Main Task Brief

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

The first step was to plan what we have to do to enable this filming process to be successful. For planning we used a story board which showed each different frame that we would be using in our film. This didn’t take us that long as we knew our storyline well and we had thought about it too. After the filming process we had made a few adjustments and it wasn’t following the storyboard completely because some elements we decided to change. We changed them because when filming some of the frames were not needed or were too much.

The reason that we chose our school to film was because it was a very natural environment and the separate places that were used from inside the school were also very natural. Also most places are used in our daily lives, so we could relate to them e.g. staircases.

We used various different shots, including: close ups, establishing shot, tracking shot, mid shot, shot reverse shot. The reason for using a close up was to emphasise the door opening and the girl entering somewhere she shouldn’t be. The establishing shot was used to show where this film was being shot. The tracking shot was following the girl down the corridor and the camera had similar movements as her to give the effect that we are present in this scene and so we can feel her emotions. We also used shot reverse shot to show that both characters are present and to show their reactions or responses to the other character.

The length of the video was 0.35 seconds and the reason for this was because we completed the main task of showing continuity in a short time and the story was short.

We thought and chose the aspects of the four film languages well. The sound throughout the film was diegetic; we didn’t add any non-diegetic sound because we wanted to keep it natural. In the mise-en-scène we used natural lightning because we had enough and didn’t need to use artificial lightning. The costumes/clothes were normal daily clothes to show that the young girl is the same as any other girl. The only prop that we used was near the ending of the film and it was a pencil which was thrown in anger. The editing was not slow or fast it was at a medium pace at the start but near the end it did speed up a little bit.

The narrative (sequence of events) was very good and we feel that it made sense as the story went on. The genre of our film was horror and the suspense did build up quite a bit. We followed the 180̊ rule and didn’t break it, the camera stayed on one side.

The time it took for us to film was about 2 and half hours. We used two lessons to film and 1 lunchtime because we still had the last 2 scenes to film.

The time we took to edit was about 4 – 5 hours which was about 4 -5 lessons. We found editing challenging at times and had minor blips with the uploading but in the end I managed to figure out how to upload and what the problem was.

Overall we are pleased with the outcome of our effort, we tried our best and we feel that for a first time film it is good. There are things that we would like to change or improve on. If we were to do this again we would come up with a better story line because we didn’t have enough time to think of one and feel that it isn’t very good. Also we would like to have added effects and made the film more successful but as we were using macs for the first time it was quite tricky to understand.

We have learnt how to use a camera with the zoom button, how to use a mac and how to edit, upload and convert into a movie.



This is our Preliminary Task.

Waterloo Road Maxine Dies (40 seconds)

-          Close up of her face to show her emotion  (upset)

-          White background, it’s a contrast so that you focus on her face

-          Straight cut to boy

-          Close up of him – emotion (confusion)

-          Light background, it’s a contrast so you focus on him

-          Straight cut to her – close up of her

-          Close up of him – straight cut to him

-          Long shot of walking away – straight cut

-          Long shot of vase – camera disorientation because everything happens very quick

-          Close up of gun and vase breaking

-          Mid shot of other girl

-          Tracking shot of her

-          Close up on broken vase

-          Close up on girls face – shows fear

-          Tracking shot of other girl walking in from a high angle, from the top of stairs

-          Mid shot tracking shot of boy

-          High angle, mid tracking shot of girl walking, shown through the banister

-          Low angle shot of girl from behind the boy, shows the gun to make us realize that it is still there

-          Very light backgrounds, so you focus on characters

Storyboard for Preliminary Task

Script for Preliminary Task

‘The door that’s never been opened’

INT.   SECONDARY SCHOOL – ROOM – EVENING

Summer is walking through the corridor, nothing but silence!

She can hear her own footsteps and she feels as someone is following her.
She makes her way up the stairs towards the room.
She has now reached the top of the stairs and is walking down the corridor.

Summer: I can’t wait to find out what’s in the room, nothing scares me.

She reaches towards the door handle and slowly enters the room. Show continuity of walking through door. The room is very dark and summer sees a black figure sitting on a chair across the room.

Summer: who are you?

Summer proceeds and sits down on a chair opposite the mysterious black figure. There is only a table between the two.

Person: Why have you come here? Nobody ever comes here. (Deep scary voice)

Summer: Because I want to know who you are and why you’re here.

Person: It is none of your business, leave me alone!

Person chucks pen from table in anger.
Summer is scared and runs away.

Concept for Preliminary Task

The action is placed in the school grounds. There is a room on the top floor that has never been seen. A 6th form student decides to find out for her-self what lies behind the mysterious door.

Brief for Preliminary Task

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.