Storyboard, Planning and Analysis of Preliminary Task

Storyboard and Planning for preliminary task:




Commentary on storyboarding:
This is the first page of the storyboard for our preliminary task. We planned to make the powerful character wear black and the weaker character wear white to symbolise good vs. evil. The colour of their hair was also used in this way. Just from the first page, we have already established the characters; the two men, and set up a degree of enigma; what did the red haired man do and why does he look scared? We helped the audience understand the location by setting up a desk in a room like an office, so they are aware it is happening in the workplace. They understand by the subliminal messaging through colours used which character is more powerful, and realise the purpose of the evil character from the second storyboard page when the weaker character goes off scene and a gunshot is heard. However, not all has been revealed;
the audience do not know whether the character has been shot/ has been killed by the shot, so are still curious to continue watching the film to see what happens. This is important for the enigma to be continued.



Commentary on planning process:
We planned to use mafia-style, fast paced, eerie music to make the audience feel uneasy and that something is going to go wrong. When the evil man looks shify and put his hand in his coat to get the gun out, we slowed down the music and used a heartbeat sound to convey the seriousness, and we also put an effect on it so that when the other character jumped off the chair, it was in slow motion. We felt this had a good effect, and amplified the noise of the chair crashing to the floor.
Commentary on filming:
We filmed our preliminary task at school, as this was really just to help us understand the camera, so the location wasn't so vital. We used the three things which were suggested should be included; match on action; when the evil man walks through the door, shot reverse shot; when the two men are talking, and the 180% rule; we kept on the left of the evil man.

By doing the preliminary task we learnt many things;

• How to use the camera and techniques such as; zooming in/out, recording/ stopping, making sure a blank tape was inside, etc.
• To use a tripod; we didn't do this and this greatly affected our film as the shots were shaky and looked unprofessional, so we remembered to use it for our thriller.
• How to do over the shoulder shots; we took this far too literally and actually sat the camera on the actors camera! We have learnt since to just put the camera on a tripod behind the actors shoulder.
• How to upload the footage; the amount of film we have on the tape is the time it takes to upload, so its important not to film too much unnecessary footage.
• How to add effects; we played about on the apple macs which we had never used before for a while and experimented with different effects till we found the appropriate one.
• Where to find music; a legal website called freeplay was suggested by teachers, where you can type the sort of music you are looking for.

I think our preliminary task went well because we planned it all out on a story board so we knew what we were doing. This was our first time using the cameras so we were a little unsure; this is why the camera movements are shaky as we didn't use a tripod. Doing the preliminary task taught us aspects of timing and how to plan effectively, and how to use the equipment correctly for the best outcome.