Preliminary task

Task - Mr Dunford My task is to film and edit footage of a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180- degree rule.

Student interpretation
When creating this preliminary task, although the aim was simple, i wanted to create something that was, sort of, unconventional; and an idea that could be different and captivating within the time constraint whilst incorporating the elements required.

PRELIMINARY TASK FINAL
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Read below to understand, how i came to this final product.


Initial idea
There was a tall male dressed in black with a hood up with music blasting (which the audience can also hear) walking down a dark alley way. He then approaches a fully lit public building. Once he enters, the audience are shown his face and he takes off the hood and jacket, stops the music to reveal a suit and a smart looking man. [- I wanted to create this contrasting image within the readers mind to highlight the fact that people judge on first impressions despite their lack of knowledge. Within my filming making and film reviews I’ve learnt that this type of conflicting opinions (twist) is exactly the technique I like to watch and find that people enjoy. ] The man walks over to a lady with a clip board and exchanges a few words and he points her into the direction of where he is confidently heading. The audience follow the man’s direction, where he stops and sits in a seat in front of a woman. The conversation commences and we get the impression that this is a date or a blind date. Characters:
Shayne - protagonist (Zeeshan)
Melissa – Date (Karen)
Shania - Clipboard lady (Sandeep)
Amelia -Extra (Jennifer)

Filming… 2/12/08 & 4/12/08 2/12/08 – Ext. Alleyway Time: 4.45 – 6.00 Props: iPod, leather gloves Characters: The male protagonist was used for filming down the alleyway. We see the character place the headphone in and picks the song in which he is about to listen to. There is a close –up and pan upwards, when he is putting the leather gloves on. Within this filming, I’ve have also incorporated a shot so that where I planed to put the credits in, it can be created. 4/12/08 – Int. Pub/ restaurant Time: 12.05- 1.15pm Props: Clipboard Characters: Whole Company The rest of the film was shot, including the meeting of Shayne and Shania and the dialogue between Shayne and Melissa.

Review Due to time constraints and lack of cast, Zeeshan was and I was not able to complete the whole film idea in one night. So, the natural elements were indefinitely not working in favour with the production when we decided on film on the Thursday. I was fully aware that this would be the case but due to pressed deadlines, I found no incurable way to solve such problems. Disappointingly, I continued the filming and tried not to incorporate the obvious sunlight. Changes There would be two adjustments I would make if I had thought about this at the time of filming or if I had enough If I had more time I would originally stick to my initial idea and film it all in one night. On the second day of filming I wish I had decided to just start filming again, from the character opening the door, and I would have used the night time footage for something else.

Tuesday 20th January
Today I used one of my free lessons to edit my initial preliminary film that I created. When filming this concept, I didn’t allow my rational thinking to take over when I was faced with some obvious complications. I filmed the beginning of the movie at night and due to time constraints was forced to film the remaining shots – which were the internal ones- during the day. At the time, I knew that filming in these two conditions would affect the look of my movie and in the moment, I didn’t think to change my idea and start the concept with an altered beginning, which could have simply been created on the second day of filming. Consequently, now that I’ve edited the useable footage, it is only 25 seconds long- which is not sufficient for the brief given. At the moment I’m contemplating adding further shots to elongate it, however I feel that would be appropriate for me to even consider doing so once I have filmed and edited my main film, but meanwhile i will edit the footage i have to produce a decent scene.


Final Idea Consequently, after the disappointing filming progress that occurred earlier in the week. On Friday 5th December is occurred to me that I could just produce another idea that I would be satisfied with. So I hired out the camera, created another idea and wrote another storyboard. Initially, I devised the idea that I would be the protagonist who walks into a house late in the night and slowly creeps in. It is when she takes off her shoes and tries to precede upstairs, the audience are made aware that her mother is sitting on the dinner room chairs waiting for her. Her mother then shouts in a rage and ends up sending her to her bedroom Adjustments Within my family there are only three people and as director I wanted to make sure that the camera angles were to my up- most satisfaction. I decided to change the main character from female to male and used my younger brother as the main actor (child who is going to get in trouble).
Filming 6/12/08
The production was filmed in one night from 7- 8.30pm and after reviewing the raw footage I filmed more shots (e.g. door P.O.V when Kamal walks up to the door and acts as though he is putting the key within in the door and opening it). Overall I am extremely please with the raw footage so far, and will start editing on 8/12/08.
Characters:
Kamal (as himself) -son
Mum -mother (Lorraine)

Ext. Street outside house Time: 6.15pm Props:
Phone Characters: Kamal
The main character walking up the path on a mobile phone and enters the house.

Int. Inside the house Time: 6.45pm Props: (None)
Characters: Kamal & Mum
She finds him sneaking in the house, orders him to sit down and shouts at him about his irresponsible behaviour lately. Overall thoughts Although I have created two different concepts, I will edit both and use the opinion of my teachers to submit the best one, for my coursework. In order for me to complete both films I will have to go back to the first idea and finish it by incorporating the elements and techniques that were require, such as match on action and the character opening and walking through a door