1.1 Planning and Staging a Film
When creating a film, planning is one of the most important steps. Good planning helps the film flow smoothly and ensures that the story makes sense to the audience. It also helps everyone involved to know what they are doing, where they should be, and what equipment is needed. Without planning, filming can become confusing. Scenes may not match, actors may not know their roles, and time may be wasted repeating mistakes. Planning your shots, actions, props, and locations helps you create a clear and effective video.
In filmmaking, a shot is one continuous piece of recorded action, and a frame is a single still picture within that shot. Staging refers to how the actors, props, and movements are arranged within the scene. Before filming begins, it is important to think about who the audience is, what message the video needs to communicate, and what setting will help that message be understood. It is also useful to consider what props or equipment would improve the scene and whether there are any safety concerns to be aware of during filming.
1.2 Using Sound Effectively
Sound plays a key role in shaping how a film feels. It helps the audience understand what is happening even if they cannot see every detail clearly. Films use different types of sound. Speech is used for dialogue or spoken explanations. Natural sound includes things like the wind, water, footsteps, or background noise that exists in real environments. Sound effects are added noises, such as alarms, bangs, or other sounds that highlight important actions.
When thinking about sound in a scene, it helps to imagine standing where the characters are and asking yourself what you would hear. Sound can make a scene realistic, but music can change its emotional tone. Slow music can make a dark or rainy scene feel more dramatic, while gentle music suits peaceful places like beaches. Happy, lively music is often used for celebrations such as birthdays. Understanding sound helps make a film more engaging and believable.
1.3 Using Text On Screen
Text is useful in film when information needs to be shown clearly and quickly. It can be used to introduce locations, identify characters, or explain something that the audience needs to know. Text is also helpful in silent videos and can appear at the beginning or end of a film to show titles or credits.
A script contains only the lines spoken by the characters, while a screenplay includes much more detail. A screenplay explains where the camera should be positioned, how it should move, what the characters should do, and what sounds should accompany the action. It guides the entire filming process, making sure everyone understands how each scene should look and feel.
1.4 Storyboarding
Before recording begins, filmmakers often create a storyboard. A storyboard is a series of drawings or descriptions arranged in order to show how the film will progress from one shot to the next. Each part of the storyboard usually describes what the camera will see, what actions are happening, and whether any sound or dialogue is needed. It may also include the camera angle and how long each shot should last.
Storyboarding helps you visualise the film before you start recording. Some students use finger-framing to help decide what the camera view should look like. By forming a rectangle with their fingers and looking through it, they can imagine what will appear inside the camera frame.
1.5 Safe Filming Practices
Safety is important when working with filming equipment. Cameras, tripods, and cables can become hazards if they are not used carefully. Good practice includes keeping equipment steady, checking that no one can trip over cables, and making sure you are not filming in unsafe areas. When filming people, it is important to have their permission and to avoid including private or sensitive information in the background of a scene.
1.6 Camera Control and Technical Skills
Understanding how a camera works helps improve the quality of your film. Cameras can zoom in or out. Optical zoomchanges the lens to move closer without losing clarity, while digital zoom enlarges the picture electronically and may make the image less clear. The aspect ratio is the shape of the video frame, such as 16:9, and it helps ensure that your video fits the screen properly.
Other important camera terms include focus, which makes the image sharp; light balance, which controls how bright or dark the image is; and camera angle, which affects how the subject appears. A tripod keeps the camera still, helping you avoid shaky footage.
1.7 When to Reshoot
Sometimes a scene must be filmed again. This may happen if the audio was too quiet, if someone made a mistake, if the camera moved unexpectedly, or if the lighting was wrong. You might also need to reshoot if something distracting appeared in the background. Reshooting helps make the final video clear and professional.
1.8 Editing Techniques
Editing is the process of improving and organising your footage after it has been recorded. Cropping removes unwanted parts of the picture. Transitions connect one clip to the next in a smooth way, using effects such as fades or dissolves. When editing, you may split a clip into smaller pieces or splice clips together so they play in sequence.
Editing can sometimes be challenging because people may disagree about what looks best. Some might prefer faster scenes, while others may want more time to show details. Working together and reviewing changes carefully helps produce a strong final edit.
1.9 Safe and Responsible Use of Videos
When making or sharing videos, it is important to protect privacy. Videos should not show personal information such as a home address, family details, or the name of a school uniform. It is also important never to share a video that could embarrass, upset, or harm someone. Being responsible online shows respect for others and helps keep everyone safe.
Section 2: Algorithms and Programming
2.1 Understanding Algorithms
An algorithm is a clear set of steps used to complete a task. It works much like a recipe, guiding you through each action in the correct order. Sometimes algorithms need to be changed to suit a new situation. This is called repurposing. Instead of writing a completely new algorithm, you adjust the existing one so that it meets new conditions or rules.
2.2 Variables in Algorithms
A variable is a piece of information that can change. It may be a number, a name, a colour, a temperature, or anything else that the algorithm needs to use. Variables make algorithms flexible. For example, if you want to calculate the time a train takes to travel, you can store the speed and distance in variables. If either of these changes, the algorithm still works because the steps depend on the variable rather than a fixed number.
2.3 Loops in Algorithms
In programming, loops help repeat actions without writing the same line over and over. This saves time and makes the algorithm easier to read. A REPEAT loop carries out an action a set number of times. A REPEAT UNTIL loop continues until a condition becomes true. Loops make algorithms shorter and help prevent mistakes that often happen when repeating steps manually.
2.4 Scratch Programming Blocks
Scratch uses visual blocks to create algorithms. Motion blocks control movement, such as gliding or moving a sprite. Control blocks help manage repetition and decision-making, including the repeat and if–then blocks. Operator blocks handle mathematical actions such as dividing or comparing numbers. Variable blocks allow you to store and change information, while Looks blocks can display messages on screen. Understanding these blocks allows you to build more complex programs.
2.5 Drawing Shapes in Scratch
When drawing shapes with the pen extension in Scratch, the computer repeats movements and turns to form the sides of the shape. All shapes that form a closed loop add up to 360 degrees when turning. For example, a hexagon has six equal sides. Dividing 360 by 6 gives 60, meaning the sprite must turn 60 degrees after drawing each side. This method works for any regular shape.
2.6 Programming a Timer
A timer in Scratch uses a loop, a wait block, and a variable that changes each second. To understand timers, it helps to break the problem into smaller parts, which is called decomposing. If you want the timer to count down, you start with a higher number and subtract one each time the loop runs. If you want it to count up, you begin at zero and add one instead. Changing how a timer works usually involves adjusting the starting value, the direction of change, and the stopping condition.
2.7 Repurposing Scratch Algorithms
Scratch programs can often be adapted to meet new needs. Repurposing a program might involve renaming variables, adjusting values, removing steps that are no longer relevant, or adding new calculations. For example, a program designed to track how much money a club raises could be repurposed to calculate how many people visit a swimming pool each week. The structure of the algorithm stays the same, but the details are changed to match the new purpose.