AS Media Studies Preliminary Task Overview

Our preliminary task was to film a short film that had to involve two specific shots that included someone walking up to and opening the door and then walking across a room and initiating a conversation with someone. the film also had to show a use and knowledge of camera angles and transitions, but especially the 180 degree rule and match on action.

180 degree rule: the camera pans round in a semi circle from one character to the other, never crossing the 180 degree line

Match on Action: Two or more shots of one action from different camera angles

Shot/Reverse Shot

I would say that the task was relatively straight forward and was fun to do and it will help alot with our actual task. I also found  it quite fun to be the character in this short film as I felt a bit like James Bond 007. I think that me having them thoughts going through my head has definitely made choosing the genre of the film much easier as we already had some idea of what we wanted to do with it and what kind of transitions and music that we would add. I would say the plot was an action adventure/thriller and would mostly appeal to men as men are more interested in the type of film than women

The idea was originally Armarnie's of Sarah's as we all put in an idea and that was the one we chose for the films plot. The film is about a deal that takes place between to people and we see the main character (me) as what I'll call an agent and what happens is that we see me getting ready for the deal and then walking to the location and making the deal. Then I guess the rest of the film would carry on.

I felt that the team I was in worked really well as we were all able to easily figure out what the other person was brainstorming. We all got along really well and this was important as we could trust each others decisions and wouldn't waste time arguing.

The only real problem I had with the production of our film was the equipment and that couldn't be helped, because it's just some technical difficulties like the computer not working or the original footage going missing. So when something like that happens all you need to do is get on with it and do other tasks while your waiting like looking at different conventions used in film openings or looking at the different types of genre and audiences. Ultimately this will help in the long run and save time later on.

All together for a first go I thought the task went really well and we all gave 100% and that's all we can ask for, but then again I have more media studies lessons coming up starting with one tomorrow. Fingers crossed it goes well.

I hope that's a good first attempt at a post on my blog. 

I'll be speaking again soon.

Graham Trotter

AS Media Studies

Thetford Academy Sixth Form

ttamediastudies.blogspot.com