Prelim Task: FILMING.
To bring to life everything we've studied previously about camera movements and angles we've been given a short dialog to film.
Storyboard of the sequence.
I was in the group with three other students and we've been given two actors to help us. I think in such tasks it's very hard to maintain control and produce a good piece of work as nobody is given a clear role(director, cameraman, e.t.c) what makes the whole working process very unorganized. For example, several times we had somebody saying 'cut', before the actor had completely left the shot, what appeared as a problem during editing. Moreover, none of us had much experience in filming before, so everyone felt a bit strange and unsure in what should they do. For example, I completely messed up the order in which you have to say 'stand by', 'camera rolling', 'action', again, due to we all've been saying them at different times and order, even forgetting some of them at all.
Surprisingly, we have finished filming all the required by the storyboard shots and had time to improvise. For example, we tried to have a really high angle shot by putting a camera and the tripod on the desk. It didn't really work as firstly we've just tried to hold the camera in hands and film, what looked really awful as it was shaking all the way through. However, when we've put a tripod on the desk, and the camera on the tripod - it wasn't any better - the angle made the shot look really unrealistic.
Afterwards, we decided to film how the actor is coming into the room just before the dialog begins. Our teacher gave us a hint how to do it well - one of us had to sit in the wheelchair with the camera and we've been dragging it alongside with the walking actor. As a result we've got a really nice hand held shot with a little bit of camera shaking what added naturalism.
Finally, we decided to add an extra scene, where I had to enter the room and scream something in Russian. At the first shot we made I started speaking the wrong language, what came out really funny. Despite the fact it was hilarious to film as we all just couldn't stop laughing - the extra bit didn't work as it looked really random and confusing during editing.
I'm really pleased I was working in this team as, despite nobody had a great experience in filming, everyone were really keen to film, were initiative and enthusiastic.
Everything went really smoothly. We've set the camera really fast, found the right white-balancing and camera positioning. Moreover, we've actually been smart enough to film the whole dialog from every shot required by the storyboard, rather than filming by phrases or parts - that really helped in the editing process as we had freedom to choose the best shots and vary them as we wanted. Another good thing was that we've done each shot twice to avoid any problems that could turn up during editing.
Beside everything I've talked about above, I think the only real 'problem' occurred was the lighting. We've been filming from around 15;30 to 16;30, but in that short period of time the natural lighting outside has gone so much darker, so that faces on the shot has come up a little bit yellow or orange.
Maybe it's just me being picky, but I really prefer the colors in the picture being naturally lighter, brighter, colder, rather than editing it afterwards, I think it makes the shot look sharper and much better.
But, of course, weather - is not something you are able to control during filming.
Anyway, now I have some experience in filming in the team for our future thriller tasks. However, I believe every member of the team should be given a clear role, so that everybody has an equal impact into the final piece - this would improve the productivity of the whole process, avoiding any conflicts in opinions, as obviously we all have a different view of the world.
Once I even said 'stand up!' instead of 'stand by!' :)
Afterwards, we decided to film how the actor is coming into the room just before the dialog begins. Our teacher gave us a hint how to do it well - one of us had to sit in the wheelchair with the camera and we've been dragging it alongside with the walking actor. As a result we've got a really nice hand held shot with a little bit of camera shaking what added naturalism.
Finally, we decided to add an extra scene, where I had to enter the room and scream something in Russian. At the first shot we made I started speaking the wrong language, what came out really funny. Despite the fact it was hilarious to film as we all just couldn't stop laughing - the extra bit didn't work as it looked really random and confusing during editing.
I'm really pleased I was working in this team as, despite nobody had a great experience in filming, everyone were really keen to film, were initiative and enthusiastic.
Everything went really smoothly. We've set the camera really fast, found the right white-balancing and camera positioning. Moreover, we've actually been smart enough to film the whole dialog from every shot required by the storyboard, rather than filming by phrases or parts - that really helped in the editing process as we had freedom to choose the best shots and vary them as we wanted. Another good thing was that we've done each shot twice to avoid any problems that could turn up during editing.
Beside everything I've talked about above, I think the only real 'problem' occurred was the lighting. We've been filming from around 15;30 to 16;30, but in that short period of time the natural lighting outside has gone so much darker, so that faces on the shot has come up a little bit yellow or orange.
Maybe it's just me being picky, but I really prefer the colors in the picture being naturally lighter, brighter, colder, rather than editing it afterwards, I think it makes the shot look sharper and much better.
But, of course, weather - is not something you are able to control during filming.
Anyway, now I have some experience in filming in the team for our future thriller tasks. However, I believe every member of the team should be given a clear role, so that everybody has an equal impact into the final piece - this would improve the productivity of the whole process, avoiding any conflicts in opinions, as obviously we all have a different view of the world.
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