Short Film Basic Filming Exercise

"Use the sheets as a guide to create a short film"

                       

The task:

Our task was a to work in groups of 3 to, using the sheet as a guide, come up with a concept for the dialogue provided, film and edit it. We were allowed to change elements such as adding in certain shots or changing little parts of dialogue but the aim was to keep it relatively similar. We were given freedom as to what genre we wanted it to be as well as the length of the shots.

Our Concept:

The concept we ended with was a girl, Daisy, who had a boyfriend but liked another guy, Freddie, and he had enough waiting for her and needed her to break up with her boyfriend or he would have to move on.

Our group:

Daisy, Freddie and I brainstormed ideas and concepts for our film for the first 5 minutes, filmed it for 30 and then edited it for 10. We worked together whilst filming to achieve the bests angles and we all searched for the location together, additionally, Freddie and Daisy helped to direct me with the camera and we all decided which angles suited the shot best. I filmed and edited, Daisy and Freddie acted as well as decided to move location during the film for more visual stimulation rather than being static throughout. They also helped to find the non-diegetic sound we used to enhance the atmosphere.

What went well:

In my opinion I feel as though the way we adapted the script, that indicated to a more crime/thriller genre, to our romcom inspired piece was unexpected and created a more original piece. I think that the change in location helped to engage our audience and uphold interest as well as built up the tension between the characters - this was a reinforced by the diegetic music we added in post-production. We also followed the 30-degree-rule as well as the 180-degree-rule to ensure that the characters didn't accidentally swap sides from the audience's perspective and the editing didn't appear choppy/ jump-cut like.

What could be improved:

The background noise often made the edits appear harsh and we should have started a movement in one shot and continued it to the next to make it feel more cohesive as it gave it a stop-start quality which wasn't intended.

What I learnt:

If we were to do this exercise again I would ensure that we knew what we were doing in the next shot rather than doing it one shot at a time as it would've made it seem more fluid and it would've been easier to edit together in a cohesive manner.