First filming exercise - how it went and what you learn from it

My first filming exercise was to film someone reading a newspaper in a thrilling way.

My groups concept was a person leaning on a pole reading a newspapers. In the newspaper we found a small clip of a missing person and used that, as if a person who approaches the person with the newspaper is the missing person. The person reading the paper is shocked to see the missing person.

We planned the concept and broke it down to various shots varying from medium shots, close ups, extreme close ups, over the shoulder shots and point of view shots. We decided to film outside the college as there was a pole and around it was a clear area. I drew up storyboards to make filming easier, so that I new what the film could end up looking like. I find it easier drawing or visualizing the shots up rather than writing and describing the shots.

I acted as the person reading the paper and Sam in my group played as the missing person, as she looked a bit like the photograph of the missing person in the actual paper.

Our group found difficulties filming because of the location. The ground of the location was uneven and we had to adjust the tripod many times to keep the camera shot straight. Also, we found problems filming over the shoulder shots as no one in my group was tall enough to film above be. In addition, there were many distractions around us that disturbed filming, which slowed us down.

Over all for each different shot, we took around 4 shots for each take to get it right.

I learned that in order to have a good and complete filming is to plan it thoroughly and include a variety of camera shots to make it interesting. I also learned how to put the shots together we filmed to create a completed filming and to make sense of all the filming we shot. I used the 'Final Cut Pro' software and learned different tools to put the shots together.