Preliminary Task Evaluation

Preliminary Filming/Editing Task Evaluation

Planning

We began by brainstorming ideas for our short task. We got the inspiration to incorporate in a cuddly toy somehow from an example video we saw in class of a villain petting a teddy bear. The combined images of evil and teddy bears quickly inspired the idea of a teddy bear thief, and a seemingly harmless transaction shown in a typically criminal way. 

Our Storyboard

Above is pictured the storyboard we worked from. We initially had such a broad range of random ideas to use but no real order for them, so struggled to get started. We found ourselves still planning as the other groups were nearing the end of their storyboards, but then stayed briefly after lesson and were able to complete it quickly. 

We decided the props we would need would be a toy bear and a ribbon to use as a distinguishing feature. As I own a DSLR Nikon camera at home we decided I would bring it in to increase the quality of our filming. We chose to use the opportunity to make our preliminary task funny and cringey, as current ideas for our main project are more serious.

Filming

1)

The opening shot is a two shot of myself and Mindi sitting opposite each other at a table. The scene depicts us discussing the bear and then performing a transaction between the bear and the bag. The shots of the speech use shot-reverse-shot and adhere to the 180 degree rule, however over the shoulder was not used here as we decided to use this in a later scene, to be able to utilise a wider variety of angles. However, as Mindi sits down you can clearly see that the red ribbon that will be used later is sitting on the chair, meaning we need to focus on continuity. 

2)

Where we originally intended to use tracking and a long shot to show Mindi walking through the corridor, we had to change our angle as the corridor wasn't wide enough for us to enable enough of her in the shot. Instead we opted for a midshot of her walking forwards, starting from behind the camera, which then switched to a front view. 

3)

The next scene uses shot-reverse-shot close ups of Mindi and the bear repetitively at increasing speeds to show the build up of tension as she realises what has happened. Although we did plan to use an over the shoulder shot originally, we felt the close ups were more fitting as they were more dramatic. 

An extreme close up of the bear is then used to emphasise the absence of the distinguishing feature - the red ribbon. A similar close up is used in the next scene where the ribbon is present to contrast the two. When filming Mindi running back down the corridor again, we used a handheld camera to indicate her panic.

4)

Match on action of the door opening is used in this scene. We struggled to get a variety of angles of the door opening and found some continuity errors - in one shot where Mindi is pushing the door open someone's head is visible through the window. If given the chance to do the task again, we would have come up with a more varied selection of shots for the match on action as in the end we ended up with only three separate shots of the door. 

We also filmed a lot of overlapping shots which would require a fair bit of editing to make seem smooth.

5)

The door swings open and the shot switches to an extreme close up of the red ribbon tied round the bears neck to show that it's a different bear. This shot, like a couple of others in this scene, is blurry and out of focus. When filming our real task we need to be mindful of what the camera is focused on to avoid this blur. For instance, in the shot below the camera is focused on Mindi's shoulder rather than on me who is talking.

This confrontational scene uses over the shoulder shots to show conversation taking place. When pointing at me, a slightly low angle was also used to imply my character's dominance in the situation. 

6)

Despite planning to use a low angle shot of the bear coming directly towards the camera, it was too hard to estimate where it would land so instead we just filmed it side on, with a very slightly low angle. However, in this shot you can clearly see Zayanah's head in the window which doesn't fit in with the narrative. If redoing the task, we would film it so I was the one dropping it out the window and not filming outside as I was here. 

Another match on action shot was shown here which goes from the bear falling out the window to a high angle shot of it hitting the floor. This is the final shot in the film. 

Editing

The above screenshot shows our full editing timeline. As we had quite a lot of footage, editing took the duration of one lesson and then I stayed behind in a free period to finish it up.

None of us had used Final Cut Pro before, so getting it all set up and importing our footage was slightly difficult at first but once we got going we began to find it was very simple to use. Most of our footage was cropped by dragging the ends of the clips, and some of it by using the blade tool. The Typewriter titles were used at the start and the end as they looked akin to something you may see in thriller film which was the genre our preliminary was loosely based off. 

A 'fade to black' transition was used in the middle to indicate passing of time, and another one right at the end to imply the 'death' of the bear.

For the scene of Mindi running through the corridor and also of the bear falling out the window, slow motion was used. However, as my camera's video quality wasn't professional level, the slow motion effect made the footage choppy and awkward, so it's unlikely we'd use an effect like this in our real task. 

We played around quite a bit with editing the speed of our

footage, and one struggle we faced was setting the right speed for the door opening in the match on action. It was also hard to make the transition from slow motion back to regular speed look smooth and natural, and even at the end I feel it didn't look quite right.

Two different soundtracks were used, and we attempted to fade them into each other slightly by putting the tracks over each other and using the fade handles. The fade handles were also used at the end of the film to fade out the sad music.

I thoroughly enjoyed the filming and editing process, and getting to know the best camera angles and learning the basics of Final Cut Pro. I think what we've learnt from this task will help us greatly when filming our real thing. Finally, here is our finished preliminary task!