Preliminary tasks:

After several lessons of learning the foundations of camera techniques as well as how to identify them in action,
we wanted to try applying these skills in an actual shot, in class we came up with a variety of prompts to test our skills
in several scenarios and we then went around the school taking photos for each prompt – aiming to use a unique type
of shot for each. Below is an image of the work my partner and I did. Personally, I found it easy to associate what technique
would create the most effect in conjunction with a prompt, but I actually found it quite difficult to decide on a location that would best suit the prompt – but now that I have had this experience, I will be careful to consider this closely when creating the final film opening.

We were tasked with brainstorming and storyboarding a 30 second long film opening with the following prompt:
“You haven’t left the house in months, if you don’t today, then you never will”
We then presented it in class.
My thoughts?
It was certainly a learning experience, as I had not made a storyboard before. I believe I made the mood-board quite well, however I could certainly improve when it comes to the storyboard itself – thinking of techniques was easy, but graphically presenting it was hard, once again, I’m sure this will be a useful skill to learn before the creation of the final film opening!
Below is the link to the pitch presentation which has the mood-board and storyboard as well as planning.

https://www.canva.com/design/DAHCvHnAfeY/O_oedE7BMfD2SqS8DpmkYg/view?utm_content=DAHCvHnAfeY&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h24339bc2d4

For our 3rd preliminary task we were asked to brainstorm, film and edit a 1 minute short film, composed of two different scenes. We were given three requirements:
– Must include a piece of dialogue saying “He’s gone.”
– Must include an object which has some symbolic significance.
– Must contain an unanswered plot point or question (enigma.)

Together with my group of two other classmates we discussed what genre we thought would fit the prompts the best – ultimately deciding on a thriller, the general plot is that a student is looking for a lost bag in a gym after school hours, however they get suddenly attacked and knocked out by another student, the victims friend is then eating lunch the next day, when the attacker calls the protagonist saying “He’s gone”, to the protagonists confusion and worry. We all planned together to make a brainstorm, mood-board, script, and general list of the shots that would be included. Because we wanted to do tracking shots, I also learnt how to use a gimbal in my own time – which will without a doubt be a useful skill for the final film opening.
The filming itself was certainly a learning process, it was virtually my first time acting – which I think I did to a serviceable extent as I managed to fit the character pretty well, at the very least I could probably act again in the final coursework, in terms of what we did well, I believe that the variety of shots used was quite good, and that we did very well at building enigma as to both why and how the kidnapper managed to do it, but we could certainly improve on teamwork, as we had several misunderstandings and creative clashes, however, my teammates and I did have a good variety of skills, this is an important thing to remember for the final coursework, as I will make sure to choose my group members wisely, ensuring a good spread of skills to maximise how well made the final film opening is.
Attached below is the planning slideshow, and a picture of us working along with the final edited video.

https://youtu.be/KMrxAxi19iY (<-Link to video)