Evaluation Task 7

During the creation of my film opening, I referred to the skills I learnt during the filming of my preliminary task in September.

At the start of the course I was taught the basics of camera work, including the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. When filming my 2 minute opening, I tried to remember to use what I had learnt, in addition to using panning, tracking, long shots and framing my shots.

When I started in September I had no knowledge of many of these techniques, but in the time between the two projects completion I taught my self many by reading camera and filming guides, and of course watching films.

When I came to filming my 2 minute opening, I thought about the 3 techniques from September. I decided to firmly stick to match on action throughout (apart from the shots in which the intention was to not know where things had come from), and to insert at least one moment of shot reverse shot. The 180 degree rule however, I was not so worried about. I was told that during a running sequence, it was not necessary to obey this rule, as the running could take the camera anywhere and to stick to it would constrict the angles and shots of the film.

I tried to not frame the shots with too much headroom, but I had also learnt from September that you don't want too little either, or you are at risk of cutting out the heads or faces of the actors as they move throughout the shot.

I tried to include a range of shots including close-ups, which I had never attempted before but I feel were successful.

When the time came to edit, I was told both times to make sure the way I edited added meaning and pace to the film, which I kept in mind as I did so.

In conclusion, I feel what I learnt during my preliminary task formed the stepping stones for me to develop new ideas and to discover new techniques from the basis of 'shot reverse shot', 'match on action', and the '180 degree rule'.