Preliminary Exercise

For our preliminary task, we have been asked to film a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. The task involves filming, editing and has to demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

I've started planning by looking at the three main shot types which i will include in my preliminary task:

• Match on Action- Match on action occurs when an action that begins in one shot is continued or completed in the next, for e.g. A camera shot of someone entering a door from the outside, cutting straight to a camera shot of the person entering the door from the inside. The door opening sequence must be included in our preliminary exercise.
  



• Shot/reverse shot- A shot/reverse shot is when there is a camera shot of one character 1 facing another character 2, whose face is not visible in the shot. It then cuts to a shot of the other character 2 facing character 1. This allows the audience to assume the two characters are in contact with eachother, even thought they are not shown in the same shot together.
  



• 180 degree rule-This is a shot in which two characters or objects are facing each other within one particular sceneand share the same right/left relationship to each other.
  No matter what angle they are shot from, whether that be front or reverse view, they must both be visible in the frame. If one subject is on the left side of the shot they should face the right, and if the other subject is on the right side of the shot they should face the left.
  This type of shot is clever as it helps give the viewers of the film a clearer view and perspective of everything in the whole shot/scene, aswell as its position.