Preliminary Task

My group for the preliminary task consisted of myself, Harri Long, Dom Simmons, Becky Roydhouse and Toby Harvey. We sat down in our group in a twilight session and began thinking and developing ideas in which we could possible be able to create a sequence for our prelim. We were given a basic outline of different camera angles and shots in which we would have to include in our final preliminary piece. The guidelines that we were given were as follows:

Subject A entering a room from a corridor and opening the door. Inside the room Subject B is sitting down without saying anything, A gives a pieces of paper to B. B reads it and reacts. A displays some kind of emotion and leaves. This task MUST demonstrate match on action,shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

We decided that as the theme of our coursework would be based around the horror/thriller genre that it would be easier to create a sequence that also was sequenced around this same genre of film so that when it came to the time of creating our final piece of coursework that we would have a clear idea of what type of horror and thriller ideas people prefered and so that we could get a feel for the type of camera angle, shots and movements that worked the best to create a certain feeling when watching a horror sequence. After discussing possible ideas for our sequence, as a group we decided to pick different aspecs from each of our ideas and put them together so that each of us had an input on what the sequence would consist of.

We then moved on to conclude the final outcome of what the story behind our sequence would be surrounding and the storyline that it would be based around. We then concluded our idea and moved on to story board it so that each person within the group would know exactly what shot was happening when and at what time in particular would be best.

Our final Preliminary task idea.

As a basic outline for our sequence we decided that subject A would open the sequence by slowly walking towards a gate and then opening it to the sound of an added creak that would be added once the editing of our film began. We would have a close up shot of subject A's hand as it opened the gate to add tension and suspense to the mind of the audience. A jump cut would the be forced as we would perform a shot from the opposite side of the gate as it would be opened still by subject A and then follow her from behind as she walks barefoot through a dark spooky path that would later lead her to the desired destination. The shot then dissolves and fades into a shot of the subject A walking down a set of stairs which would include shots of both from behind and also from the side zooming in on her feet as she steadily walked down the stairs.

 A panning shot would then take place which would see subject A in the left of the screen and then introducing subject B in the far right hand corner of the shot which would ultimately link the two together as the sequence neared the end. We deciced that a minor keyed piece of music would get faster as it reached the climax of the piece and the two characters got closer together. Subject B (whos face would have been covered up until this point) would raise her head and accept a mysterious tape off of subject A. A point of view shot would then see through the eyes of subject B as tension would build and she would become more and more anxious ending in her feeling panicked leading her to destroy the tape. The sequence then ending in a blackout once the tape has been destroyed.

Here is our final storyboard for our preliminary task: