Preliminary

In our double lesson we have started to create our preliminary, which we found very fun to do. We have started by playing around and getting to know the equipment that we’re planning to film our thriller production with. We used Nikon D3100 to record the clips, and we borrowed the schools tripod. The main idea of a preliminary is to film character/s walking through a door and having a conversation with another person or people, and this can have been done in any theme, but we’ve decided to link it and try focus on make it on a thriller, because that’s what we’ll be making in our media production. In the double lesson we have filmed a character running into a room with a gun in their hands, because they were trying to find another person who has stolen something from them. Then the person rolled over the table and jumped onto the floor - we used a low angle to shot this part. When the main character found the person, she grabbed the other one by her throat and asked her a question; however the thief acted like they couldn't speak English, and at the end of the preliminary a person runs into the room shouting. Throughout filming the preliminary, we used different types of shots and rules, such as 180 degree rule, rule of thirds, low angle, mid shots, over the shoulder, extreme close ups, close ups, long shots, two shots, and there was a dialogue; conversation throughout all of the filming. We did consider the CLAMPS, however we didn't have the right props and costumes at the time when we filmed the prelimniary, however we definitely will in the real production. The preliminary has helped our group understand how to use the equipment correctly, and what types of shots would be best to use in our productions for the thriller. I've taken some screenshots to show the different types of camera angles and shot that we've used, which are shown below.

We started off by taking an action shot of the girl opening the door and running into the room with a gun in her hands. We decided to open the sequence like this, because this is what the preliminary brief requirements are.

For the next shot we used a tracking shot to track the girl running, which makes the audience intrigued in what’s going to happen as the camera is following the character, which also makes it feel more realistic.

This shot was taken at a low angle, which has made the character look bigger, because the camera is below the character. At this point in the preliminary, the girl has just jumped off the table and she’s looking around to decide where to go next.

This is one of favourite shots that we as a group all really like, because it’s a long shot, as the whole body is seen in the shot, however the girl is crawling so we’ve decided to use hand-free camera shot to make the scene look more interesting and creepy when she walks, because we are aiming to product this preliminary in a thriller style.

After the girl has crawled, she finds the thief that she’s been looking for and jumps onto the table to attack the thief. When she approaches the thief, she grabs her by the neck – this is he shot that’s shown above. It’s been filmed in a high angle to show the action that is taking place.  

In the preliminary brief it says that it requires the characters to ‘exchange a couple of lines of dialogue’, so this is exactly what we’ve done, however we wanted to capture this conversation in a shot where it would be clear to see the character that is talking. This is why we used over the shoulder shot to show the two characters talking. In this screen shot shown above, the girl is asking a question in an angry voice, because the thief has stoles a certain objects from her.

As the conversation continues between the two characters, we decided to take another over the shoulder shot to show what the other character replies. This type of shot is very good to use when there are two characters filmed, because it’s a close enough shot to show the characters emotions carefully, but it also shows the other character that is in the scene.

Then we shot two characters together to show both of their facial expressions. We felt that this was the most appropriate shot to use, because it shows both of the characters and their facial expressions closely.

The last scene was shot in a long shot to get the audience familiar with the place where this can be filmed. It also has created a more dramatic effect, because as the girl runs into the room, it looks like she’s very small in a big room, because the shot was filmed slightly in a high angle. As the girl runs into the room she shouts saying ‘Stop, we found them’.

Anastazja Stanowska