Today, a film specialist came in to talk to us about effective film making. We arranged ourselves into groups and we all got given a camcorder and a tape. He then acted out a scene, which included a phone next to a crying person, and someone walking in, out, then back in the room, handing the other person a phone. No questions were answered, and we were told to re-create that scene via the medium of film.

As we were doing a quick job of filming, no editing was involved, so all filming was done on a stop/start basis. This meant we had to pause the tape and continue when were ready for the next shit. This means all film had to be filmed in chronological order, and made shots such as shot/reverse shot very tedious to film.

We then went back to the classroom, and all watched each others work. All our first attempts were poor, with bad framing, camera angles and continuity. We then got taught the importance of framing, and the "less is more" attitude to camera angles, as too many wierd angles can be unsettling and confusing to watch. All the first films had a lack of emotion, as not enough attention was paid to close ups. This meant that connections to the characters were not built, and the viewers lost interest.

With all this new knowlege, we all went back out and re-filmed the same shot sequence. By the time we came back again, everyones work has improved significantly, with major focus on framing and close ups. With what we learnt today, we could improve our horror films by employing these techniques into our own work.