What camera angle has been used in each shot and what has gone well/needs improving?
The first shot we see is a long shot of me closing the front door and walking down the hall way towards the camera. This then switches to a close up of my feet passing by. I liked these shots because they open the scene by building up the tension. You don't know where i'm going or who i'm going to or what is going to happen etc which is quite...mysterious...though i'm not sure i've used the right word to describe what I meant. Infact I think the last few sentences i've written don't make any sense. I'm sorry about that. :) The camera then cuts to a mid/tracking shot of me as I enter the room. The camera follows me to the bed and the shot becomes a two shot of me and Sarah. Next we have a shot-reverse-shot with close-ups of me and Sarah talking (about Jaffa cakes). Another (awkward) cut and the shot changes to an over-the-shoulder shot of Sarah as I tell her that i'll be needing her soul in order for her to get her Jaffa cakes. The next shot is a zooming in close up of Sarah's reaction to this news. As you can tell this was not what she had in mind when she summoned me. We then chose to use a high angle shot of me and Sarah making the deal. We then used another two shot that tracks me as I leave. The final shot is a mid-shot of Sarah enjoying her deal (the Jaffa cakes).
I liked the shot-reverse-shot's that we used as they were the easiest to work into our conversation and fit in with the scene well although me and Sarah both struggled to keep straight faces during the close ups and later complained about how awful we look in them. I thought the high angle shot looked quite effective with this idea of me being a demon or something like a demon that makes things (like Jaffa cakes) appear out of nowhere but at the same time I didn't like the high angled shot as you can't really see what's going on other than Jaffa cake's falling from the sky though I think you have a pretty good idea of what is going on. My faviroute shot was the final shot of Sarah digging into the Jaffa cake (for obvious reasons) but also because the zooming in adds a comical effect to our scene to show that we're not seriously satanic and we don't actually worship demons. I felt the need to mention this as once you see our Final Project you'll have the completely wrong impression of us. I didn't like the tracking shot because the camera moves quite quickly as I walk and it becomes a bit hazy and looks like we're trying to use the tracking shots as fillers.
What have you learnt about what you need to do to the sound to make it more effective?
Before we started our actual filming we did rehearsal shots of what we wanted to do and say and discovered that Ralph (if you do not know who Ralph is by now then you haven't paid much attention to my blog. Ralph is our group camera and will often be referred to as Ralph on our blogs.) does have trouble picking up sound but we worked around that by not using long shots when either of us is speaking and talking really loudly. Generally though Ralph doesn't have many issues sound-related.
Did you consider mise-en-scene? What do you need to do in your final piece to make sure it is better?
When we were filming our Preliminary mise-en-scene wasn't one of our main priorities. We felt that because it was our first project that was meant as a practice of our Camera skills that costume and prop weren't as important as the actual shot themselves. In our Final Project you'll see that we've put alot of our focus into mise-en-scene especially with Jess's character. As Jess pointed out on her blog if we look back at the Preliminary the colours of me and Sarah's clothes works well (though we didn't consider this at the time) with this idea of me (wearing mostly black) being an evil demon and Sarah (wearing a floral dress) being an innocent, ordinary girl who perhaps could be perceived as quite naive as Jess point's out on her blog about her selling her soul to me...for a box of Jaffa Cakes. Our only prop (pointed out by Sarah on her blog) was the box of Jaffa Cakes Sarah loaned to us for filming.
How did you edit it together? What were the issues you faced?
Sarah and Jess edited our Preliminary together at HRC as I was ill on the day we were supposed to go (it seems like i'm making excuses but honestly i'm not...) They used final cut pro which they learned how to use while editing this piece together. One of the issues they mention on their blogs is that our clips (once cut and edited together) weren't very long and we're currently facing this issue with our Final project but we're working on it. There's more about the issues on their blogs as I wasn't there...
How have you used lighting? Were there any issues you faced?
We used natural lighting for this piece as it was filmed during the day (in the afternoon to be precise). We didn't have any issues with the lighting for this piece as the room we used had a big window on one side that let in alot of light. If we'd have had any issues we would've used some artifical lighting but we didn't so therefore we didn't use artifical lighting...obviously. We do have this issue of lighting in our Coursework piece as alot of it was filmed in the dark (to go with the themes).
How have you used a shot-reverse shot?
We used shot-reverse-shot to show the discussion between me and Sarah over why she'd summoned me. Our shot-reverse-shot consisted of close ups of both of our faces (internally cringing).
How have you used a match on action or action match?
We tried to do action match when I was walking through the hallway and into the room but it didn't really work out. Jess explains what went wrong on her blog (as I wasn't really sure what these terms meant until I checked with the two of them) but as she explains we could've done it more effectively by having Sarah and me both eating something. Sarah something innocent like her Jaffa Cakes and me eating something demonic like (not Roast Potatos...there's nothing sinister about a Roast Potato. Or Potato's in general. Maybe something like...an arm...ew).
Have you kept to the 180 degree rule? Where have you broken it? Why? Was it intentional or was it accidntal? What do you need to consider to avoid this in the future?
We have broken the 180 degree rule when Jess filmed the high angle shot of me and Sarah from the other side of me. We know now that this was wrong as at the time we didn't know of such a thing called the 180 degree rule. Sir then taught us this rule. We broke it because Jess had to stand on the bed to get the high angled shot of the two of us. In our coursework we won't be breaking this rule.
Are there any continuity errors in your prelim? How could these be avoided?
I don't think so...but i'll have a look over it again once i'm done writing my analysis. I'm terrible at noticing things like that though so we gave the job of continuity editer/spotter to Sarah because I miss the most obvious things...now i've taken Media i've got alot better at noticing continuity errors. I wouldn't say i'm good at it...as explained in previous sentences but there's definately been improvement. And i'm chuffed with that.
Anything else you want to say about your prelim.
IT'S AMAZING. THERE'S JAFFA CAKES FALLING FROM THE SKY. WBEGFHWBDHVFERGYFJ. :3
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