Camera Exercise Evaluation

The story is about a paranoid person who feels they are being followed and is in fact being pursued by a ghost. A story board was created to carefully plan each shot. However, the story board was lost and so the story was recreated from memory; and so may not be as perfect as had hoped. As well as that the shots had to be filmed over the period of two different days. 

The various types of shots that were incorporated into the exercise include:

• Long shot

• Medium shot

• Point of view

• High angle

• Low angle

• Close up

• Medium close up

• Extreme close up

• Pan

However, there were some shots that were left out and could not be attempted. Due to lack of resources a tracking shot could not be included. Also, an over the shoulder shot was not added because it was overlooked. 

The first shot used was the long shot in which the main character is running towards the camera. This was to elongate the length that the main character was running and also to smoothly transition into the next shot. The second shot was a medium shot in which the main character is checking her surroundings, while unknown to her the ghost walks in the opposite direction. The third shot was a close up which was chosen to make the audience feel like they are following the main character. Next, was the medium close up shot which aimed to show the panic and fear of the character’s face and body. After that came the short extreme close up of the character’s back. The face is not shown to add mystery until we get to the next shot where it is revealed to the audience that it is the main character. This follows into a low shot of the main character walking down the stairs which leads into the point of view. The point of view shot was used to show the audience the main character’s perspective. The next shot was supposed to be a pan shot, however this was not completely successful as the whole of the surroundings were not panned. Lastly, was the high angle shot in which the camera records people from above; which made them look smaller and the surroundings larger. 

As this is the first time we have worked with cameras and editing software the production was not perfect. We made several mistakes as beginners. As you can see in the video the camera does shake at times so the shot was not always steady. For the majority of the video the frames were shot appropriately, however some of the shots could have been altered to make it better to view. For example, the running shot at the beginning cuts of the face of the main character so the camera could have been placed elsewhere to capture everything. 

Overall the film managed to successfully show most of the different types of camera shots and angles. A few positive elements also include the editing. We made sure that the shots always transitioned into moving shots to make the film run more smoothly. As well as getting rid of unnecessary footage that would have devalued our film. 

Improvements that could have been made include steadier camera work. Also, the shots could have been improved by making sure they were carried out properly. When editing the final piece we should have gone through the sequence of the film to make sure that it made perfect sense. As well as that we could have tried to find a way to include all of the possible shots; like over the shoulder.