Preliminary Task

The preliminary task is a continuity task that involves, filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair which is then expressed through dialogue.

However the task should demonstrate the match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 - degree rule.

Understanding the different Camera shots:

However what is 'Match Action'

An Example of 'Shot/reverse shot'



 An Example 'The 180 - Degree Rule'

The Ideas for the Preliminary Task 

 The Ideas that we had for our preliminary task was the ideas of:

• A Parents Evening
• Doctors Appointment
• Police Interview
• Shopping
• Job Interview
• Crime Scene

However, when looking at our ideas we decided to choose the Police Interview, this was because we wanted to look at the main idea of an interview as it would fit in more with the purpose of the walking through a door and introducing a few lines of dialogue, so this is what we went for. 

The Scripting for our Police Interview:

The police interview is all about the stealing of a teachers’ cookie. The suspected thief is already in the room with his lawyer, preparing himself for the upcoming interview with DSI Stevens. The lawyer who also happens to be the child’s mother is frustrated and pacing the room while the child is sat down looking guilty.

DSI Stevens walks into the room, sits down and stares at the child, then presses record on the machine…

“It is 2:15pm interview with suspect name, Richard Maryland. Present is DSI Stevens and suspects lawyer. Richard do you know why we are here?”

(Suspect) “Erm…no?”

(DSI) “Where were you at approximately 12pm yesterday afternoon?”

(Suspect) “In class?”

(DSI) “Is that a statement or a question to me?...never mind…Do you like cookies Richard?”

(Lawyer) “Richard don’t answer that…what relevance does that have?”

(DSI) “Well at approximately 12pm yesterday afternoon, Richards’s teacher Mr. Mackett found out that his last cookie was STOLEN!!! We have witnesses putting YOU Richard at the scene of the crime. What do you have to say for yourself?”

(Suspect) “i..i…itt wasn't mee….”

The screen goes black.

My Story Boards:
Below is the storyboard before we created the preliminary task and what we wanted it to be like:

Below are my storyboard when we done our completed Preliminary Task:

The Location of our Police Interview:

This is the location of where we decided for our police interview to take place. We thought this would be an appropriate place to shot this because this room as a table for a for interview to be on and there were no windows located in this room making it more private to set the scene letting no natural light in, making it feel like there is no escape and there will be questioning taking place. This really does set the scene of our police interview and that is why we decided to choose this location.

This is an image of a real police interview room and this is what we wanted to compare this with creating the scene to give us our location ideas:

Our Filming Schedule:

Date	Location	Description of shot	Actors
Friday 26th September 2014	The Meeting room (Used as the interview room)	First actor (Police officer) walks in to the room with actor 1 and 2 in the room (Lawyer and Suspect)	Actor 1 (Police Officer) Actor 2 (Suspect) Actor 3 (Lawyer)
		Questions are asked between actors 1 and 2, with Lawyer present (Actor 3)	Actor 1 (Police Officer) Actor 2 (Suspect) Actor 3 (Lawyer)
		Over the shoulder angle with actors 1 and 2	Actor 1 (Police Officer) Actor 2 (Suspect)
		Then Questions are asked leading up to the end of the interview between actors 1 and 2 with the lawyer present (Actor 3)	Actor 1 (Police Officer) Actor 2 (Suspect) Actor 3 (Lawyer)
		Screen goes Black and cuts out

 My Nine Frame Analysis:

