2nd prelim task: Filming

There were several difficulties using the cameras. We began filming without the correct equipment, because the tripod we'd chosen had a piece missing which meant the camera would not click onto it. However, instead of fixing this we decided to do it hand held as we'd already spent a lot of time looking for a location and were behind schedule.

The location we'd chosen was a quiet music room, which was ideal for the gangster feel of our video. However, we found that the piano got in the way a lot and that the smallness of the room was a definite disadvantage. Paige decided to film whilst Percy and me acted in the piece. There were a lot of takes taken because the door kept sticking, or we'd sit on the piano and it'd make a loud noise. However lots of takes meant we had a lot of footage to choose from when editing, which was a positive.

We also discovered that our microphone wasn't plugged in properly, and that only one channel was working. This meant the sound would only come through one earphone when editing. However, we discovered this once we had nearly finished filming and decided to continue using the camera anyway. Before the task, me and Paige were already quite good at using the cameras from previous media GCSE experience. This was definitely a bonus and sped the process of filming up, as well as Paige's extremely accurate eye for a shot and reasonably steady hands.

The shots used were almost exactly as we had planned, with a few embellishments here and there as we came up with fresh ideas on the spot. We chose the shots we did because we thought they were appropriate to the genre of a our piece, and meant that we would achieve the 180 degree rule, match on match action and a shot reverse shot conversation. We kept it quite simple because it was our second experience of filming and we didn't want to bite off more than we could chew. We also agreed that sometimes less is more.

Overall, filming was a reasonably positive experience which taught us a lot for our thriller openings. If we could film it again, we'd make sure both audio channels were working, bother to go get the missing piece to our tripod, and perhaps choose a bigger room for the location of our piece.