Preliminary Task

 Description

For the preliminary task, I was working in a group of three consisting of me, Ryan Chapman and Connie Smyth. We had decided to do a scene in which an interrogation took place. We chose this idea because we thought that it was the best way to incorporate the 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and match on action.
We started off a match on action shot. This was done by opening a door. As this happened I was sitting in a chair across from the door, on the other side of the table. He then interrogated me and we made sure we incorporated the other two angles as well.

Storyboard

 
This is the storyboard for our film, it includes which shots we would be using, by doing this helped us to know what exactly was going to happen, which in turn made us fully prepared.

Script

Characters:

• Matt - an experienced cop who’s known for doing whatever’s necessary to get results.
• Alicia - a successful criminal who’s currently suspected of murder.

Scene starts with a mid-shot of Matt from behind walking to a door. He then opens the door in the same shot. Once he’s in the doorway, it then cuts to the other side of the door and he walks the rest of the way through. There is then an establishing shot of the room, showing Alicia sitting at the table.


Matt: The camera is at table height and follows. Matt paces in the room. So… you know why you’re here, don’t you? (Alicia pays no attention)

Alicia: Same shot. I want a lawyer. (Still not looking at Matt)

Matt: Low angle shot of him. He’s on his way. But until then, we’re going to have a little chat. Cuts to a mid-shot of Matt sitting down.  

Alicia: Long shot of both of them at the table. I haven’t even been charged with anything.

Matt: Not yet. Mid-shot of Matt. But as soon as your lawyer gets here, you’re going to be charged with first degree murder. (Looking smug and confident)

Alicia: Side on mid-shot of her. (Suddenly alerted) What?! That’s ridiculous! Where’s the proof?!

Matt: Over the shoulder shot from Alicia’s perspective. We found your fingerprints on the murder weapon and we have several eyewitnesses that can put you at the scene.


Alicia: Panning mid-shot of her. I didn’t kill anybody!


Matt: Mid-shot of Matt. (whacks his hands on the table, and Alicia jumps in fear) Don’t lie to me!
 

Alicia: Mid-shot of Alicia. Okay! Okay, I did it! I killed that man. But it’s not what you think!


Matt: Long shot of both of them at the table. (sarcastically) Is that right?


Alicia: Same shot. I was just following orders!

Matt: Mid-shot of Matt. Who ordered the hit?


Alicia: Mid-shot of Alicia. (Hesitation) The Prime Minister.

Close up of Matt shocked of this news. The screen then goes to black, quickly followed by the phrase: ‘to be continued.’

 

 Filming

At first we had to figure out how to use the camera, this was pretty simple however putting it on the tripod to keep it steady was a little tricky.
Throughout filming we didn't encounter any difficulties filming apart from object, such as a wall, being in the way. Other than that filming the preliminary task was straight-forward because we knew what we wanted it to look like, which we put onto our story board, so we kept to it.
I think that Connie, Ryan and I prepared fully before we started filming, we made sure we made a story board and a script to work from, we also memorised them both so it would be easier to film continuously without having to stop all the time to re-read the script. we also picked the room we were going to use and cleared unnecessary equipment out of the way so it would look plain and remotely like an interrogation room.
Throughout the filming, my group worked together to make sure we had the correct camera angles and camera shots and if we definitely did the 180 degree rule, match-on-action, and shot-reverse-shot. I think filming the match-on-action was what I enjoyed filming the most because it's a challenge to make sure the camera matched on either side of the door.

 The Film

Evaluation

During the filming of the preliminary task, we had a few difficulties of where we were going to set the interrogation room as interrogation rooms are generally quite small. We overcame that by finding a relatively small classroom. This made it possible to create a hostile environment to intimidate the female antagonist.
Due to the limited resources, we had problems holding the camera steady, this is reflected in the film as at some points we couldn't keep the shots steady. We over came this by using a tripod, this kept the camera steady, therefore, creating a better result.

Personally, I thought that even though we had some difficulty, that we did execute the key elements as best we could. Compared to other classmates preliminary task that had poorly executed a certain key element, such as match-on-action.