Camera Excercise

In our past few lessons of media we have filmed and edited a short film to practice our camera skills. In this film we had to include a wide range of camera shots to show that we understood them and when it is most appropriate to use them.

Our Story line 

The story that my group and me were trying to tell was about a lost object. The object was unknown to the audience as it was only referred to as “the stuff”.  Although our story line was rather simplistic, I feel that by introducing a sense of mystery the audience would be intrigued and want to continue watching.

Camera

The only shot type did we did not use was a crane shot as it is a rather tricky shot to create and we only had a short amount of time.The first shot we used was a point of view. We chose to use a p.o.v shot first as it creates a personal connection between the audience and the protagonist. It does this by allowing the audience to see through the protagonist’s eyes.

 The second shot we used was a medium shot. This was used to show our protagonist walking into the room. I feel that this was the most effective shot to use to show this action as it clearly shows her upper body language that is very serious. 

The next shot was an extreme close up of our protagonist’s feet, which lead up to a tilt shot/low angle. The low angle of our tilt shot made our protagonist appear powerful. 
Next we used a medium shot. We used a medium shot of the classroom to set the scene. The clock that can be seen during this shot also helps set the scene as it tells the audience that the film is starting in the morning. 

After this medium shot we used a tracking medium shot (of our protagonist walking into the room)  that lead into an extreme close up of our protagonists eyes. We chose to use this shot as it shows her serious body language. After this we used a pan shot of the whole classroom to establish the setting even more.

After repeating a few more shots we used a long shot of our protagonist walking towards an unknown acquaintance. We decided to use this shot as it is a good way to show that the protagonist and the acquaintance know each other. 

The next two shots used were both over the shoulder shots. We chose to use this as it was the best way to show the two characters engaging in conversation. After this shot we used a rollover shot. We chose to use this as it is extremely effective in showing the shock of our protagonists face when she hears that the "stuff" is lost. 

A high angle shot was used next. We chose to use this as not only did it make our main character look vulnerable but it also showed her staggering to the desk better than any other shot would. The last shot we used was a slightly high angle medium shot. We chose this as it shows our protagonists frustration and anger in the best possible way. 

Strengths and weaknesses

Although in our group we were all pretty pleased with what we produced we did have some weaknesses. An example of a weakness is that we did not use a crane shot. This would of made our film better as it would have shown we know the best way in which to use one. Another weakness is that it was very short. If we were to recreate this film i would aim to make it around 2 minutes long as it wasn't even a minute long. The last major weakness i can find is with the low angle tilt shot. When tilting upwards i struggled with keeping the camera still which resulted in the tilt not being as smooth as it could have been. Even though we had many weaknesses i believe our film had many strengths too. I particularly feel that our point of view shot and our over the shoulder shot were very effective as they look rather professional and they were used in the right situation.