Preliminary task evaluation

The Preliminary task was a pilot scene to test and experiment with different camera angles and shots. The end result has helped us to get a better idea of how to produce a movie opening scene. Me and my project partner Dan asked our friend Samuel Pepper to take part as one of the actors in the scene, due to the limitations of working in a group of two. We need one of us to act and the other to shoot the scene using a video camera, thus it makes sense to recruit a friend or fellow student to act for us.

The scene starts with still shot of an old abondoned looking hallway, with a character (Dan) entering from behind the camera and walking down the hallway. The shot cuts to a high angle shot from the ceiling looking down on Dan walking round the corner and past the camera. The next camera shot comes a little further down the hallway, seeing Dan walk past from a low angle and walking towards a classroom about to open the door. Next we see a close up shot of the door handle opening from the inside. It then cuts to a long shot behind Dan entering the room and closing the door behind him, the shot carrys on untill the door fully closes for dramatic effect. Next we see a Perspective shot of inside the room through the eyes Dan, we see another character (sam) sitting down on a chair at a table, who then exchanges brief dialogue, "alright?". A Medium two shot follows as we see Dan sitting down at the table opposite Sam and dialogue continues. This cuts to an over the shoulder shot of Sam talking to Dan, we have stuck to the 180 degree rule for this. Another over the shoulder shot now shows Dan, who appears to show frustration and anger as he gets up suddenly in a threatoning way.

My Personal favourite shot from the scene is the low angle shot of behind dan as he approaches the classroom door, as i feel it is stylish and interesting. I would definately like to use a low angle shot in our Movie opening. I think one thing that i have learnt not to use in the main movie opening is a perspective shot, as it is difficult to move the camera in a realistic way so it appears the audiance is seeing the shot through the eyes of the character. It can easily become to shaky and thus appear rushed and unrealistic. Another aspect of the scene that i would change is when we see Sam over the shoulder of Dan. Sam looks briefly at the camera and so the shot seems unrealistic and breaks the line between film and reality.

Overall i am happy with the outcome of the preliminary task video as it shows a wide wide range of camera shots, angles and rules of film.