GC: Production of preliminary task

GC: Production of preliminary task

• No briefing this time which meant we could get straight into filming. However, an own clothes day meant that there would be an obvious change of costume when  it came to filming the next scenes in our clip. To combat this we decided to re-shoot the shots we had already done.
• We decided to keep Jamie as the subject to shoot as if we did have to finish filming next lesson, the costume change would not matter much because he would have the same coat and bag on.
• Firstly, we filmed the panning long shot, but without any battery problems this time! Less adjustments to the tripod were needed as we knew roughly were to position it from our previous attempt.
• For the second shot, we decided to mix the over the shoulder medium shot of Jamie working at the computer and the medium shot of him then turning to look at the clock into one shot. We achieved this by increasing the angle between Jamie and the camera to incorporate the clock into the very edge of the frame. Then when he turned, we ever so slightly panned the camera round to bring the clock more central in the picture. This worked well as the slower cutting rate helped to emphasize that the detention was going slowly for the character.
• The POV shot of the clock was pretty easy to do as this just involved adjusting the zoom beforehand to make the clock fill the frame, before holding the camera by hand to create a slightly wobbly effect to show it was a POV shot as opposed to a normal one. We kept the tripod attached to the camera to help weigh it down so the finished shot wasn't too shaky.
• Next we filmed a worm's eye view mid shot of Jamie putting his coat on which we achieved by putting the tripod on it's lowest setting. We used this because it was a nice juxtaposition to the other two shots.
• Our next shot was a mid-long shot of Jamie walking into/past the camera. We set up the tripod to shoulder height and positioned it in front but just off to one side so he wouldn't walk into it as he walked past. We had to clear a few bags off the desk that were obstructing the camera's view, and also we had to be careful to position the camera just right as we planned to track Jamie as he walked along in the next shot. Wrong positioning could result in the audience seeing him walk past the same spot twice.
• The next shot we did was the most difficult to shoot. We attached a dolly to the bottom of the tripod so we could run the camera alongside Jamie as he walked to constantly keep him in frame. We hoped this would give a more professional finish the the clip and also helped keep the cutting rate down as we would have had to use two or three more angles to cover Jamie getting to the door. The first attempt was getting used to the speed of walking in contrast to the speed at which the camera was pushed along. It turned out that my partner walked too fast for me to keep up as in order to keep the shot stable I could not move the camera very fast so we slowed down the walking pace for the second attempt. This worked well but one of the wheels of the dolly hit a table leg which caused it to stop. The third try was good as the camera was in perfect time with the walking speed. The only minor flaw was that the bobbles in the carpet made the tripod shake slightly which led to a slightly shaky shot but we figured we could edit this out.
• We then filmed a close up of Jamie's hand pushing down the door handle and opening the door a bit. We had to make sure he used the same hand all the way through each shot of the door opening process to ensure no continuity errors were made. This close up really helped define what it was Jamie was doing, just in case the audience had not realized yet.
• To carry on the door opening motion, we placed the tripod in the corridor facing the door Jamie was coming through in a mid shot. We ensured he used the right hand and also made sure we started filming with the door the same amount open as it was in the last shot. This shot was used to show Jamie coming out the classroom and closing the door behind him.
• We then used another POV shot to show Jamie walking down the corridor. Again, we kept the tripod attached to the camera so it wouldn't be too wobbly. We stopped this halfway down and changed to a long shot of Jamie walking down the rest of the corridor. This worked well as the cutting rate increased since the classroom to juxtapose the boredom of the detention with the feeling of finally getting out. Also the long shot allowed the audience to see the surroundings and helped show the loneliness of the character being framed.
• We ran out of time so stopped filming there. We planned to film the rest the day after and then leave time to edit it as well in the same lesson. The second half of filming would involve the dialogue.  
• Overall I think our filming went very well and we got some good shots in. We were both really pleased with the shot using the dolly despite the bumps in the carpet as it was unique to our film. Given the simplicity of the scene I think we did rather well  to make it seem more exciting through the use of different camera techniques. Most of the filming was done in this hour which only left a bit to do next lesson.