Preliminary Task Evaluation

   We were given a brief to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. We found the filming aspect of the piece easy, but the editing was difficult to make it smooth. We decided that our story would be of a homosexual couple breaking up.
   After watching our preliminary task, we realised that there were some aspects of it that need to be improved and some aspects which were quite good.
   One aspect that I think we used well was the mise-én-scene of the scene. Our use of books about teenage problems and relationships in the background helped to emphasize the emotion and confusion of the characters. We also used colour of the clothes to emphasize the feeling of the characters as well. Putting Eve, the girl the boy walks off with in red, connotates the feelings of danger and love. We also put Nathan in a red polo top to link the two characters together and to also show danger within him.
   I also think that we used continuity editing well in our piece. During the scene, we managed to match two videos of a door closing, shooting it from one side and then the other, and made it flow without looking jumpy.
   One thing that i think that needed to change was the part where a picture of a heart is being ripped up. This part of the piece was added because when we watched the video back we realised that at one point it looked like a character had jumped across the screen a little. This is because we did not follow the 30 degree rule, and did not move the camera enough.
   I think that the narrative is a strong part of our piece. We managed to include Todorov's theory of an equilibrium, a disequilibrium and a new equilibrium withing our piece creating a complete story within our task. Our equilibrium was the two boys being a happy couple, our disequilibrium was Nathan breaking up with Joe, and the new equilibrium was Nathan being with Eve.
   I think that we represented homosexuals in a realistic manner and did not focus on the stereotypical view. We made them look like ordinary boys in a school, and we did not mention that the characters were homosexual in our dialogue. We let the audience make their own decision from the characters conversation. Although our piece looks like we are suggesting that homosexual teens should try to act straight, we did not mean for this to happen. We merely meant to create a piece that was controversial and different from anybody else's.
  

Preliminary Task Video

Preliminary Task - Construction - Editing

   This week we started editing our piece and re-filming parts that were bad quality. We used  Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 to edit our piece. First we uploaded all of the videos and then we decided which ones we thought were good quality, and which we needed to re-film. Two members of our group then had to go and re-film the bad quality ones, while two other members had to finish putting the good videos in the correct order and making them flow.
    We then uploaded the good quality videos on to Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0, and made the video complete. However, when we watched the video back we realised that at one point the girl looked like she had jumped across the screen. We then found out that this was due to us not knowing the 30 degree rule. To overcome this problem, we inserted a visual metaphor, a picture of a heart being ripped up, to show that the second boy's heart was breaking and to show his anger within the situation. We then watched the whole thing through and were happy with the end product.

Preliminary task - Construction - Filming

This week we started filming our preliminary task with a video camera. Last week we had made a shooting schedule, so we knew what we wanted to film in each day and how long it would take us. I found this part quite difficult as it was sometimes hard to get the exact shot we had planned for because we couldn't get the camera in the position needed. It was also difficult because people would walk through the shot and we would then have to start that shot again.
   We started the week by going to the library to ask for permission to film there. We then shot the first four shots on the stairs leading to the library. We found that the first shot (the shot of the phone with a text on it) was difficult to get as the writing was hard to see, as it became blurred. We resolved this by taking a picture of the phone and putting that at the beginning instead of a moving image, as with a still image, it was easier to focus in on the writing.
   To play the other parts, we used a friend who had a study period at the time we were filming and a member of our group. This made filming easier as we could film what we wanted in the lessons without pulling people out of lessons. We used different angles of the camera to show the emotions of the characters. For example, a high angle shot on the second boy to show he is vulnerable as he just got dumped and a low angle shot on Nathan to show who is in control of the situation.
   When filming in the library, we decided to put books about relationships and teenage issues in the background of the shot, in the bookshelves. We thought this would add to the mise-en-scéne of the piece as it adds to the theme of homosexuality and relationships. We also put the girl that Nathan walks away with in a red dress to symbolise love and passion, but also danger to the second boy. 
   When we uploaded the contents on to the computer, we were able to watch all the clips back and decided whether we wanted to keep them or whether we should re-film them because of bad quality sound or picture. We had a couple of videos that we did not need or want due to bad sound or image, and people getting lines or movements wrong. We decided that next week we will have to re-film the clips that are bad, but for the time being we used them as a rough guide to see what our video will look like.

Preliminary Task Storyboard

Preliminary Task - Planning

   This week, we were given the brief of our task and what needed to be included in it. Before our group can move on to the main assignment, we have to complete a preliminary task. The preliminary task has to include, a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting opposite a character and then sharing some dialogue. I thought that this would be a task that i could cope with, after we done some research and watched some past media students work, i felt confident that i would be able to complete this task at a high level.
   I got in to my group and we talked about the possibilities of stories. After discussing various ideas, we decided on a story: our story is of a homosexual boy breaking up with his boyfriend, to be with a girl. we chose something that was controversial because we thought that this would catch the audience's eye, and would be more interesting than a heterosexual break-up. We then had to write a script, which included stage directions and camera movements, though there are only five lines of dialogue in our piece as we felt that it didn't need a lot of dialogue and we could show the mood by the filming and facial expressions of the characters. After, we had our script we were able to draw a story board, which included camera movements and shots, mise-en-scéne, the timing, the sound and the editing of that shot, we used colour in our story board to help to put across mise-en-scéne and the connotation of the characters, for example red on the girl to connote danger and passion. When the story board was completed we had to come up with a shooting schedule, deciding when and where we would film certain parts, and the costume, make-up and props needed for that section. We decided to film our task in the library as it is a quiet place and we would be able to film without lots of background noise, making it easier to hear the dialogue between characters.