The requirements for this class activity were as follows

The first scene

• location north end university lane
• no more than four shots
• one of the shots must contextualise the spatial relationship between characters
• one character in shade the other direct sun
• support ambiguity if one character cant hear the others talking

In both scenes I was the actress, which was alright, I’m not the finest of actors but none the less its good experience. I think I would’ve really liked to have directed one of them just to explore some create control. I found when we shooting the director was the only one to decide what looked good and what shots we should try which I think was good for the time restraint we had but at the same time I would’ve liked to have had some more input on what we shot.

For this scene I envisioned

• two close ups on of each of the characters talking as an over the shoulder perspective
• one long establishing shot (showing the relationship between the characters)
• and another shot similar to the first one we shot where the subject in the sun is in the foreground and the others are in the background.

Obviously we didn’t have much time, but I think if we used the time a bit more wisely and only took 1 or 2 takes instead of 7 to 8 we would’ve had time to shoot a close up. This would’ve just given a bit more variety in terms of shots and editing. I think it could’ve created a bit more dynamic that I would’ve liked to experiment with in post production.

With the edit, some of the shots were really close up shots as the camera operator was focusing on the subject. These shots despite not intended for the scene I actually really liked. It gave finer detail to the subject which i thought added a bit of dimension.

In terms of lighting we really struggled with how to accurately expose for a subject in the shade and the sun. To compensate for not really knowing what to do with the lighting we moved the subjects slightly in the sun to allow for there to be no over exposure. However when we watched the footage back in class today we realised that when I was in the shade and the other subject was in the direct sunlight the exposure on both of them was actually tolerable. We discussed that an option to create a bit more shade would be to place a black or white board over the subjects and expose to both subjects so that they are both seen. I would like to perhaps try just this shot, or type of shot again and see how to better it.

I think the other shots were really well set up and exposed nicely but yet again I feel like I need more hands on experience. I would like perhaps to spend some time trialling myself with lighting and a camera because so far in the groups I am in other people direct and the people who know more about lights do the lighting. So in that aspect I feel like I am learning in theory but perhaps not as much in practicality which again feels like I’m not progressing as much.

As for the second scene these were the requirements

• two characters
• 2 – 4 shots
• shoot in building 9 with equipment provided

With these shots I like the variety of shots we got, I edited it slightly differently from what was edited in class.

The challenge in this scene was that the window light was so harsh that in order to expose to the subject the window would be completely over exposed. In class we discussed that one of the ways we could’ve got around this difficulty would be the not film directly head on to the window, either place the camera off to the side this would limit the amount of light and glare. Or we could  shoot directly in front of the window facing away from the light, then our concern would be focused on how to match the light. ensuring that there was continuity in the shots in terms of light, If it was too bright we could’ve added in a sheet of some sort to limit the light or push down the exposure.

Overall with this shoot we really didn’t have enough time to shoot, we spent most time on the other shoot. I think personally Im good with time management but the some others struggled with trying to get “the right shot” without really changing a lot. I think we could’ve taken less shots and got a lot more from it, in terms of experimenting with lighting and composition.

Overall I really enjoyed this activity perhaps next time I would like to trial with one scene and more lighting options.