Preliminary Task

1. Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?
In my group we had me, Tom Deason, Daniella Andrean, and Alice King. We managed the task by signing a role to each person in the group, Danni and Alice were actors, I was the cameraman and Tom was the sound technician. When Alice wasn't acting she would preform the role of production assistant. In the editing room Alice started off editing and after about 15 minutes she had learnt all the basics quickly, I then took over for the remainder of the session while the other members of the group offered suggestions.

2. How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use?
When planning the sequence we found that deciding the location was very important because it then made visualising the sequence much easier. It was decided that the Sports Hall would be a good place to film as it was brand new and very modern looking. We discussed how the scene would play out and how we could incorperate a variety of shot techniques, such as match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule, in to the sequence. Also, while discussing the scene we created a shooting script which made things very organised when it came to filming as we knew what order to shoot things and saved a lot of time. As Danni and Alice were acting they wrote the dialogue for the scene which was just a normal conversation about school.

3. What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?
The camera used for filming was a Sony HDV camera with a boom mic attached to the top of it outputing the sound through Sennheiser headphones. The camera was attached to a tripod which allowed us to do smooth pan's and keep the shots very steady creating a very controlled sequence. In the editing room we used Adobe Premier to edit our scenes together.

4. What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?
When planning we had to minimise problems by making sure that the room we wanted to shoot in was free at the time we needed to film. We booked the room and checked with the teacher that it was ok. Also we needed to check out the classroom we were using beforehand so we could become familiar with the location and realise any problems that might arise when filming. When we were shooting everything went very smoothly and efficiently. It was important too make sure the surroundings were quiet so that the boom mic didn't pick up background noise. However, in one of our shot reverse shots the school bell rang in the middle of it when we were filming and we didn't realise that the boom mic picked it up. We realised in the edit room that it was a problem and it prevented us from editing together our shot reverse shot, so were worked around it instead.

5. How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?
I think our sequence was quite successful as our cuts flowed quite smoothly especially our match on action as it was edited together very well. We succesfully caried out the 180 degree rule and would have done the shot reverse shot if there hadn't been a problem with the sound. If i could re-do aspects of the sequence I would definatley do more takes of each shot as you can never have enough footage.

6. What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?
I have learnt a lot from this task as it has given me practice with shooting a variety of camera techniques aswell as understanding the process and the planning which must go in to a scene beforehand. I also got more practice using Adobe Premier. All of this will be very useful when I come to complete the rest of my foundation coursework as I will have had this experience and this practice of understanding the process.