Preliminary Production Evaluation

 In our preliminary exercise we worked as a group of four. We decided on creating a scene in an episode of a soap/drama which would be one of the small stories within the episode.

There are two protagonists in this clip who are meant to be ‘together’. At the beginning there is a medium long shot of the girl which shows she is walking towards the door and also shows the audience what she is wearing and her facial expressions. There is then an extreme close up of the door handle being pushed down as she is opening it, she is then shown walking in through the door on the other side which is match on action. As she walks in her facial expressions tell us she is happy as she is smiling. The next shot is a long shot which shows her point of view as she is walking towards the boy, which also explains why she was smiling. There is another medium long shot from an angle which shows both of them from the side hugging each other which tells the audience they may be together. There is binary opposition which is that we see the boy is wearing a black jacket and the girl is wearing grey which is the closest to white, this connotes ‘good and evil’.

There is key lighting throughout the scene which connotes it could be day time and they’re just catching up with each other there is also back lighting which makes the image seem more softened and real. The setting is in a room which makes it seem more private. There is also not much in the frame of each shot; this does not give much away.

From the part where the actors hug it blurred into a close up of the phone ringing. The phone is a crucial prop that we used as it is the main part of the narrative. There is then a medium shot of the boy asking the girl how her day was which was shot using the 180 degree rule, filmed over the girls shoulder, then over the boys shoulder showing her response. There is then another close up of the phone ringing again which creates enigma code as the audience would be wondering who keeps ringing her. The boy then asks who is calling, the conversation is viewed throughout using the 180 degree rule which is filmed over the shoulder of the person they are talking to. The girl then looks at the phone and puts it down with a grin on her face which still creates a sense on enigma code because the audience still wants to know who it is.

There is then a straight cut onto the next shot which is a medium shot, still using the 180 degree rule showing the boy leaning across the table snatching the phone off her and her trying to snatch it back. There is then a long shot of the boy standing up in anger which shows disequilibrium in the narrative. The next shot is a medium/close up of the girl which shows her facial expression telling us she has nothing to say as she looks down and has a guilty look on her face. As she looks down the next shot is a close up of the phone with a picture of the girl and a different boy. This creates enigma code as the audience wants to know who he is and what he may be like. This shot then blurs out, the credits are then rolled.

WWW: The camera angles used were effective and we followed the 180 degree rule as well as the match on action and shot reverse shot.

EBI: If we included more clips to make it longer and if we added some music to create more of a feel to the scene.