Preliminary - Planning

The Brief

The brief for the AS Preliminary task was to create a short video which focuses on continuity. In order to achieve the brief, it was imperative that as a group we filmed the following:

•        Opening of a door.
•        Closing of the door.
•        Dialogue conversation between two characters sitting in chairs opposite each other.

Additionally, to film the different shots mentioned above, the following editing techniques and shot styles should be demonstrated:

•        Match-on-Action.
•        Shot-Reverse-Shot.
•        180^o rule.
•        Over the shoulder shot.

Planning

Firstly, as a group, we began to brainstorm ideas regarding narrative of our shot story and also ways in which we could incorporate the tasks in the brief. Since it was vital that the video be made during school hours, we collectively decided to create a plot based on typical problems associated with girls in a school: drama.

After much deliberation and discussion, we came up with the concept of two school bullies looking to get revenge after another girl kissed one of their boyfriends. To make it a more comical piece, the whole idea was based around oranges, whereby the victim was attacked with oranges due to her school records indicating them as an allergy; this lead to the name of our piece – Revenge is a Dish Best Served Orange.

Once the concept was finalised, as a group we then designed and created a storyboard to detail our each camera shot or angle used and for what scene for the duration of the video. To coincide with the tasks set in the brief, below is listed how we achieved the requests:

Below is the image of our completed storyboard:

For each stage, we drew a rough diagram of what the scene would include. Underneath each box were a number of lines which we used to define the camera shots, editing techniques and any dialogue used. This enabled us to clearly understand what exactly needed to be carried out, thus making the filming of the scenes more efficient and quick. Overall, the storyboard was beneficial in order to understand the shots and angles, however, once we began filming, it became clear that in order to have a successful continuity video, more shots or angles were needed and thus, we occasionally strayed from the instructions on the storyboard.