Preliminary task questions

Question 1 What planning did you do for your filming task, and how did this planning aid the filming?
When planning my preliminary task, me and my three other group members had a discussion about how we could incorporate all of the requirements I.e. opening a door and having a conversation. We decided to have gangster’s playing cards but quickly changed our minds as we couldn’t have acted and filmed this seriously and made it look believable. I am glad we went through the planning stage as we had a clear idea of what we were doing and we didn’t waste too much time having long conversation and arguments. We were able to quickly go out and take the shots we needed without any problems.

Question 2 What is the 180degree rule, and how is this rule important to the filming task?
The 180degree rule is a term used when filming; the 180degree rule is used to avoid confusing the audience. The 180 degree rule is always filmed from one side at several different angles for example a football game is always filmed from one side of the pitch so as the audience always knows which way a particular team is going, if the camera suddenly shot from the other side the audience will be confused and not know which team is going which way. The 180 degree rule works in exactly the same way by always staying one side of a character so as to avoid confusion.

Question 3 What shot types and camera angles did you use in your filming task, and to what effect?
In my filming task I used a variety of shots to get more meaning and transfer ideas to the audience. The first shot was a static close up of two bicycle wheels rolling past, the idea behind this shot was to create enigma and get the audience to question the action. This shot lead on to a mid shot of a student riding their bike hastily into the school gates, a mid shot was used so all the action could be captured with a gentle panning movement. The next shot was an over shoulder shot which followed our character into the school dinner hall. This shot was used to make the audience feel involved in the scene. The last shot was a mid shot of a dialogue between two characters; we kept to the 180 degree rule so we didn’t confuse the audience but were able to maintain a sensible conversation.