the class had used some of the specialist equipment, such as the voice recorders and the boom pole, my partner and I managed to use it quite effectively except in the instance where the boom pole was visible in one of our frames and in a few shots, the character voices are noticeably quiet, perhaps due to the fact that the microphone was not directed lose enough in the direction of the speaking character.

We noticed faults in the filming such as characters heads being cut off as they walked into shot, and the swapping position of characters during the filming which we then found out was because of a lack of abidance to the 180 degree rule. We also had continuity errors in our final piece such as slight movements in character positioning such as different placements of the arms and hands.

I think that most of the errors made were only made because of lack of knowledge in the area, and now that we have identified the mistakes, the same ones will not be made in futher pieces of work. Other errors that were made were made mostly due to the time constraints on this piece of work.

Overall, I am pleased with this piece of film as a first time AS attempt.

 

 

Preliminary task editing

We were given fifty minutes in which to edit our first piece of A Level film, in this time we were required to put the film clips in order detach the set audio and to attach the audio we recorded during the filming process. For this, we used the final cut program. I found this software difficult to use at first, but soon picked up on how to use the different tools and functions in order to give the film a professional finish. A factor that made this task easier was the fact that both my partner and I had used the software before, but it was just re-familiarizing with the program that took some time. Our video ended up being around 25 seconds long by the end of the editing process or cropping footage and selecting the best takes of each scene.

(not mine^)

Preliminary task filming

We used a varied range of shots in this piece, from close up to wide shot, trying to keep the boom pole out of the shot at the same time (which we didn’t manage in one frame). We tried to make sure that each shot followed in to the next one so that we could be sure that the storyline was easy to follow.

We started by filming a pen tapping on the table and then Lucy standing outside of the door and followed by filming her hand turning the door handle. Next we showed her entering there room and then panned her walking towards the desk but cut this journey short and skipped to a close up of her sitting on the seat. Throughout the piece we recorded the sound of the pen tapping with the microphone so that we could later edit out the camera audio, and put this in over the top of the visuals. We used point of view shots from behind both characters shoulders to capture the dialogue.

Overall, as a group, we managed to fulfil all aspects of the task at hand, and in this way I feel that we were successful; at the same time making the dull piece mildly interesting. We do still however, have to edit the film clips together in order to complete the work.

Preliminary task planning

Given the inside knowledge that the important aspect to focus on were the camera work and the positioning of the microphone, we began to plan how we would use the camera and microphone in our piece. Our story line consisted of a girl walking in to the room sitting opposite another character and then having a boring simple four line conversation with her. As simple as this sounds, i know, we did of course add in some details such as close ups of characters mouths, a pen tapping and wide shots featuring both characters. Also, during the planning sage of the process, we decided on our four line conversation:
“Hi, how are you?”
“Not too good, you?”
“I’m fine. What’s up?”
“Doesn’t matter.”

Added to this, we planned out each frame for each shot and how these would link in together (fingers crossed)…

Preliminary task instructions

Yesterday I started the first filming part of my AS Media course. We were given a task to fulfil and 45 minutes in which to complete the filming side, and additionally to be actors in a partnering groups project. In order to complete the task successfully, we had to film one person walking in to a room, sitting down opposite another person and then them having a four line conversation.

Welcome

Jazzmin Fotherby is the name and Media Studies is my game.

During the next year, at lest, I will be blogging regarding topics linked to my A-level media course. I look forward to sharing the pre production, production and post production elements of my projects on my blog, as well as other parts of my course.

I expect that a large quantity of my blog material will be made up of my reviews and opinions on films and new music that i have discovered. My media interests include listening to music, particularly 80s rock (absolute 80s radio is a way of life) and watching TV.