Character List

For this task, I will be using two people.
These people are Robin Masters and Liam Grace.

Robin Masters in this piece is playing the role of the doctor. In this piece, he is supposed to be a calm and collected individual whose purpose is to tell the patients of their illness. The doctor in this piece also has to show limited emotions, whilst still being compassionate with the patients condition.
However, my character seemed lacking in a lot of these areas, as he was not specialized to the task athand. Thus I will be using a different actor for my final piece if the film does convey similar conventions.

Liam Grace plays the role of the patient receiving the news that he has cancer. In this piece, his character has to take the news in whatever way he seems fit. In this case, Liam acted very stressed, and was talking to himself. He also portrayed anger, at the fact that the doctor was unsure whether his condition was curable.

Both of the characters in this piece are students at ,y school. I decided to use these two individuals in particular as they were interested in the prospect of acting and learning how to improve.

Location Of My Preliminary task

I decided to shoot my preliminary task at this location for a number of reasons. The first reson why I shot it here was that it was easily accessible, and there were no privacy laws in place that stated shooting in this area was illegal. I also shot here as this is the location of my Dad's offices. This meant that `i would be able to shoot for as long as possible without having to worry about being asked to leave, nor would I be toying with the elements.

original preliminary task idea

Preliminary Task Script

                      "THE NEWS" SCRIPT

                                                           by

                                               Dorian Masters

                        Robin-

get out of car in parking spot and lock it. Wide angle shot from ground level.

Show a shot of the building.

High angle shot from 2^nd story window of him walking towards the door.

Point of view shot of him pressing the buzzer.

Wide angle shot from slightly elevated position on the stairs, of him entering through the door.

Match on action shows him walking up stairs from behind.

He arrives on landing and through a close up shot of his hand, we see him knocking on the door of the doctors room. We hear a quiet ‘come in’ amidst the noise of the surgery.

Wide angle shot shows him open door and walk in.

POV shot of Doctor from Robin’s perspective.

Doctor greets him and tells him to have a seat. Wide angle shot of both people.

Dialogue begins.

                                    Doctor-

I don’t know where to begin. It’s about your blood test that we took several weeks ago.

                                    Robin-

What’s the problem?

                                    Doctor-

I’m afraid that you have a rare case of Adrenocortical Carcinoma.

                                    Robin-

what are you trying to say?

                                    Doctor-

Adrenocortical Carcinoma is an uncommon form of cancer, but that is not to say that it cannot be treated.

                                    Robin-

That makes no sense, you have to be wrong, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do anything harmful to my body.

                                    Doctor-

I’m afraid that it is nothing to do with how you treat your body, sometimes even the best of people get it.

                                    Robin-

So what does this mean?

                                    Doctor-

It is a form of cancer that forms on the adrenal gland. The location is just above the kidney.

                                    Robin-

I don’t care where it is, am I going to live or not (aggressive tone)

                                   

                                    Doctor-

now we have caught it at an early stage so there is around a 50% chance of surviving past the 5 year mark, if the surgery goes to plan.

                                    Robin-

why, why me! (lone tear runs down face), its always me. He stands up and breathes deeply, wipes the tears from his eyes and say’s to himself, you’re going to be fine (repeating twice), and walks out of the room, wide angle shot, with the scene ending with door closing behind him.

180* rule and Shot reverse shot

The 180 Degree Rule: states that two characters in a scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If you don't follow the 180 Degree Rule, or break it intentionally, it disrupts the scene disorients the audience. When you break the 180 line, a person who was originally facing left in a scene is all of the sudden facing right.

Shot Reverse Shot: is a filming technique where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

In this scene, we must see three emotions in particular, these are denial, anger and sadness/ regret.

My Story Board for the Preliminary Task

This story board shows the event of a man finding out that he has got cancer. He is visiting the doctor at his surgery. I have stuck to a simple narrative, as in this case, the story and the shots used will create a large impact hopefully on the viewer, as it is a sensitive topic for all.

final preliminary task idea

180 Degree Rule

180 Degree Rule - Moviemaking Technique from Peter John Ross on Vimeo.

The 180* Rule

One of the most basic continuity rules is the 180 Degree Rule.

The 180 Degree Rule states that two characters in a scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If you don't follow the 180 Degree Rule, or break it intentionally, it disrupts the scene disorients the audience. When you break the 180 line, a person who was originally facing left in a scene is all of the sudden facing right.

Here is an example of the 180* rule

shot reverse shot example

Shot Reverse Shot

Shot Reverse Shot

Shot reverse shot is a filming technique where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

Shot reverse shot is the "classical" hollywood style of continuity editing.

Here is an example of a shot reverse shot

match on action example

Match On Action

Match On Action
Match on action means that when something happens in the scene then when there is a cut, the same piece of action must be going on. This is an example of continuity editing and is very important in helping the audience continually understand exactly what is happening

Here is an example of a match on action

Preliminary Task Brief

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing 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. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.