Some of the techniques I used when filming were:
Low angle shot to give the character a sense of power and strength- something that we will later contradict.
One effect we used was to fade one seen into the next, the fade was barely noticeable but made cut between the scenes less jumpy.
Shot/reverse Shot:
We also used Shot/reverse shot for the dialogue scenes using over the shoulder shots on Alex to one on Mr Smith:
We also used match on action:
To follow Alex from his getting up from the table to a change in angle of him opening the door (filmed from the outside)
I also used Rule of Thirds:
When filming the shot reverse/shot dialogue scenes we lined up the characters bodies and faces to the rule of thirds to get maximum effect and enable that they both were the focus of the the scene.
We also used Extreme high angles to make certain characters appear weaker.
Looking back at your Preliminary task (the conitnuing editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
This final task was by far harder than my previous short film 'Saveloy and Chips' which was a lot of fun to make and really not that much hassle as we filmed it nearly all in one day and with only a cast of two so we had little organisation problems. Which is the complete parallel of this final piece which was riddled with filming problems. It was nigh impossible to get everyone together to film in one day as we were all so busy with our other subjects and free at different times, the costume and direction much more complex, the story was more detailed and a lot of our cast failed to turn up and then completely let us down so that we couldn't get all of our script filmed. This meant that we had to totally re-juggle our plot and so our final footage is very different to what we had previously intended.
Editing wise: I had used iMovie before and so because of that and the fact I had been ill (and so had missed much of the editing period and the last few days of shooting) I had not been able to learn how to use final cut or assist my partners in doing their edit so I had to do my own. I managed to get a rudimentary understanding of Final Cut however, just enough to get the voice over on and in my free time after school and during lessons got the editing done.
I think I've learnt through this experience how stressful filming can be (especially if people let you down and you don't have enough backup plans to supplement it) and I think though I do enjoy editing and directing and generally filming it's far too much pressure for me to ever consider as a career. I think that I do however have more confidence in my abilities to salvage a sequence form the utter mess that was our filmed footage (after all our problems) and though my final piece may not be award winning I hope that I've managed to cobble together a decent (beginning of a)story.
I also am quite sure now that directing, storyboarding, editing and even occasional acting are my strong points but sadly not writing humorous scripts which I more than happy am to leave up to the boys!
