Preliminary Task: Evaluation

For my preliminary task, of one character opening a door and walking into a room to have a conversation opposite another character, I chose to write the script like an argument. Meg and Kat are sisters and Kat has a boyfriend, however she heard that Meg and her boyfriend had kissed. Meg tries to explain that she was no responsible, although by the end of the scene Kat doesn’t indicate that she believes her. I tried to make it dramatic, with lots of close ups and have it fast paced. I set the scene in my room as it was appropriate as I am a teenager. Throughout, Kat is on her laptop with earphones. I thought this would be suitable as listening to music and being on the computer is what teenagers normally do.

There were a few things that did not work on the day of filming, such as the shot I was going to use which shows Meg’s right side and Kat’s left where they are facing each other. There was too much space for this in the middle and it did not work. Neither did the tracking shot of Meg coming through the door. There was something else that did not work, which was when Meg goes to sit down on the bed, the audience expect her to come from the other side. I think that the final product was a bit too fast paced and I don’t think there was enough emotion. I also could have added more to the beginning, such as Meg standing outside the door, knocking and then inside the room Kat telling her to go away. I am not happy with the lighting either, as overall it seemed kind of dull and some parts were a little too bright. Some of this I tried to edit, however it all had to be on the same level which was difficult.

One of the problems I thought I would have to face was that I would find it difficult to put together all the different shots without having a lot of distortion when they changed in the editing stage. Although I thought I did this well. I also thought there would be a lot of background noise which might make the actual dialogue too quiet to hear, however this turned out fine.

When selecting what shots to choose for the final video, I decided to try to get more and more close up as the tension built up in the argument. When Meg first walks in there are the mid shots of her and the two shots of them, however as Kat begins to yell and get progressively angrier at her there are more close ups of Meg, especially for her reactions. When the scene goes back to a two shot of when Meg gets up at the end, I would have liked to have included a close up of Meg’s mouth here while she was talking to create more drama. Also at the beginning, it would have been good if I included Meg standing outside the door knocking and some reaction from Kat being annoyed, before Meg enters anyway.

Overall I think the preliminary task worked out well, with only a few things I am not happy with including, the shot where Meg walks in from behind Kat, and how there is little movement of the camera. I could have included the tracking shot I was originally going to use.