Studio Lesson 4: Preliminary Task

In the studio lesson, started on working on the preliminary task. The purpose of this task is to prepare us for the thriller sequence which will be the main piece of course work this year. It is very important to practise with the equipment we will be using as well as practise the methods of creating the film.

We were shown the story board and briefly instructed on how the scene would go. Then we formed the groups and were taken into the main studio to work on shooting the film. Within our group of four, we assigned different roles. A director, a cameraman and two actors. We discussed that, although we had certain roles we would work together to create the sequence rather than have a power dynamic where we were ordered around. This worked really well because we were all on pretty much the same wave length, had similar ideas to each other or had ideas that corresponded well with the other ideas. As we had worked efficiently with each other, we managed to film the long shot, mid shot, over the shoulder shot and close up shot very quickly leaving us a lot of time to spare. We then started to get more experimental with different cinematography, using more complex shots like POV shots, Ariel shots and different camera movements such as panning and tilting. We also applied several handheld and tracking camera movements to make the audience to feel as though they are involved in the action. We also expanded more on the story line giving it more of a definite ending rather than the scene sort of cutting off which was shown in the story board. 

Overall, I think that this lesson went really well, I was able to get a firmer grasp of film making and also able to expand my knowledge of different cinematography and how to apply it within a scene. This task was really enjoyable as well because our group worked well together and the ideas we came up with were harmonious with everyone else within the group.