1) What planning did you do for your filming task, and how did this planning aid the filming?
My group and I endeavoured to create a storyboard when brainstorming ideas after concluding upon the topic of our conversation; I was to lose the History textbook that Laurie had lent me.
Finding this planning process to involve time we thought would be better put to use by filming and editing, however, as we could clearly visualise the scenes and shot types we wanted, creating a shot list emerged as a more appropriate solution.
Constructing a chronological list of camera angles within the same lesson in which we recapped conventional shot types, we set about trying to replicate as many of them as possible in our Preliminary Task. Examples of shots we were inspired to utilise include the bird's eye view, the worm's eye view and the more advanced tracking shot.
2) What is the 180 degree rule, and how is this rule important to the filming task?
2) What is the 180 degree rule, and how is this rule important to the filming task?
As the image above demonstrates, the 180 degree rule, or the rule of line-crossing, is a guideline of which must be conformed to in order for on-screen interaction between two objects, or characters, to work successfully.
An invisible line is known as the axis, and connects two individuals or more by keeping the camera on one side of it. Maintaining the camera positioned within a field of 180 degrees makes the interaction between two or more objects an interaction of which is easily understandable. Should the camera cross the imaginary line (axis), viewers undergo disorientation; they shall feel confused as to who is talking, for example, as a character consequentially never stays in one place, or remains on one side. This is called crossing the line or jumping the line.
3) What shot types and camera angles did you use in your filming task, and to what effect?
My favourite shot is the Study Hall tracking one, of which I previously mentioned. It resembles Tarantino's extensive tracking shot featured in the opening to Jackie Brown, a shot type studied briefly in class. The subject - or Laurie - is depicted throughout the clip at length from the camera I pushed on a tripod and dolly, so as to ensure a smooth manoeuvre, resulting in the shot additionally acting as a sort of establishing one; the pod he latterly enters hosts our conversation, and the location of the pod is established by this shot.
An earlier angle incorporated, the bird's eye view, I feel personally is particularly required, as it makes Laurie's journey down the corridor far more interesting; if were to have solely shot him walking with less sophisticated over the shoulder shots and tracking ones, the pace and accumulation of tension would likely have suffered. Virtually all of our shots were cut, even if ever so slightly, so as to heighten audience anticipation as a direct result of extracting any irrelevant footage.