When looking at these nine frames of my preliminary task, we can see that looking in the first screen, we can see the police officer walking her way into the interview room, by doing this it is making it more effective because of how we are anticipating on where she is going and why. However we do find this out later in the video.
In the second screen we can see a close view of the officer (Actor 1) opening the door, this was made effective because when looking at his it is demonstrating this is a main feature to the clip as the task was to see someone opening a door so this scene is focusing on the handle, with this the audience would now understand that the officer is now going into a room, so they would want to know what is inside this room and what is going to happen.
When looking a screens 3 and 4 we can see that she has entered the room still focusing in on only the officer making sure that we know who she is and what the video is going to be based around. However, when she goes into the room we can see the other 2 actors, the lawyer and the suspect as we can see has been demonstrated as a child. Making them seem innocent but is this boy innocent?
In Screens 5 and 6 we can see the use of the over the shoulder view, this is being made effective within the video because it is focusing in on the officer with her in sight however still showing the suspect she is talking to still in sight for the audience to know who she is talking to. In screen 6 this is then repeated using the over the shoulder angle, however with the suspect being more focused in the shot however with the officer still being in sight in this clip.
Throughout the rest of the preliminary task we can see the 180 degree rule being used in this because, it is showing us that all the characters are in the shot and they are talking to each other. By using this rule it makes it clear to the audience that they all altogether and creating the dialogue between them whilst featured in this video.
Then to end the preliminary task video we have make a black out scene so the audience would know that it is the end of the video, however not answering or having the full interview in this so i would make them want to watch the rest however knowing it is the end of the video task.
Therefore, to conclude this analysis when creating this video task, we can see that I have tried to add in elements that will become more effective with the audience whilst at the same time adding in the main camera rules of the over the shoulder angle and the 180 degrees rule making this a completed task with all the features for it to be effective for the audience watching this.

My Actual Preliminary Task Video:



How I will incorporate the requirements in the Preliminary task to create my thriller:
I believe when creating the preliminary task, I think that the requirements that I used within this task is going to help me incorporate them into my own work. I would like to use the over the shoulder and the 180 degrees rule within my thriller, this is because by using these skills I have nearly learnt, I believe that I should add them into my thriller and by doing this task learning new skills and ideas it will help incorporate them into my work.

Evaluation of my Preliminary Task:
When looking at the Preliminary task that I have completed within my group, I can see that the things that went well within my work was mainly the overall task and how the finished video came out in the end. When looking over the completed video and the task that was needing to be completed I can see that we covered the criteria, this was because when looking at this I can see that we covered the over the shoulder camera shot, the close up of walking in the door whilst entering the room. We also did the 180 degrees when they are looking exactly each other so the main camera angles that were needed was within our video. We expressed the dialogue with the video, however the overall video was edited to the best of our ability and I believe that it meets the criteria that is needed.
The challenging aspects that I gained from creating this preliminary task was understanding the rules needed as I had never done these before so it was all new to me and for doing this I did find this hard, however I challenged myself to learn these new skills and I believe that I have understood these and can use them in any other of my pieces in future tasks. However, the improvements that I believe could be made within this video is adding in more close up angles,we can see the close up of the opening the door but I would of suggested focusing on the feet close up as they walk into the room and maybe a close up of the suspects's face showing their expression on their face when the officer walks in yet again creating that more beneficial real understanding of a good police interview.

Therefore, when looking at my evaluation I believe we have looked at this is different aspects planning this carefully to the best detail and trying to pick a real life like location for out interview room and I believe that is was chosen well to what we needed it to be to make out first task in media a success. I strongly believe that skills used in this video have been shown to the best of our ability to try and make this like a scene, this was my first piece of work in AS Media and I strongly believe this is a good start to many skills to be learnt and succeeded.

Different Camera    Angles

Mid Shot Angle:

When Looking at this camera angle of the Midpoint we can see that it is showing the figure from the middle and up towards the head creating a detailed mid way camera angle for the figure.

Close Up Angle:

When looking at this camera angle we can see the close up of the figure's head giving us a detailed point of view for a close up this may be used in films to demonstrate close up emotion reactions of the characters in the camera shot.

Bird's Eye View:

When looking at this camera angle we can see that this has been taken from above the character, creating the sense of fading or long shot angles to create that effect of being far away.

Low Angle Shot:

This camera shot is showing a a picture of the figure being down from the bottom creating that effect yet again of being far away or showing postures or emotions from the bottom of the character. When using this shot in a film it could be used to demonstrate something above the character showing this using the low camera angle.

Over the shoulder angle:

This is showing us an over the shoulder angle which is demonstrating that we are still knowing that both characters are still within the shot but it is focusing in on the main character talking so we know he is talking to the woman and we know this because she is still being shown within the shot.

Extreme Close up:

This is showing us an extreme close up angel of the character and his face which is demonstrating to us that we could be looking at his close up emotions to show us closely the feeling he is showing or it can be showing the tensing moments and a close up of his face could be showing us that tense moment that he is going through maybe.