Preliminary Task

We started to plan and film our preliminary task. The brief was to have someone walk into a room, sit down, exchange a few lines on dialogue and then leave the room again. First we got into groups of three, in my group was me, Joe and James. We all sat down as a group and discussed an idea which we could use, and developed it as a group. Once we thought of an idea, we talked about how we could use different shots and what else we could add into the film.

Our idea was to have our main character going on a journey to find a pen, but go on a very long journey, which comes to no conclusions - he does not find a pen.

The first shot we used was a two shot of our main character (Will) and another character(Cj). Cj asks Will for a pen, he feels to see if he has one, doesn't, so gets up to go and find a pen from someone else.

We then used a long shot to show Will walking from the field, towards the main entrance. With this shot, we had to make sure that the position Will stopped in from the first shot was the same position he started from when we were filming the second shot. We walked towards and to the side of the camera, and the camera panned to follow him walking to the top of the stairs.

We then had the camera underneath the stairs leading down to the main entrance, which filmed the backs of Wills feet walking down the stairs and then following him towards the door and showing him starting to open the door. This added the element of mystery, as the shot looks like someone was spying on him.

We then set the camera up at the top of stairs which showed the main part of the reception, including the main door, so we could see Will walking in. He walked through the main reception, and under the balcony towards the canteen, and the camera panned to follow him so it was clear the action was still following Will.

Then to show him walking through the canteen, we used a POV shot, so we could see first hand Will opening all the doors, what he was looking at as he was walking, and all the way to the lift, so we showing him pressing the buttons and walking into the lift.

We the used a long shot of the corridor upstairs, and Will walked from behind the camera, and up the stairs.

We then used a POV shot and a long shot to show Will trying to open the door. Then a POV shot from Wills point of view, to see James walking up to him, and revealing that he was trying to open the door the wrong way. James says 'Twit!' and then walks into the room.

The camera is then set up inside the room, so you can see the door and Will walking into the room, and Lucas who was sitting on an office chair with a crash helmet on. Lucas spins to face Will and flicks the face guard up. Will and Lucas exchange a few lines of dialogue:

Will - "Alright Dave?"

Lucas - "Alright?"

Will - "Have you got a pen?"

Lucas - "Oh no, sorry mate."

Will - "Oh, ok. See you later Dave!"

The conversation we also filmed using over-the-shoulder shots to show the dialogue.

We then used another medium shot to show Lucas spinning his back to the camera, and then there is a close-up on a big pile of pens behind him. We thought that this would add a sense of humor to the piece. We used this as a the last shot, as we thought that it would be effective to sum up the comedy within the piece.

Next lesson, we will begin to edit the piece to make it a continuous film.