Practical lesson no. 2

In yesterdays (24.09.2015) practical media lesson we were introduced to the 180 degree rule and filmed a short sequence of Katie entering, sitting down, checking her phone and exiting the shot.

The 180 degree rule is a method used to protect the audiences orientation. It is important that all the objects in a sequence stay in the same area of the shots, since the audience does not have general overview of the location. The characters or main objects in a sequence are connected by an imaginary line ( axis), which is not meant to be crossed while filming. The rule says that the camera is allowed to switch positions on one side of the line, with in 180 degrees.

As we begun to shot our sequence we also learnt about the job of the director and about how important continuity is. In our sequence we first started with an wide angle shot, which is always required as a back up shot in case something goes wrong. Next up we shot a close up of the phone on the arm of the chair, followed by a midi shot of Katie, a close up of her face and a high to low shot of her checking her phone.While shooting these shots we always had to refocus the camera, bubble

and reposition it.

Continuity is the consistency of objects in a shot. It is a very important aspect, to avoid that the final edited sequence comes out in a strange way. 

While shooting, the dialogue is set to follow this layout:

director: "stand by"

cameraman/women: "standing by"

director: "camera roll"
cameraman/women: " camera rolling"

director: "action"
-scene-
director: "cut"