Three Shot Shoot

This week we conducted a ‘three shot shoot’. The task involved us attempting to capture an action in three shots. We chose to film someone tying their shoe lace before continuing on to the elevator.

Something we concentrated on, which Paul mentioned throughout class, was shooting to edit. I think this reserves us a critical eye to our filmmaking, we need to not only concentrate on what we are shooting, but how we are shooting it. In the past when I have filmed an action, I would have made the actor complete the action and filmed it from multiple angles. When I got into the editing suite, I would then have to stream through lots of footage to find what worked and what didn’t – which is time consuming and very repetitive. So in this exercise, I was conscious that I was to edit the footage after. This consciousness is key, as I think that in the past I have been quick to separate the production and postproduction stages. For example I often find myself thinking ‘I’ll edit around it’ or ‘we can fix that later’. Of course there are instances in which lot of editing in necessary or unavoidable, but consciousness I think will allow me to be kinder to my future self.

One of our main concerns was limiting ourselves to just three individual frames. We set up the first shot and took care with framing and positioning the camera. We then we moved on to the second shot and finally third. With shooting to edit, we then made sure we had some additional footage, to fill in the gaps and just in case we found gaps in the editing suites. When we finally did get around the editing, the process was very quick and we had a variety of clips to chose from. When we could visualise the final cut, we were able to select the shots to suit and this development took place not only in the postproduction stage, but while we were shooting the scene itself. The task itself was a good practical exercise in camera movement and setting up a sequence of shots. I think that I have gained a sense of awareness of shooting to edit, and learnt not to disregard each stage of production while the other is taking place.