Pleminary Project Storyboard Filmed

After our storyboard was completed we could finally move on to filming the clip. We associated both Dan and Lewis being the two actors of the group, and then both me and James both filmed  the project and also dealt with the microphone to hear the dialogue.


Along with this we also had to make a slight change to the storyboard due to the change of the room which we had to film in unknowingly, although this was easily done by positioning the camera the opposite side to take on the 180degree rule and also by swapping the actors positions over.


The filming took us over a duration of two lessons, as we wanted to make sure we had every shot was right so when we get to the editing stage it will be a lot easier, as we will have everything which we need.

Preliminary Project Storyboard

My group and I finally completed the first part of our preliminary project storyboard which we thought turned out very well. We included many different shots to portray our talent and the knowledge we have learnt during the months we have took on media for. Our group made sure that we had a long discussion over the short scene and how we wanted it to make sure that we achieved something of which we all thought would look good, and portray our developed skills. Although this task was hard at times we all worked together well and decided the best idea to make the storyboard the best we possibly could.

Storyboard Practice

After the completion of storyboards in yesterday's lesson, I was able to grasp the importance of them during the film making process as they act as a foundation of the film. Both I and my group are now aware that from now on we should take this part of the film making stage very seriously, to enable us to achieve the best film we possibly can. As the storyboard is the first idealised idea of how the film is later going to turn out.

 During the creation of a storyboard we learnt how to show pan shots on the board, clearly show zooms being used and also how to capture how long each shot is wanted on for. Which enabled our job to become a lot easier when it came to filming these clips as it was clear how each shot should be filmed.

From this lesson I have learnt that storyboards are quite complex to put together without having an initial ideas. I also discovered that I am not the best for drawing the storyboard up, therefore making me a much preferred ideas person for the group.

The Three Rules of Continuity

Match on Action
Match on Action is a good example of continuity editing, this is where something is captured in a scene by several different camera shots coming together to show one smooth movement. This is used to give the audience a clear understanding of what is happening.


Shot-Reverse Shot
This film technique is used to show one character looking at another character in the scene, and then the angle of the shot is changed to show the other character looking back towards the character that was first captured before the reverse shot was taken.


The 180 Degree Rule
This rule of continuity helps to orientate the viewer during a scene. It states that two characters in a scene should always have the same relationship to each other, being either left or right; this rule is even used when more than two people are used in a scene. If you don't follow this rule then the audience are disorientated. If the director of a film wants to cross the 180 degree line then they must do this clearly, so that the audience can spot this; to stop any confusion that may have occurred.

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Researching Professional Examples

Se7en Opening Credits

After watching and having a close analysis of the opening credits of the film se7en, we decided to look at parts of which we like and which we didn’t so much. Positives of this film were;

1.      The abstract and weird clips pieced together- we thought that this was brilliant! As a thriller to see something like that and giving you as an audience and uncertainty of what is going to happen later on the film is exceptional.

2.      Another thing we liked about the film was the unknown protagonist, we felt that this added mystery to the opening of the film and created the audience to feel intense as to what type of person you are going to see later on in the film.

As negatives we thought that there wasn’t any of which we would like to use from this film, we felt that it was just the effect we wanted to create in our own film and loosely took ideas from this film during the planning of our own.

Physco Opening Credits

After the analysis of Physco’s opening credits, my group and I discussed parts of which we felt we could gain ideas from and parts of which we don’t wasn’t present in our film. Positives of physco were;

1. My group and I felt that the props of which was used in the film were very high-quality to represent a thriller genre. These included props such as, the use of blood which represented the thriller genre very well, the use of a knife which also was a great mirror of the genre which the film was and also the appearance of the clock we felt was very effective to created intensity to the audience.
2. Another aspect of the film of which we thought was good, was once again the weird and random clips which created an uncertain feel to the audience as you are unable to piece together what is going to happen due to the many things happening at once in the opening.

Although I feel that a negative of this film was that the opening titles did actually take up a lot of the 2 minute opening, therefore valuable film time was wasted to the audience. This was also quite boring to watch as it was just a plain black background with a white title on, it created the clip to drag, and the effect of the film just didn’t feel as good as it could have been if they had the titles present over running film, instead of a black background.

Memento Opening Credits

The third film we analysed was memento, my group and I once again discussed which parts we feel worked well and which bits we didn’t feel worked as well. Some positives which we picked out from Memento’s opening credits were;

1. Just like Physco we thought that the props that were used in the opening of the film, we thought that the use of the Polaroid’s, pair of glasses and blood added to the mysterious feel, of which my group and I wanted to make the audience feel.
2. Another point of the film that we thought worked well was the fast motion rewind of time, showing something that happened just before the film started, showing the audience something that they didn’t already know. I thought this was really effective as it was very different and also gave the audience an understanding of why the protagonist is acting the way of which he is in the film.

On the other hand my group felt that points of which we thought didn’t work as well in the film was that for most of the 2 minute opening it was the same clip, of the Polaroid, which I felt resulted in the opening not being as effective as it could have been. Along with this my group and I also thought that the identifying of the man was not a good point, although this is because we feel that thrillers are more effective when you are left wondering what type of person the protagonist is.