Our premilinary assigment.

Media Studies Assignment Evaluation

What did I do?

I had to work in a team in order to film a short clip which had to follow the 180 °rule and include some factors such as walking through a door, passing an object and zooming in/out.

The planning process.

First, we had to decide on a story line which was quite difficult because at that point we didn't know eachother well and disagreed on many ideas, however in the end we decided on a very simple idea. Afterwards everyone in the group was assigned a role (actor/ cameraman....). Overall I didn't contribute much in the planning although I did put forward some ideas.

The filming process.

The rold I did contribute to a lot was during this process because I was the camera man. It was quite difficult as I never did anything like trying to film something seriously and it was even more difficult as we all had to follow the 180 °rule. However, the other group members were helpful and we all decided on the angles we would film from. After each of the takes we looked over it to see whether it fitted the other clips.

  Sometimes we would have to film a scene several times because things would go wrong, this was usually either because the continuity of the filming would be interupted by factors such as people walking past or a handryer going off or me working the camera wrong. But due to those mistakes I have no learned how to work the camera correctly and I doubt I would make the same mistakes again.

  During the filming process everyone worked well together although some people had less to do than others due to their roles being less significant. The filming process losely followed the timeframe made beforehand.

The editing process.

The  editing process was the most difficult for me as I was unfamiliar with the software we used having only ever used windows movie maker before. The other group members did most of the work here, but thanks to them I have learned new things such us how to render a project (and what that means), how to cut or edit sound and add various effects to the clips. I think that all of those new information will help me in the future and when it comes to the real project next year, by which I hope to learn even more, because I will need to do all of those things without anyone's help.

  The thing I remember the  most about editing is how to put up credits/ text on to the clips because I had to put up the credits at the end of our short film once we finished editing it. 

What did I enjoy the most?

The most enjoyable thing about the entire project was prabably playing around with the camera. The thing that I also enjoyed and learned from is that editing can change what you filmed a lot (e.g. voiceovers in one of our clips) which is great because you can improve what you filmed a lot.

A summary of the perliminary task. 

We have been asked to film a preliminary task to test our understanding of the 180° rule including these factors:

• 180°rule
• continuity in our filming
• close up’s/ extreme close up’s
• objects being passed
• walk through a door

The 180° rule

A diagram representing the 180°rule

The 180° rule is a guideline for film makers- usually in action films. It is used when two characters or objects are placed besides each other. Once one is on the right and one is on the left they should always be shown in that same position as otherwise the audience might get disoriented. To make this happen a non-existent line is imagines between the characters/objects. The camera then should always stay on one side of the axis. If it does cross the line its movement should be shown to the viewer.