Prelim Filming Task

My Media teacher told us we had to create a short film for our Prelim task. The idea was for the film to be a hort sequence where one person (Baris) walked into a room and exchanged a couple of pieces of dialogue with another person (Katy). The film had to include a variety of different shots and editing techniques. We had to include a match on action shot, where you see someone push a door open on one side and then the shot would change to the other side of the door and you would see it opening, as if no time had passed. We also had to do a shot-reverse-shot sequence, where two people were having a conversation and you saw one person talking, before the camera switched to show the other person talking. Throughout the video, we also had to include the idea of the 180 degree rule, which meant that you never saw all the way around and only saw the front 180 degrees of the people.

The first thing we had to do was get into groups of four and then groups of two within that. In our pair we had to come up with a location and storyline for our video. This I found quite hard at the start as it was difficult to think of something interesting enough to film. Once we had finally decided on the idea of someone trying to steal a bar of chocolate and then getting caught, we had to begin storyboarding. We did this by coming up with a range of shots and interesting camera angles to include in out video. We also tried to fit in the shots and editing we had to as part of the brief.

In the end I think my storyboard was good as it had lots of detail and description of sound and camera movements. However, if I was to do the storyboard again I would take more time in making sure that the drawings were detailed enough to explain what was going on.

Next lesson after we had storyboarded, we had to begin the filming of our video. We found an empty classroom and got it set up ready for the scene. I was responsible for filming the beginning of the video and filmed Baris walking down the corridor, which I desided would be a mid shot.. The next shot was the opening of the door, which included a close up of the Baris hand on the door as he opened it. I was also responsible for another mid shot of the door opening on the other side and the Baris entering. The final shot I filmed was Baris spotting and picking up the chocolate bar, this shot was again a mid shot, but was split into two different shots, with a low angle shot of his feet as he crossed the floor in between. My partner then filmed an over the shoulder shot of Katy spotting Baris and asking "What you doing?". The next shot was a close up of Baris's face, from Katy's point of view, looking shocked and saying "Oh No". The final shot of our video, was a close up of Katy's face from Baris's point of view saying "That's my Chocolate!"

I think the filming went quite well, as I had never used a camera before, but managed to figure out how to record and zoom in. I think I could have got some better shots of the close up of the door handle, as at the moment I think the angle of the close up is wrong and means that the video doesn't flow together very smoothly. I also think I could have used a better variety of shot types as the shots I filmed are all the same shot type. My partner was responsible for the rest of the filming and at the end of our filming session, I think we could have spent more time making sure we had every single shot we needed for the video and were happy with the quality of them. When I do the filming again, I will make sure I take more takes of each shot, so we have a better chance of getting the shots we need.

Also as we were pushed for time, I do not think we managed to effectively shoot the shot-reverse-shot sequence as well as we could have. If we were to do it again, I think we would spend more time ensuring we were able to film the characters having a conversation using shot-reverse-shot. This was an important part of the brief and i was dissappointed that i was unable to shoot it effectively.

When we had finished filming our video, we had to go back and begin the editing. I had edited a video before, but it was still relatively new to me, so I was quite pleased how quickly I was able to find the right programme. We uploaded our filming and selected the shots we needed. We then watched the shots and decided where to cut them to get the right timings for our storyboard. We had to try and use continity editing in our video, to make it the video flow together better. We had to try and make the change of shot less obvious and look more like a continuous piece of filming. I did quite well with cutting the shots down to make them shorter and also to make them fit together with the rest of the video. I had a bit of problem trying to fit in the close up of the door handle as the the angle was different to the beginning shot, but after a few tries I think I managed to get it pretty close. I think I was able to add the match on action technique quite effectively onto my video and I think it is successful in looking as no time has passed. Overall I think my continunity editing was quite successful, but i still think more time needed to be taken to make sure that every shot fitted in exactly with the next.

Disappointingly, we did not have all the shots we needed to complete the storyboard accurately, this is a fault of our bad filming, but the shots we did have we managed to fit together and in the end I think the video runs quite smoothly. I was unable to find a way to remove the sound from my video, and when I do my real coursework task I will make sure that I do not have any of the unwanted sound that I have in this one. If I was to do the editing again, I would make sure that we had filmed all the shots correctly and therefore i think that would have given us a better chance and opportunity to fit the shots together and make the video flow better.

I think we were quite succesful in filming the 180 degree rule, but I think more time and care could have been taken trying to ensure that we completed this as accurately as we could have.

We finally had to render our video and get it ready to be shown. After I had finished my video i was able to reflect on my performance and the task itself and in the end I quite enjoyed this prelim task, as i think it gave me a lot of experience in using a camera and editing.

During this prelim task I learnt, how to use a camera, including how to start and stop recording and how to change to a close up shot quickly. I also was able to get a bit more knowledge on how to use the editing software and cut between one shot to the other and make it look fluid using contunity editing. I also learnt more about the different shot types, such as low angle and high angle and what the effect of using them is.

Overall, I think the video I have produced flows quite smoothly, but I think it needs a lot of improving if I were to do it again. I would make sure the storyboards were more accurate and most importantly I would spend more time and care trying to get the correct shot types and variety of shots that were needed if I was to successfully meet the brief. I would also spend more time editing the video to make it run smoothly and not look as jumpy or uneven.

My MEdiascape

Today, my media teacher told me I had to think about me and my MEdiascape. When I started thinking about it I realised that media had changed quite a lot in my lifetime and the amount of media I am exposed to today is alot greater than the amount I was when I was younger.

The first thing I started to look at was the world of mobile phones. I was 11 when I got my first mobile phone and for me that was early. Nowadays its normal for many 8 year olds to be walking around with a mobile, usually just for parents own piece of mind, but still. My first mobile was a Nokia 3410, it was grey in colour and it was the same phone that most people my age had, making me feel pretty cool.  I didn't really use my mobile for much. I had a couple of contacts, but really I had it more so I could play Snake!


When I got to high school, I changed my phone to another Nokia, this time it was even cooler, as you could customise the back and have whatever you wanted as your phone cover. I spend ages choosing a background which consisited of lots of different Emily's in different fonts! I loved that phone and it had a new game, which I was addicted to, Bounce! I used it for the odd text here and there, but that was all.

I went through a few more phones after that. I followed the trend, a little later than others prehaps, but I still tried to keep up with the changing fashions. I had a flip up phone next. I could change the case for this aswell. By this time I was about 14, so I had begun to use my phone a lot more for texting and the games where getting used a little less. This was my first phone with a bulit in camera aswell, but it was only about 1 megapixel as opposed to the phones you can get today, which have about 9 megapixels!

After this phone, it was now all the rage to have a slide phone. I was lucky then, as my Brothers girlfriend had an old one she didn't want any more, so I inherited it. It was pink and even had a couple of touchscreen buttons. The camera had got better aswell, it was up to about 3 megapixels by now. This phone was used for texting and pictures. I even began to load music onto it aswell, but the memory only allowed about one song at a time, which wasn't much use, if i'm honest!

It was after this phone that I got the one I have today. A Samsung Tocco Lite, in white. It is a touch screen phone, as that was the new trend when I got it. It has a lot of diffferent features that none of my old phones had. I can access the internet, the camera is better, the music capcity is better and it doesn't even have any keys!

However, my phone is getting a little old now, as technology is still moving on. It is about time I invested in a blackberry or a IPhone, which is what everyone has now. With this you can download and access a lot more music, video, internet, pictures and basically it is like a mini computer in your pocket!

The future for mobile phones is that they will ultimately just become computers. People will not have the use for computers anymore, they will just use their mobile for everything. The thing I find funny, is the size of mobiles. I mean they started huge and then got slowly smaller and smaller, until they were vitually a dot. But now it seems like mobiles are beginning to get bigger and bigger again. To be honest they have to, they can't fit all that information and technology into something you could easily loose, instead the mobile have to be quite big to ensure it gives the user everything they want.

People now hardly use their phones for calling anyone, instead it is like a mini gateway straight into the world of media and I can't believe the way they have developed in the short time, since I got my first one, just 7 years ago.

It is not only mobile phones that have changed a lot in the last few years, computers have as well. When I was about 6 years old, my family got the first computer in the house. It lived downstairs and was pretty huge. It was also very slow and only had a small memory. I only used it for basis word documents and internet. The only thing I do remember using it for was a simple and old PC game called Lemmings.

