QUESTION 7

For our preliminary task, the only camera we had to film with was of very low quality. Because of this, we decided to use a member of the group’s iPhone to film it. Because of this, it was not possible to use a tripod, so the finished product was shaky. We also had problems with matching up shots, as the camera didn’t stay in one place. This was a big problem, as the shots felt like a nasty jump from one to another as they didn’t match up. We knew from this that using a tripod would be very important.

We also didn’t use our storyboard correctly. We did a very basic plan, which didn’t detail every single shot. We also changed our ideas throughout. However, this led to us breaking the 180 degree rule, and switching sides on a shot of one person. This looked clunky and ruined any professionalism of our film. It also stops suspension of audience’s belief, and reminded them that this is a film. We also didn’t plan framing properly. For example, in a medium close up of the mafia boss, we cut him off at the shoulders, which didn’t look right.

We had to use a lot of lighting in our preliminary task, and this prepared us a bit for our main film. However, we learnt that we needed a stand for our light, as the light moved in our film, which lost some realism of it. We also realised how important the lighting was, as when we filmed darker scenes, the shots were grainy and flat. We learnt that for our final, we would need to do a practise runs through of each shot and where the lighting should come from, in order for the whole scene to be properly lit throughout.

We learnt the importance of time and having extra time spare if needed. In our preliminary task we weren’t able to start shooting straight away, as we didn’t have the right setting for it. We were then left with only an hour to film it, which meant at the end, we could only use the scene’s we’d already shot. In our opening sequence, we hired the light out for 3 days, so if we couldn’t film it all in one go, we had extra time. This proved useful, as our first day of shooting turned out to be far too dark, but we had another day to get it done. Similarly, we learnt the importance of doing a few takes of each shot, in order to get the best one possible. Often, we would find that the lighting wasn’t quite right, or the actor laughed, but in another shot it all worked. Although it ended up mostly irrelevant, as we filmed in the woods, which we couldn’t tamper with much, we realised how important mise-en-scene is to a scene. In our preliminary task, the ‘mafia boss’ was in a room with objects that would be very unlikely to actually be there. This distracted from the authenticity of the film, and may make it amusing rather than serious (although it was humorous anyway).

We realise post-its aren’t very ganster!