Production Techniques

Brief:
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down on a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule.

Continuity:
Is an uninterrupted sequence of events put together in a logical fashion.

Shot-reverse-shot
In the classic shot/reverse shot sequence, the camera frames each speaker (usually 2-4) in medium close-up as he or she recites a line of dialogue. The shoulder or profile of the listener can often be seen, slightly out of focus on the edge of the frame, while the camera is focused on the face of the speaker.
9/9/09
(idea) by Eathen
Sat 6th July 2002 at 17:26:29
http://everything2.com/title/shot+reverse+shot

180 degree rule/crossing the line.
An invisible line, known as the 180 DEGREE LINE or axis of action, runs through the space of the scene. The camera can shoot from any position within one side of that line, but it may never cross it. This convention ensures that the shot will have consistent spatial relations and screen directions.
9/9/09
ELLIPSIS.
http://shea.mit.edu/ramparts/commentaryguides/glossary/filmlexicon.htm

Match-on-action
A cut from one shot of an action to a different shot of the action, edited such that the second shot picks up at precisely the moment that the first shot left off, making the action appear to continue uninterrupted, with no changes.
ELLIPSIS.
9/9/09
http://shea.mit.edu/ramparts/commentaryguides/glossary/filmlexicon.htm

From looking up these words i have found out that i need to make sure when filming that i remember the 180 degree line so that i maintain continuity so that i can keep the reality by having no flaws. I will use match-on-action through out my production to help the continuity. i will also use shot-reverse-shot so that the viewer can easily keep up with the conversation and see who is speaking and when.

Mise-en-scene
Dci Sawyer will be dressed in a pair of smart black trousers with a black shirt and a white tie. His hair will be aggressively styled and he will have no make up on. This will represent his strict personality and his aggressive nature.
Eddie will have messy overgrown hair, he will be dressed casually this will portray his lazy, nervous personality.
In the room its self there will be bright with high key lighting and a table and two chairs and on the table there will be a tape recorder, this will make it look like an interrogation room.
Sawyer will have a note pad and pen which he will throw on the table to show his anger whilst the note pad and pen represents his seriousness for his job .
The high key lighting will come from the windows which go along on wall in the room from half way up the wall to the top; there is also strip lighting which will help to light up the room which will high light Eddies nerves as the light will be shining down on him also show he’s under pressure and being examined.
The room will be plain and just consist of 3 pale blue walls, and one wall with a row of windows, the room will also have a table and 2 chairs with a tape recorder on it.
Eddie will move slow and lethargic and Sawyer will move quickly and aggressively.


Shot list

Risk Assessment 

Location Recce

Lighting – A line of four slightly tinted windows from one metre to ceiling level. There is one strip light that spans the length of the room. There are also windows in both doors.

Power- No plugs are readily available, but there are some in the next room if needed.

Permission- We are filming after school hours so no permission is needed.

We need to change your location recce as we filmed again but i need to see the room because i cant remember any thing.

ECU-Extreme Close Up CU-Close Up









MCU-Medium Close Up MS-Medium Shot








3/4 Shot MLS-Medium Long Shot










LS-long Shot

Camera Movement.

Panning - moving from left to right from a fixed point for example a tripod.

(need an image showing)

Jibbing - camera physically moves up and down.

(need an image showing)

Tracking - physically moving the camera from left to right forwards and backwards.

(need image showing)

Tilting - moves up and down from a fixed point for example a tripod.

(need image showing)

Arrows inside the frame are for character movement, arrows outside the frame are to show camera movement.

(need image showing)

we need to put in our script here.

We need to scan our story board on to here.

Evaluation

I learnt and used different shot sizes through out filming, i realised that by changing shot sizes you can make a scene seem very intense or not so. we tried to use a variety of shot sizes in our film to create different moods and to show our knowledge.

we also had to make sure that we didn't break the 180 degree rule through out filming as this would break the rule of continuity, we had problems with the 180 degree rule when we first filmed however we spotted this and filmed again to correct it.

we used shot-reverse-shot through out our film as it keeps continuity as you can see who is speaking and when it helps you when following the film.

match-on-action was another technique we used which also helps keep continuity, we spend a lot of time making sure that certain parts of the scene such as DCI Sawyer walking through the door and when we enters the door from the inside.

Since starting media and learning about the production techniques and then filming i have learned and gained a lot of skills such as camera work, i have never filmed before. i have also gained editing skills as we loaded our film on to the computer and put it all together changing the sound and cutting the film at the parts we wanted in the film. i had also never drawn a story board before so i have also gained this skill. visualising script to shot is another skill i have picked up, from writing the script to actually making it work as a film. also script writing is another skill i have learnt working out how to lay it out and present it.

publishing my work on to blogger.com was also something i had to learn as i had also never used blogger before and i was used to printing it all off and handing it in!

3 skills i could work on are:

when filming i need to hold the camera so it is not wonky. (screen shot)

i need to make more use of blank extra space when filming. (screen shot)

i need to leave a bigger gap when saying action to the person speaking as we had problems when choosing which take to use as there was often the word action in the clip which we wanted to use.

we had to re-film as we broke the 180 degree rule when filming first time, also there was a lot of extra space in each shot and the shots were wonky, we then filmed again and worked out what was wrong first and changed it. we also realised that the room we chose to film in first time was too small and we didn't have as much camera space as we wanted, we therefore resolved this by moving rooms second time. as a group we worked well together and helped each other, there were no disagreements and we all just got on with the task.