Filming my prelim

We shot a prelim using the technique’s we had learnt previously. We unfolded the dolly and pushed down the breaks. After this, we extended the legs of the tripod to the height we wanted and attached them to the end of each branch of the dolly where we pulled the flaps over the bottom of each leg of the tripod. We then placed the camera on top of the tripod and it clicked into place. We put the battery in its gap and opened the tape slot, inserted the tape inside it, and then closed the slot. We took the cap at the smaller end of the lens off and twisted the lens into place on the camera and also took the other cap off the lens. Finally, we were ready to start filming by pressing the ‘start/stop button’. We used the screen (by flipping up the nearest part of the eyepiece) most of the time as it was easier for more of us to see what we were filming.

In our prelim, my group followed the storyboard to get all the different shots that it showed such as a wide shot or an over the shoulder shot. We also followed the 180-degree rule as we didn’t want it to appear like the two characters were switching sides on the screen. My role in the group was advising the person with the camera on how to get the right shot and also giving additional guidance to that of the director. From this experience, I have learnt how to organise the filming of sequential shots and how to incorporate the different shot types I had learnt into practise.

We had some difficulties such as confusion over which type of shot went with which characters’ line and how to frame the characters nicely. However we overcame these problems by checking carefully over the storyboard and adjusting the characters slightly in certain positions and seeing how they look. Considering that we had quite a large group in comparison to others, I would say that we worked fairly well together as we each had a job assigned to us and fulfilled those responsibilities which in turn allowed us to get the shots we needed.

If we did it again I would like to have taken more shots of the same scene just so that when editing later, we would have had a choice in what shots to use as some may not look as good as others.

This is my edit of the prelim which we shot. It includes a mixture of over the shoulder shots as shot reverse-shot to display conversation, close ups to highlight facial expressions and long shots to show movement.