I wasn’t in class to film our “stair” scene however I still found it a valuable exercise when it came to editing the scene together. The space that we used for this scene looks as though it was quite restricting and difficult to film in. There are distracting background sounds and the lighting is not ideal, however the sound and lighting was not our focus. Our focus was on the shot coverage and how we could effectively use the space to create a short scene for editing.

The scene opens with a medium-long shot of the stairs which helps to establish the location. The two characters walk from the lower left corner of the frame, in front of the camera in a close up and then position themselves in a medium shot. Character 1 stops walking on the stairs near the centre of the frame, his head is slightly cut off at the top of the frame as he looks down at character 2. Character 2 stops walking, positioned in the lower right corner of the frame as she looks down and then looks up to talk to character 1.  The camera is static throughout this shot. As character 1 begins to walk up the stairs his head is cut out of frame. The shot then cuts to a medium shot of character 2 looking down and talking to someone who is positioned at a lower level on the stairs. The stair rail is in the foreground of the shot and character 2 is positioned near the end point of the rail. The stair rail distracts us in this shot and we are unable to see the face of character 2 or 3. There is also too much head room above character 2. This shot then cuts to an over the shoulder shot of character 3 looking up at character 2 and talking. Character 3 is positioned to the right of the frame, we can only see a little bit of his head and shoulder as he looks up at character 2 who is framed in a medium-long shot. Both characters are positioned awkwardly within the frame and the shot doesn’t look balanced. There is too much head room above character 2 and she is not positioned in the centre of the frame. The low angle is quirky but may have been more effective if the characters were slightly closer together on the stairs as we don’t really get to see the details of their facial expressions. The shot then cuts back to the previous shot of character 2 positioned at the end of the stair railing, we still are unable to see character 3’s face properly. The conversation continues between the characters, alternating between these two shots but the camera coverage never allows us to come up close and personal with the characters. I would have liked to have been able to clearly see their facial expressions in a close up shot. The next shot is an over the shoulder of character 1 looking down at character 2 who is framed in a long shot.  The stair rail can still be scene within this shot and within each shot can be seen as an object which helps to direct our eyes to the characters. In this particular shot our eye is drawn down to character 2 as she makes her way back up the stairs. The shot then cuts to character 2 walking in front of the camera where we can only see her back and arms as she makes her way up the stairs. In this shot we get more of a glimpse of character 3’s face however the stair railing is still blocking most of him and he is positioned in a long shot which makes it more difficult to see his face. The camera cuts back to the over the shoulder shot from behind character 3. Character 3 turns towards the camera and walks out the right side of frame as character 2 is positioned in the left corner of the screen walking up the stairs. The scene ends after character 2 has walked past the camera out the right side of the frame.

The camera is static throughout all of these shots. I would have liked to have scene more movements with the camera to create variety in the shots.