Camera Shots Quiz

 In this quiz, we were given a partner and tasked with telling a story through the use of 15 shots and angles we had previously been taught. We also had to show that we were capable of illustrating proper ideas and tone. Ten of the shots and angles had been previously chosen by the teacher, and the remaining 5 were entirely up to the creator.  At least one character in the story had to be an inanimate object.

My partner and I chose to illustrate the story of a student who arrives to class and takes out a pen, only to find that it has run out of ink, and then chooses to throw the pen away and retrieve a second one from his bag.

To approach the development of the story, we began brainstorming ways to make the story more interesting, as it was pretty plain and simple on its own. We decided that we wanted to end in a way that kept the viewer the thinking, so we chose to not reveal whether the second pen the student grabbed from his bag was functional or not. Also, we decided that there were two shots we absolutely had to have in the production: A low angle close up of the pen being dropped into the trash, and an over the shoulder shot of the student using the pen for the first time. We both considered these shots to be fairly unique and fitting for the story. My personal favorite shot of the project has to be the low angle close up of the pen being disposed, but looking back on it, we could've done a better job at bringing this shot to life. I feel that the angle wasn't low enough to emphasize the distance of the drop, and the uselessness of the pen to the student, which can make the shot come off as forced to a viewer.

Overall, the things me and my partner did best were imagining cool ways to spice up the story, whether it be an interesting shot or new dimension to the plot. I believe we also used background well in long shots and medium shots to give a sense of perspective and relationship between elements in the story, such as the trash can and the student's desk. However, we struggled in bringing our interesting shot ideas to life as best we could. For example, in some close ups, the framing looks awkward and cuts off part of the main subject of the shot. Also, the shots that were intended to be extreme closeups were not framed properly to accentuate the main focus of the shot.

The Blue Pen.pptx