Film Preliminary

Film



Upon starting our film preliminary, we had to first produce a story board, which we could then use to develop our film from.
Our story board had to consist of someone opening a door, walking across a room, then include a small amount of dialogue. Our group developed the idea of a teacher coming into a staff room and having a conversation with another teacher about a student who misbehaves. The talk about getting him expelled. We used close ups, pans, and over the shoulder shots, and we also stuck to the 180 degree rule.

During the filming process, we decided that we would change a few things on our story board, and improvise a few shots, because we thought we could improve on our original story board. The shot we started with, was an establishing shot of the door, which then zoomed into an extreme close up of the door handle, and the character’s hand opening the door. We added a school bell sound effect, so the audience could get the idea that we were filming in a school, and get the general idea of the plot, this added to the mise en scene of our video. We also added a creaky door effect, which gave an old effect, which matched the old door. We later included another establishing shot of the door, but from the other side, so that the audience could see the character and where she was going. This establishing shot also included another character, so the audience could see who was in the room, and give a brief introduction of the 2nd character. Although this establishing shot got the job done, I think that the continuity would of flowed better if we had used a pan shot, and showed the camera panning from the 1st character, to the second, this gives a bit of life to the video, rather than just having a simple stationary shot. We did however use a pan shot throughout the dialogue of the characters, when they were discussing the students report, and passing it to eachother. We used an over the shoulder shot, which turned into a close up, to reveal the school report to the audience, which I thought worked well because it allowed the viewers to get involved with the context of the video.

During the over the shoulder shot, we made sure that we stuck to the 180 degree rule, because we thought that this made the film a lot more professional, because this is what is key in the movie industry. Although it worked, I think the flow of the different shots could have been improved, perhaps by the smoothness of the shots. I think a problem we had was between each shot, the characters continuity was incorrect, because their positions changed after each shot, which reduced realism.

After the dialogue scenes, we used a pan shot, which panned outside the window, and later zoomed in. In the post production process, we sped this shot up, and later slowed it right down, and we also added a mysterious soundtrack, which was tension building, we wanted to experiment with music, and camera shots to build tension, we also though it added a twist.

During pre production, we shot a number of scenes, a number of times. Later, in post production we cut parts out, and slotted them in between other shots, to make the continuity more accurate, After adjusting the shots, and deciding where we want everything, we added a brighter colour filter, which gave the film a greater contrast.

The lighting in this room was bright, and natural, because we chose a room with big windows, and a well lit scene, this would make the colour filters stand out more in post production.
The key thing I learnt throughout this, was that adding sound to a shot, which is meant to mysterious, and tension building is effective, and works well. I also learnt that continuity is a key factor, I know our video could improve on continuity, and I think this is what lets our film down. I also learnt that continuity errors is almost comical, because you can’t take the film seriously if it contains all these obvious errors.