Second Practice Film Session

In this lesson we had 3 hours to create our second practice film and edit the footage. We managed to get both tasks done in time. In my opinion, the session went well as we were quite creative in coming up with ideas to make the film even better. Between the first and second practise films I have learnt that using match-cut in the film properly boosts the films quality.

I think that our group followed the forms and conventions of real films as we didn’t think to divert any form or convention. We stuck to what our teachers thought was the best way to make a film. We kept the lighting similar all the way by not using special lighting equipment – we sticked to the room lights provided. We tried to use all the camera angles and shot types, which would have been suited to the film. This ranged from close ups to long shots, to high and low angles. We also tried to position the camera and record from as many positions as would think of to get the match-cutting technique more involved in the film. We were taught the 180 degree rule by Mickey, which meant that once all the characters were in the room, we could only film from one side of the room. Our group fortunately didn’t make that mistake. In terms of the mise en scene, the characters (me and James) wore casual outdoor clothes, so we didn’t want to mislead the audience for another stereotype. In terms of setting, we showed that our film was made in the college and we represented this by having shots of the corridor an the editing room. We edited the film accordingly to help guide the audience from different scenes and situations. Our film didn’t need a particular genre so we didn’t pursue the idea to actually have one.

My practise film shows representations of young, lively college students from the way the characters converse, interact with technology (James uses the Mac) and the way they dress (Me and James both wear hoody’s with jeans and trainers).

This was the overall shot sequence of the film:
A close-up shot of James moving the mouse
An OTS shot of James looking at the computer
2 long shots of me walking up the stairs (with slight tilt)
2 long shot of me walking through the corridor
A high angle shot of me reaching for the door handle
A close up shot of me pulling down the handle
A medium shot from the other side of the door
A low angle long shot of me walking towards James
An OTS shot of James talking to me
An OTS shot of me talking to James
The OTS shots between me and James keep switching quite a few times.