Preliminary Video

Preliminary Exercise

Hello,
Sorry it has been a while i have been bombarded with work. So this is the first post in a while. I have been, keeping a "log" however, this is in word so i shall type out what it says but more in depth.

Story Board

First of all my group and I, drew up a basic story board. This consisted of two people texting, then walking around the school, eventually meeting. Once they meet, they sit under some stair and swap some dialogue. This storyboard was very basic; it didn't include any media terminology. However when it comes to our actual assignment we shall develop the storyboard, allot more than this one has been. 

On Thursday the 16th of the September, my group and myself started to record our preliminary exercise. We followed the story board rather accurately. Although, we made slight alterations, here and there. This was as we didn't go into enough detail, in the original storyboard; so we shall make sure that we improve upon this for the future. Once we started filming, we all seemed to sync as a team and were instantly filming great, near one take shots. We had a few miss hap’s; this was mainly due to lighting (the sun caused some of the shots to have too much back lighting, causing the actor/actress to become blacked out). With the scene “receiving the text message" there was technical difficulty, with the mobile phones interference and the microphone, (causing a most irritating noise) we overcame this by turning off the microphone. This could have also been done by muting the audio in the clip when editing it.

script and 180 degree original

In the scene under the stairs we finally had some duologue; we sat as a group, and came up with a basic script involving the two characters discussing an issue then swapping a prop over (drinks bottle). We also sketched out a quick plan of our 180 degree rule although this original one, annotated "script and 180 degree original", with the script didn't work; dew to the sunlight again. We then drew up another one as shown below, this new one shows the two characters placement, the circles with names labelled next to them. There is also a dotted line, with one side shaded to show where the camera will not encroach. (This is so that the audience is not confused about the positioning of the actors). There are also some crude drawings to represent the camera angles. In this scene there are three angles that are used:

180 degree rule

• Over Ryan's shoulder, aimed at Fran. (This is mainly used for shots of Fran speaking)
• Over Fran's shoulder, aimed at Ryan. (This is mainly used for shots of Ryan speaking)
• Middle shot, showing both Fran and Ryan both at the same time; (this is used for fewer scenes. However, it helps to add to the viewer's comfort)

We then had a Major technical malfunction with the audio in our scenes. The microphone that we had been using had not picked up on any audio. This then required us to go back to rerecorded all the scenes. We realized that this wouldn't work as we didn't have enough time to record all scenes, thus we only recorded scenes with audio or duologue in it. When we tried to rerecord the talk scene the actors got a bad case of the giggles, causing us to spend allot of time getting shots of them laughing. (Making great blooper footage). We then finally got all the shot that we needed to get for the preliminary; after offloading them we organized them ready to be used in our editing.

Media Terminology

Continuity

The preliminary task I am doing requires me to understand continuity, the fundamental principle of moving image. It is what keeps the video moving from frame to frame. If the continuity rules are followed then the plot can unfold seamlessly and flow together creating a pleasurable experience.

The plot unfolds in such a way that the audience can assume what happens in between each shot or sequence for example, if a character boards a train in shot 1, is seen sitting reading a paper in shot 2, asleep in the same seat with the paper folded up in shot 3 and getting off the train in shot 4, the audience will not think the train journey was extraordinary short. They will assume that in between shots 2, 3 and 4 the journey continued but nothing significant happened  to the plot. However, if a continuity rule was broken so that the character appeared to move seats, this would disrupt the flow of the sequence.

Match on Action

To use this technique, cut from one shot to another view that matches the action and place of the first shot. This creates an impression of continuity although you may have filmed the shots weeks apart. If a character begins an action in the first shot and completes it in the next, a visual ‘bridge’ is created which acts to disguise the cut from one to the other.

180 degree rule

The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

In the example of a dialogue, if Owen (orange shirt in the diagram) is on the left and Bob (blue shirt) is on the right, then Owen should be facing right at all times, even when Bob is off the edge of the frame, and Bob should always be facing left. Shifting to the other side of the characters on a cut, so that Bob is now on the left side and Owen is on the right, will disorient the viewer, and break the flow of the scene.

An example of sustained use of the 180 degree rule occurs throughout much of The Big Parade, a 1925 drama about World War I directed by King Vidor. In the sequences leading up to the battle scenes, the American forces (arriving from the west) are always shown marching from left to right across the screen, while the German troops (arriving from the east) are always shown marching from right to left. After the battle scenes, when the weary troops are staggering homeward, the Americans are always shown crossing the screen from right to left (moving west) and the Germans from left to right (moving east). The audience's viewpoint is therefore always from a consistent position, in this case southward of the action.

This schematic shows the axis between two characters and the 180° arc on which cameras may be positioned (green). When cutting from the green arc to the red arc, the characters switch places on the screen.

Shot/Reverse Shot

Shot/reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character, often off-screen, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

It is mainly done over the shoulder as shown by the images below.

Summary

The link below is to a video that goes through every step that is above. is show the consistency of the continuity from frame to frame. It also demonstrates matching action, shot and shot reverse; 180 degree rule is covered in, in-depth detail, with a running commentary.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xauSCz1mEk

Preliminary Exercise:

Preliminary Exercise

Produce a continuity exercise which involves a character, opening a door, crossing a room; sitting down in a chair opposite another character. With whom they exchange a couple of lines of dialogue.

The task should demonstrate;

·         Match on action

·         Shot/Reverse shot

·         180 degree rule

Hello,

My name is Connor.

I am in a media group with Fran, Liam, Ryan (RyRy) and myself. This is my first post on my new blog to be honest I don’t know what to write in this.

Some of my hobbies outside of school are photography, computing, listening to music and chilling with my mates. I work at a company called Paperchase (stationary store), I enjoy the work there and like the people I work with.