Preliminary Shoot - Hurtwood

Yesterday in my Media class myself and my group did our first practical assignment which involved us to film a short conversation between two characters.

Luckily we were all familiar with the camera's from our lesson a few weeks ago so we were set in that however we just needed to figure out our smaller location - which all worked out brilliantly in the end. 

The script we were given was very simple and straight forward and only involved us needing an entrance door and two willing actresses :) Once we solved this we got started. 

I thought as a group we worked well together, taking it in turns to take part at different roles each time we shot a new sequence. 

The final clip is made up of 5 different shots, a wide shot, 2 close-ups of either character and then 2 over the shoulder shots. As we had enough time at the end of the lesson we decided to also film a close up of the door handle opening and also a low angle shot of one of the character's to emphasise the power of her role. 

How did we do this?

Well we in fact shot the same performance 7 whole times. This is for a few reasons. Firstly when we come to editing we'd definitely have at least some clip for sure, secondly it will be easier to cut in and out of each clip at certain times. Also if there are any problems that we may not have originally been aware of we'd have the option to fix it with various clips that we have. Additionally it quicker and easier to keep rolling through rather then stopping and starting constantly. 

I actually really enjoyed being behind the camera properly for the first time and also learning some new 'command' words. The whole experience has made me more excited  and ready to get stuck into more practical and hands on work. 

VERY IMPORTANT RULE  that I learnt

This is the '180 degree rule'. This is when the two characters/actors have to obey the rule of there being an invisible line between them and the camera must not cross from one side to the other. If this is not followed then it can confuse the audience because it makes the characters suddenly look out of place, or somehow magically moved sided of the room. It realistically will not make sense, so it is extremely important that this rule is followed when filming.