Research - Preliminary Task

Malevolent Phantom
Preliminary Task

For our Preliminary Task we were experimenting with different types of shot to use for our opening scene and the rules of filming however we needed to plan longer and include a wider variety of shot types. The plot for the preliminary task seems boring, as we couldn’t explore many techniques because of the time limit but what we filmed and edited seems enough to sustain the interest of the audience.

Our opening genre is horror so we tried out different ways to make that character seem defenseless. I believe that this was helpful because we had an idea of different shot types that would be suitable and portray the emotion. We realized that dialogue was important so it’s believable or the audience may get bored.  In the opening scene the use of high angle shot makes the character seems vulnerable and weak then the camera changes into a medium shot which allow us to see the surrounding. The camera pans toward the character, tracking her as she walks behind the table suggesting that she’s important and highlights the fact that she’s going to see something which affects the storyline.

There is match on action when the phone is ringing so the close up shot allows the audience to see who is calling her; we can see the caller is unknown which creates suspense. The shot changes to a long shot which allows us to see the character then it goes into a behind the shoulder shot which allows us to see from her perspective. Initially we were only going to have one character but due to the plot it was going to be hard trying to verbalize her problem. The character calls out for the second character then the shot changes into a long shot, which introduces the second character. We used shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule and rule of third when the second character enters the room and has a conversation with the main character about the caller which shows the use of the camera techniques.  The final shot is a medium shot that shows the character in detail then her dialogue build suspense and drama leaving the scene in a cliffhanger.