When I was about 11 years old, I got my first desktop computer, which went it my room. It was again only really used to do simple word processing and PowerPoint documents. However, I did start using the internet more. I had created my own Piczo account, which was a website I could use to create my own mini website, which included information about myself and my hobbies, my friends and I was even able unload pictures onto it. I used my computer mostly for this and MSN. It was about this time that I got my first MSN account, which meant I had my own email address. I only had a few friends on MSN at this time and they were just the people that lived down the road, so it wasn’t much use talking to them. I also had got a new PC game by this time, The Sims. I used my computer a lot of the time so I could play this new, very addictive game.

Since that first email account, I have had quite a few since then. I have had about three different MSN accounts, which is in addition to my other accounts, such as talktalk, BTinternet, and now mypostoffice. I also now have my own school email address. But usually I still just use the first one I ever had.

I also began using computers sometimes at school; this had also changed as I had grown up. In primary school, I used the computers very rarely, but as I got to secondary school I began to use them a lot more often for my school work and now I’m in sixth form, I am using them continually to do all my work.

I now have my own laptop. This lives downstairs, but I can take it anyway. It is a lot smaller than that first computer I had, but yet the memory is about 10 times bigger! I use my computer all the time, for personal use as well as school work. The software has come a long way and you can now create movies, music and no end of different things.

I have had a number of different personal identities on the internet, since I first began using Piczo. When I was about 13, the new big thing was Bebo. This was very similar to Piczo, but meant you were able to talk to people on it and connect with people from all over the world. You could also share music and film tastes. After Bebo came Facebook, which again was a new social networking site, which allowed you to connect and communicate with people from all over the world. This new site had taken the world by storm and allows people to tell everyone what they are doing all the time.

The new big thing at the moment is Twitter, this allows you to keep up to date with the goings on with all the celebrities and means you can continuously be updating your status. These are all social networking sites, but have developed a lot from the first one and now people are being connected together through them, in a way that is total new. You can post videos, music, pictures and basically anything you want on the site and people can respond and give their opinions about your own information.

I now spend about two hours a night online and I now have a lot more contacts on my MSN account. I also spend more time on the computer, doing my school work. I hardly ever have to write out work by hand, as it is all now typed up.

I have a Youtube account as ell, which allows e to post videos I have made myself and people can make comments and share their opinions about my videos. However, I don’t do this very often.

I now have a lot more friends online, and some of them are virtual friends that I only know through their online personalities. I got my first of these virtual friends, during the time I first set up my Bebo account.

Televisions have also changed a lot in the last few years. When I first started watching TV, it was just the basis channels, but then satellite was invented, which allowed more channels to be accessed.  Then there was the invention of Sky, which allowed over 200 channels to be watch able, after Sky, came Sky+. This meant that people were able to record, pause, fast forward and rewind live TV. This changed TV forever. There was then the beginning of HD television and channels. I think in the future TVs will continue to develop and the next big thing is going to be the start of 3D televisions. We already have 3D films, but we will soon have TVs that allow viewers to watch TV in 3D.

Music systems have also changed, in the last few years. I first began with having a walkman. This allowed me to play tapes. Then came the invention of the CD, with the CDs came, CD players and portable CD players. This meant that music had already become a lot more portable, but it didn’t stop there. MP3 players were next to be invented, but these only had a small capacity. But did mean that you could listen to music, but only have to carry around a small device. After MP3 players, came I-Pods. The I-pod allowed a lot more music to be stored in a small device. I-Pods have changed and got better over the years as well. You can now take pictures, record videos, play games, as well as listen to music. Yet the I-Pod is still small enough to fit in your pocket.

I-Pods have also changed into I-Phones and I-Pads, these have again just meant that people can access a lot of information from a very small thing. You can access the internet, weather and basically anything you want from the new I-pads. This shows that media have changed a lot and technology has developed in such a way that it is unrecognisable as the same original idea, which was being able to listen to music, while on the go.

Even books have begun to change! Now instead to actually having to read a book, you can instead use a E-Book reader or a kindle. Which is a way of storing a lot of books in a small space. Magazines and newspapers all now exist online and people very rarely actually buy the physically copy of these.

Looking back, the media I was exposed to when I was younger is about a million miles away from the types of media I use now. I think in the next ten years, this will continue on and media will continue to get more hi-tech and developed. I think it is amazing how much a whole world can change, in only a small space of time.