details of preliminary exercise.

This excercise was used to help us learn the tricks and trades of filming for the later filming we would do. We did it merely to help us improve the standard of our filming skills.

Our preliminary was for us to shoot six shots of a person walking into a room and sitting opposite another, and reciting a short script to one another. The shots were split up and we tried to use many different techniques for each shot. For example, long shots, over the shoulder shot and close ups. And most important of all when filming, is not to cross the 180 degree line, which usually causes confusion of the audience watching the performance.

First of all, before we even got the cameras, we had to do something known as pre-production. This is just organizing the production so in the long run it makes our lives a lot easier when we come to shooting. Pre - production includes writing a short script, doing a storyboard to document the ideas of the exercise. Sometimes even writing down who's doing which parts. Like sound, directing and acting.

We played around with the cameras using the zoom, auto focus and getting to grips with the tripod - keeping the camera steady at the right times when filming. We also got out the microphones and played around with the sound levels. Which is much harder than it looks. Getting the right sound quality, yet not getting the mic in the way of the shot.

After all the filming had been done, it came down to the editing. In which we logged all our footage onto the computer and played around with cropping the footage and adding in transitions. All very simple to start off, so we got to grips with the equipment.