Rule of Thirds - Group Post

What is the Rule of Thirds?

The rule of thirds is applied by aligning a subject with the guide lines and their intersection points, placing the horizon on the top or bottom line, or allowing linear features in the image to flow from section to section.The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable whoever  looks at the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes don't normally look at the centre of the shot, they usually focus on one of the intersection points. Using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.

Examples:

The above  is a bad example of the Rule of Thirds due to the fact that the person is positioned in the centre of the screen. This is not the viewers focus point as we don't tend to look directly in the middle. Also the person is wearing a dark blazer which blends in with the background so it is hard to see him.

The above picture is a good example of the Rule of thirds rule due to the fact that the person is positioned more to the left of the image where the intersections of the lines would be. This is the audiences main focus point so it will grab their attention almost instantly. Not only this but the light coming from the end of the tunnel makes the person more visible and he is away from the dark shadow on the right.

Tom's Murder Mystery Evaluation

This task required us to come up with a random scene that would be from a TV drama for this preliminary task. We came up with the idea of a murder mystery, inspired from the program Midsummer Murders.

First, we had to pitch the story and what was going to happen in the scene before we headed out and filmed. We collectively came up with unique ideas for the final piece. I was filming and Callum (victim) and Liam (murderer) were acting in it.

What went well:

• We successfully pitched ideas and came up with scene very fast.
• We used varying camera angles and distances in our shots so that it is quite diverse.
• The lighting was used to or advantage as we could see the characters well down this normally dark alley.
• I changed the camera angle up high at 0:55 seconds to make it looks like security camera. I also changed the colour to black and white as security cameras are generally black and white.

Even Better If:

• The scene when Callum was walking along the wall was a bit too long so we could have shortened it.
• If we had more time editing we could have corrected the sound as there was some background noise.
• The camera was at an angle and shaky at times, this looked a bit over the top and we could have used this affect less.

Liam - Individual Evaluation - 1 Minute Film

Brief Synopsis

'Murder Mystery' , recorded by Tom Gilbert featuring Liam Nolan and Callum Gordon as lead actors on 9th October 2014. Murder scene in an alley way during an autumn afternoon. Edited by Liam, Tom and Callum.

WWW

The choice of location (alley way near the school gym) for the scene was ideal. The location choice enabled us to instigate a storyline instantly. Another positive aspect was the weather on the day of filming. This enabled us to take our time and make adjustments when necessary. The editing process also went well. The use of continuity editing was effective, in that the scenes flowed seamlessly from one to the other. The establishing shot for this scene is in the alley way which features the perpetrator (Liam) strolling towards the camera.

EBI

Some of the camera movements appear to be over-exaggerated. For example, the zooming in and out effect at the beginning could be stabilised by use of the tripod, rather than hand-held camera use. But on the contrary, we are pleased with the performance.

Callum's Evaluation of the One minute Film

There are 3 important terms for continuity editing : 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and match on action. All three of these were used in our preliminary task and we plan to try and use them when we film our opening to add a range of angles and keep the audience interested.

WWW:

• We worked well as a group and performed very effectively with the time we had to produce the middle part to ' Murder Mystery'.
• We all wanted to have our own preferred roles within the group which worked as a positively as morale was high.
• When coming up with a idea we all agreed that doing something based around a murder allowed us to use our setting and props to their full potential. 

EBI:

• If we would of had more time we could of taken more care when filming the main parts to it , this would let us perfect the scene that the whole clip was based around.
• Although conditions and the weather was good the wind meant that we couldn't use any of the sound - we only found this out when we got to the editing stage however there was very little speech needed.

Welcome

WELCOME TO GROUP 6's BLOG

Callum, Liam, Tom