Question 7 - Miss Georgiou

Question 7

For our preliminary task, we had to film a small scene of a conversation in order to get a better idea of how to use the equipment to make our final opening sequence. Our scene had to consist of, as a whole, a walking scene of a character, and a scene of a conversation between two characters. We had to film an over the shoulder shot, a long shot, a mid-shot, a close-up and a panning shot that would make up our small narrative of the preliminary task.

We struggled in making the over shoulder shot the most when filming our preliminary task. We were supposed to film myself walking to a table, while the camera would be above my shoulder looking ahead, by having someone walk behind me as we filmed. We struggled with this as the camera would keep bouncing around when the cameraman walked as he had to hold the camera high above his head while walking, so it would come out looking bad and poorly done, due to the shakiness of the footage and it being unable to focus, and subsequently blurry, that was hard to watch and wasn't worth keeping. We resolved this by having me walk at a slower pace so the ca meraman could keep himself steady while he filmed and so there wasn't a rushed feeling to the shot, due to the cameraman being able to take his time while walking and not getting the natural bounce that happens when you walk faster, we also experimented with different filming styles for the OSS, like having it in a fixed position while I walked by but we decided that moving the camera would be more interesting and keep a flow to the scene.

We learned how to set up the tripod properly. This was quite difficult to do at first when we didn't know how to extend the tripod due to there being a lot of different levers and knobs, although we had a demonstration we still found it difficult to work the tripod due to not having any previous experience with a tripod. We overcame this difficulty by testing the different devices on the tripod until we found out what we needed to, although what we didn't know our teacher was able to fill us in on, and after spending a short time learning the process we were able to get full movement and angles. Once we knew we were able to extend it fully and make sure that were getting stable shots that were at a height level that we wanted and also how to operate smaller parts of the tripod to be able to angle the camera properly and get shots that would be hard to do on a tripod, like a cantered angle.

We learned how to use the camera properly as well. The camera itself was tricky to operate as nobody in the group was familiar with using it to record, so we had to mess around with the buttons at first until we know how to use different elements of the camera like zooming it and out, which helped us to set up different shots and film easier, something that would benefit greatly later on when we were filming for real. We also learned how to properly play back footage, so that when we were done filming a shot we could go back and make sure the scene had been done right, or if it needed to be re-filmed. This saved us time as we wouldn't have to spend time going back to our computers, watching back the footage in final cut, deciding it wasn't good enough and then having to go back out and re-film some scenes.

We got a better idea of editing and sound in our piece as well. By using Final Cut Pro X, we were able to take all of the different clips we had recorded and put them together in order to come out with a very professional looking final piece, which helped us get a better feel for editing when we had to do it for our opening sequence. We also learned how to add sound to our productions properly and without them sounding too jarring for the audience to hear, something that also helped us when making our final piece as we knew how to put in these different sound files in a quick and properly done way. However we did have problems with Final Cut Pro X in that nobody in the group knew how to use it, meaning we were slow when putting together our pieces as we had basic knowledge of the tools and effects at our disposal and weren't sure how to properly put them. We fixed this by getting help from the technicians and spending more time trying out the different features of the program, so that we could know how to properly use the device and it's limitations so that we could edit and put together our task quicker, something that would allow us to speed up our real production greatly and not mean we had wasted time.

We learned multiple different things when making our preliminary task involving the production process and how to do it properly in an efficient manner. We learned how to properly set up and use a tripod in order to get better stability of the camera and be able to maneuover it with it coming out wonky and amateur. We also learned how to set up camera angles properly so when it came to making our opening sequence we would know what we are doing and be able to set up all the camera shots quickly and effectively. I also learned how to use final cut pro x better and get more familiar with the different ways to use it, so that when  we would make our final piece it wouldn't be too hard to use and we could try out more professional techniques. The overall benefit of the task was to gain a good, sound knowledge on all the aspects of the production of making a low budget thriller opening sequence, so that when we got around to actually coming to film the piece it would be quicker and of a higher quality, as we already knew what we had to do and how to overcome and challenges we had with production.