Preliminary Task - Miss Miller

For this task I had four members in my group, Me, John, Luca and Ciara. We had to do this task in order to get used to the camera equipment and use different camera angles to film the dialogue taking place.  We had to experiment with different shots and angles and film a conversation between two people while the other two people film what was happening. The conversation had to be under a minute and include 5 different camera angles. This included, over the shoulder shot, mid shot, long shot, close up and panning. We had to quickly film the conversation so that we could edit it and watch the clip over again to see how well we performed the shots and how well we edited them.

During the filming process we had to use the tripod to hold the camera up and to make sure that the shots were steady instead of shaky from being hand held. We also had to use the different camera shots, mid shot, long shot, over the shoulder, panning and close up.
These shots all had to be used within our minute conversation. Our group did particualy well in using close up and the two mid shot and long shot. I think we did well in this because they are reasonably easy shots to do and we used the tripod for all of the shots which meant we had a steady camera shot rather than an unsteady shot. The camera was also easy to set up and fairly easy to use which meant that our group new how to zoom in and create a close up and this helped towards creating a good camera shot. I think our group struggled with creating a panning scene and an over the shoulder shot. This was because a panning shot was hard to create as it involved moving the camera round where as with the other shots the camera was on a tripod and so it was steady and no movement was involved. The panning shot was also a bit unsteady as it was filmed by holding the camera instead of placing it on the tripod.
The over the shoulder shot was also hard to create as it was hard to try and just get the other person rather than the two people in the shot. For instance the person who wasn't getting filmed was still in the shot which made the shot look a bit unprofessional and a bit unsteady. The person who wasn't getting filmed also took up most of the shot and so the person that was getting filmed wasn't really seen. When I create my opening scene I am going to make sure that the camera is always on the tripod so that the shots do not look shaky. If i have to hold the camera for any reason for example a panning shot, I am going to make sure that the shot doesn't look unsteady and I am going to do this by filming the shot over and over again until the shot doesn't look unsteady. When filming the over the shoulder shot I am going to position the tripod slighting away from the person whose not being filmed. That way the shot won't contain the person not being filmed and the focus will be on the other person. When watching my footage back, it helped me to see some mistakes  that i didn't see when filming. For instance the over the shoulder shot which when looking back at it, you can see the person who isn't getting filmed and they are taking the whole shot up. I also noticed mistakes when making the panning shot as the shot wasn't correct and it was very shaky which didn't make the shot look good. It has also helped me see mistakes as when working with the camera, we didn't set up the tripod properly and so this made some of the shots look a bit slanted which we hadn't noticed before.

With regards to the equipment, as a group we did particularly well with filming the close up shots. I also feel like we did particularly well with setting up the tripod and knowing how to actually use the camera straight away without any problems. As a group, we worked well when setting up the equipment because we knew what to do and we were able to set up quickly and carefully. When also using the camera, I felt like our grouped picked up quickly on how to use it and this resulted in good filming and being able to film shots very well without any major problems. We were able to keep the camera steady by using the tripod and we were able to find the zoom button on the camera and apply it to our close up shots.

This task helped me to prepare for filming my opening sequence as i understood how to use the camera which means that our group doesn't waste time trying to set it up. I also know how to use the tripod and how much better the shots look when using the tripod. It has also helped me to understand how to film the different shots and I can apply this in my opening sequence to engage my audience. I also know from filming which shots I need to make better and which shots are the most effective and this has helped when preparing to film my opening sequence. From this task, I have learnt how to use the different camera angles and how to actually use the camera. This task has helped me to understand where to position my camera to get better shots and to create certain effects and has also helped me to make the audience focus on one character within the shot. By doing this task, I have learnt that the camera has to be on the tripod to keep the shot steady unless using an unsteady shot for effect. The camera needs to be kept still so that when filming, the camera isn't shaking about alot which could make the shot look unprofessional and not very neat. I have also learnt that certain shots create certain effects such as close up is used to show facial expressions while panning is used to show movement between the two characters and this will help me for when I am filming my opening sequence as I will know what shots to use in certain points of the sequence. When filming my opening sequence I need to make sure that I keep certain shots the same so that it creates effect within my sequence. However I need to put the camera on the tripod all the time so that the shots aren't shaky and I need to position the camera differently so that the person that is speaking is in the whole of the shot rather and a little bit of it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zZ-jjGJyKc