Storyboard for our Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task, we were asked to plan and create a continuity clip showing our vast range of skills, from camera work to editing skills, with straight cuts to all run smoothly. 

We worked in our groups that we will also be working with for our final 'opening scene of a film' piece of work. Working in these groups allowed us to show what we were all strong in and what we can all work on throughout this year. We all had equal participation for this task, taking turns in drawing the different shots on our storyboard, also using the camera and finally, each taking part in doing the editing.

Before anything, we decided what were going to include in our preliminary task. We chose to use a long shot, different medium shots, from different angles, and close up shots. We also used a shot reverse shot during the conversation between Max and Grace and match-on-action throughout the whole clip.

The first box of our storyboard shows a long shot of Grace walking up the stairs. When we planned it we agreed that the duration should be 6 seconds but when we came to filming and editing the clip, we needed a few extra seconds as we felt that more of the clip was needed and without it, it wouldn't match up with the next shot. The second box shows Grace walking up the stairs, from the step she stood on in the last shot, but from a different angle. This showed our skills of using match-on-action. When we came to edit this clip, we cut 1 second as we felt like the clip would not match properly with the next shot.

The third box of our storyboard shows a low, close up shot of Grace's legs and feet, walking from the top of the stairs, where we cut the last clip, to just before the door in the corridor. We also cut 1 second off of this clip to allow match-on-action to be correct. The fourth box illustrates a medium shot of Grace, pushing the door open, which leads straight onto the next box (box five) which shows her coming through the door from inside of the classroom. Using a perfect match-on-action, we filmed and edited this perfectly. We did not break the 180 degree rule whilst filming these separate clips but we did made a slight mistake when drawing out this shot on our storyboard, as we showed this shot being filmed from the wrong angle, which would have broken the 180 degree rule. We were quick to realise this and take action, but did not change our drawing on the storyboard, just noted that we needed to change the camera angle from where we would film this clip.
The sixth drawing of our storyboard a shows the start of a conversation between Grace and Max from where the last clip ended with Grace sitting down. The shot is from behind Grace, facing Max, showing eye line match, which makes the video seem more realistic. The script we wrote before filming was slightly altered when it came to acting it out, as the dialogue used instead was more realistic and made the conversation seem less 'forced'. We cut this clip when editing by 1 second too, as the last second was not needed.

The seventh drawing of our storyboard shows a medium shot of behind Max's head, showing Grace's face and Grace talking to Max. Again, we showed eye line match between our two actors. When we drew our storyboard, we planned for Grace to speak for 8 seconds, but when it came to editing we had to cut 1 second off the end as it was not needed.
The last box (and the two previous shots) demonstrates our knowledge of camera angles, using a shot reverse shot from showing Max's face, to Grace's and then back to Max's.
All of our clips in our Preliminary Task video use diegetic sound and only that. You can only hear Grace's footsteps in the first, second and third clip. Then the sound of her footsteps and the door opening in the fourth clip. In the fifth clip you can hear a slight sound from the door closing and her footsteps walking towards the chair. The last three clips all have diegetic sound of the conversation between Max and Grace. We felt that using only diegetic sound would be more realistic.