We used Match on Action to show Fatima walking down the stairs and
around the corner to show the transition of the scene. Unfortunately, we didn’t
realise that sometimes when you press stop on the video camera it takes nearly
5 seconds to stop properly. This made it harder to edit the footage and make
everything look like it was in sync because Fatima would walk back up the
stairs thinking that it wasn’t recording any more, when it was.
The Location we were going to film in was originally a teacher’s office,
but due to us filming during lessons we weren’t sure whether it would be
possible. After walking around, we decided to film in a small room near our
classroom. The room was quite compact, but we believed that the room itself
connoted authority because of the desk, computer, printer and shelves. Usually,
in an office certain things are available that are of limited use to employees
who have a lower status than a CEO for example. However, when we came to film
we realised that room was smaller than we initially thought it was, proving
hard to manoeuvre the camera and tripod. 
The Establishing Shot proved hard to create, this was because of the
printer-it took up too much space. But, with a bit of moving, we managed to
create a slightly crooked Establishing Shot. However, it did show the two
characters, and which way they were facing, the two shots prior to the
Establishing Shot could denote that the student felt as if she was superior to
the Head Teacher and that the Head Teacher was inferior. Although, as soon as
the student sits down could denote that the ranks swap almost immediately.
Our Shot Reverse Shot was also difficult because of the room size. It
proved hard for us to keep continuously creating the similar shots, because of
the printer. This led to some shots being perfect and some showing the wires
from the computer, which led to the shots looking messy and organized.
The 180 Degree Rule, was still doable, despite the space. We still
managed to stay on the correct sides of the characters by not crossing ‘the
line of vision’.
For my role as the Head Teacher I decided to wear a black pencil skirt,
a black shirt and a black blazer. I thought by wearing this I could connote a
type of mysterious ‘white collar’ attire as a character that wouldn’t be
properly seen until later in the scene. For Fatima’s costume, Chloe and I borrowed
an old school blazer and gave her my old school tie to suggest to the audience
that Fatima is a real student (verisimilitude), she had the idea of wearing
heels, having her shirt hanging out, while Chloe and I also had the idea of
making her tie really short, which was considered disrespectful and if a
teacher saw it, you would be stopped and told to do it again. By doing this, it
would imply that the student doesn’t care about the school rules.
I chose the song Beyonce-Diva, which corresponded really well with the
Fatima’s character, as she was literally acting as if she was a Diva. I had the
idea of fading the music out when the student goes into the Head Teachers
office; this denotes that the student can’t be a ‘Diva’ while she is around
people who have a higher status than her. I also had the idea of the music
being in time with the students knock: synchronized sound, and then fading back
in as the student finds out she is excluded. At the end of the film, there is a
close up of Fatima’s face, and the lyrics “ I wanna see her, I’d like to meet
ya-What you sayin’, she ain’t no Diva” These lyrics could denote that the
student believes that the Head Teacher isn’t wor
thy of her time-“She ain’t no
Diva” or it could represent the exact opposite, the Head Teacher may believe
that the student isn’t a “Diva” at all, just a spoilt child.
Lastly we had a small lighting problem, in the scene when Fatima walks
down the stairs. The lighting from where she started walking was naturalistic
lighting, as there is a huge type of skylight that streamed in a lot of light.
However, when Fatima walked around the corner and down the next flight of
stairs, the lighting changed significantly, to a sort of muddy artificial
light. Using what we learnt before we started filming, we tried to lock the
exposure using both the natural light and artificial but it didn’t work to our
advantage. We ended up filming the downstairs scene in the artificial light,
this we had to later edit by lightening the footage slightly to help the frames
to blend into each other. Unfortunately, it ended up giving the scenes a
bleached tone.
To conclude, our Preliminary Task was a really good first hand lesson on
using certain equipment and technologies to create different shots and angles
to produce a good, watchable piece of footage. I learnt how to drag pieces of
footage on the timeline in After Effects, which proved hard at first but I
later got used to. I became more confident in acting in front of a camera and
other people, unfortunately to get over this fear, I rocked the chair to help
me concentrate on what I was saying. I also broke character, by smiling at
Fatima; this ruined the verisimilitude because the tone was supposed to be
serious and angry. Although, it could denote that the Head Teacher found it
funny or found the student funny. I learnt how to download music from sites
such as YouTube, to be used as a soundtrack alongside the footage; I did this
by converting the YouTube song into an MP3 track and then importing it into
Final Cut Express. 
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