B. Introduction - Day 1

17th October

We started out our day with an introduction to the course and the people doing it. We one by one went up to the front and introduced ourselves, saying our names, what we were doing currently in terms of education, and what our idea for a film was. My idea was fairly vague in terms of plot, but was a 3 perspective story where each new perspective adds another layer to the viewers understanding of what happened.

We were then introduced to different shot types and movements, and taught the basics of how to operate a camera. We were then put into our production groups for the first time, and given a storyboard for a cowboy style shoot out film which featured various shot types. We were also told to add a shot that was not on the sheet.

Our group then went outside to film. Kiira and Reuel were the cowboys, and the rest of us swapped between roles. At first, I was the director, but I found this very hard as the storyboard was not my own, so I found it difficult to visualise what was supposed to be happening. However, I then swapped to doing sound, and I found it much more fun. I had never really done sound before, but I really enjoyed getting to hear all the different noises, especially sounds I don't normally notice, like birdsong and car music. Doing sound made me realise how much I don't hear normally, and how, when filming, the production team must constantly be listening for background noise.

We were then introduced to Adobe Premiere Pro, and edited our shoot out film together. I found the editing process interesting, as I had never used Premiere Pro before. I found the software slightly confusing, but I began to understand it as we edited more. I think the most interesting part of editing was seeing how big of an effect music and sound effects had on the film.

Our Shoot Out Film - Password: red

After we had finished editing, and had watched all of the shoot outs from all of the different groups together, we separated again to decide on 2 ideas to consider for our final films. The ideas we chose were my idea about the 3 perspectives and Tascha's idea about a-day-in-the-life poor vs rich story.

Discussing our ideas