To improve my initial storyboard draft, I discussed with my media teacher the good points and the points in which I can make better.
To begin, I was told that the issues and themes were very clear from just looking at the storyboard, and that there was a wide variety of shot sizes used.
The first point that I could improve on was the amount of vanity titles that I included, as I put 2 in the storyboard, but it is conventional of a social realism that there is about 3/4 vanity titles at the beginning of the film.
Furthermore, I made a plan to rearrange the order of each frame that I had created to make sure that it edits together as well as possible. I have ensured that the characters' faces are not shown clearly until later on to retain the audience. I also made sure to add in close ups of mise-en-scene to enable me to add credits into the real life objects.
The next step I will take to improve is to redraft my storyboard to include the advice that I was given.
The following video is an edit of a fragment of what could potentially be in my social realism intro. The task set was to think about 3 of the 4 areas of camera: composition, shots and angles, to try and create a small section of a film using clips with camera elements that add to the meaning of the film.
Within composition, I needed to think about the framing of each shot, the elements of art, photographic techniques, and the titles that I was going to include.
To begin with, I created a high angled shot to display the character placing a bag down to resemble a goal. I panned to display her movement, which I think was somewhat successful in leaving enough lead room. Although didn't frame it to display her head/face, I thought about this and framed it like that deliberately so as to retain the audience, who will want to know who this character is.
Secondly, I framed a close up of the football with another character running up to it and picking it up to set back down for a penalty. I think that I framed this fairly well, because I thought that it would be better to frame it to either side, as it is firstly, proved to be more aesthetically pleasing as opposed to being exactly in the centre, and splitting up the frame, and secondly, it was to be kicked in the direction of the furthest part of the frame, and so I thought, like a person, it should have a little lead/nose room to show movement.
I then cut to a match on action of the character handling the ball to check it's alright to score a goal with. I used what would have been a medium full shot, as it cuts of at around the knees, however I decided, again, not to show the face of the character for audience retention. If I could do this again, I think I would have zoomed cut off a little more of the character, perhaps from the chin to the waist, to show more of the football, although this shot size still displays a range of shot sizes.
I cut back to the shot that I filmed of the close up, to show the feet of the character. Not much happens in this shot as it is a very quick take to set the pace of the run up to the penalty. However, I do think that I framed this shot fairly well, as the movement of the character can be seen by just her feet.
I matched on action again to a slightly different, high angle of the ball being kicked. I did this to give the ball more space to move to the edge of the frame to show the way it was moving. It is to the side of the frame again for the same reasons I placed it to the left before, as it hits one of the focal points in the frame.
I then cut to a shot of the ball moving left to right through the goal. I do not think this shot is particularly creative, but it just shows in a basic way, that the character has scored a goal. I think that I should have cut the clip a bit more either way to make it a shorter take to make the pace and action seem a bit faster. Overall, I could have thought a little more about this shot to make it seem more interesting, as it is currently quite simple.
To conclude, I think this task was fairly successful in getting me to think about my shots and about how well it would edit together before even filming. This is a useful thing to know for when I go out to shoot the real thing.
In the following video, I have carried out the task of using 3 different shot sizes to film a person walking into a space, sitting down, standing up, and leaving the space, using the knowledge that I had acquired prior to the task being set, involving that of panning and tilting. I used a medium long shot, a medium shot, and a close up and allowed myself 4 attempts for each shot.
When I first started, I didn't feel like I could get the anticipatory framing right as I was not yet familiar with Megan's movements. However, as I saw her move to and from the chair over and over, I began to replicate her movements in that of the camera.
I found that the medium long shot was easiest to film, because it was fairly simple to keep Megan within the frame, and I think, on most attempts, I left enough lead room and kept the framing about right for the medium long shot. There are some points in which I began tilting the camera upwards before Megan moved, however, I did not at any point cut her out of the frame. Overall, I think this set of shots was the most successful, although it could be criticised that I wasn't panning quickly enough to match Megan's walking pace.
Next, I completed four attempts whilst framing Megan in a medium shot. I feel that, by this time, I had familiarised myself with her movements, and that I was able to keep the amount of lead room more consistent than the previous four shots. I also think that I was able to use anticipatory framing a little better than before. However, as it was zoomed in more than last time, it was much easier to cut Megan out of the frame by moving too quickly or slowly. Compared to the medium long shots, they were a little trickier to carry out, although they became fairly simple once I had taken note of Megan's movements.
The close up shots were definitely the most difficult because there was so little space in the frame that it was hard to mimic the movements of Megan, as she moved so fast through the frame. This made it extremely easy to cut her out of the frame, and so I found it most difficult to keep a good, consistent amount of lead room. I found that the tilting was the hardest, and I was moving the camera up or down too much, cutting Megan out of the frame on every attempt that I did. Considering that this was the most difficult shot size to carry out, I think that my panning was significantly better than the tilting, yet it was still not as smooth as specified in the objective. Overall, it was not the easiest, although I feel that with more attempts, I would be able to achieve a better take,
To conclude, I feel that the closer the shot is to the moving object/person, the harder it is to follow their movements. This is reflected in my attempts at all three shot sizes. Despite my close up attempts not being as good as I'd hoped, I think that I now have a good idea of anticipatory framing and lead room, and this task was helpful in understanding camera movements, especially when I will come to film my social realism intro.
