Second practical lesson - shooting sequences

We had our second practical lesson on Thursday 12/09/13. The aim of the lesson was to learn how to shoot sequences, which is basically filming different types of shots (e.g wide, close-up etc.) and string them together to create a scene shot from different angles etc.

At the begging we set up our cameras (as we were taught to do last lesson) and began to film a sequence that we made up on the spot. I was the actor, whilst Lauren given the role of the director And Carla - camera man. 

We were taught the words that we had to say to arrange the shot which were at the beginning of the shot, the director will say 'stand by', to this everyone on set would reply with the same 'stand by'.  The director then goes on to say 'roll camera', the camera man then begins to record and says 'camera rolling'. After this, the camera man will say 'action!' Which means the actors walk up to their mark, do their bit and when they finish, the director shouts, 'Cut!' And then the camera man stops recording and we do the same thing until we have all the footage we need. 

Our scene was a short sequence of me entering the room down the stairs using shots like close ups and low angle shots. We used all of the basic shots but as a group we came up with other ideas for shots such as a close up of the broom sweeping the floor. So that i knew how far to sweep to, I placed a mark on the floor which showed me how far to walk so that i would be in the shot. This was particularly useful for the close up shot of the broom sweeping as the camera had to be placed on the floor.

We also learnt new things that are necessary for the filming such as making sure there was no one in the background that wasn't supposed to be there or objects that weren't supposed to be there. An example of this was that in one shot someone else was standing in the background of the shot so we had to re-shoot it.

What we learnt this lesson will be essential in making our thrillers look realistic and professional.