Ian McPake from the School of Media and Communication describes how he asks students to recreate, as closely as possible, a clip from a popular film.
‘The module is very industry focused and getting the students close to having industry skills will help them become better steadicam operators and thus increase their employability. This activity is used in Week 9 of the Semester as a measure of ‘where they are at’.
Students must recreate a shot from a mainstream film as closely as possible as if they were in a real ‘film industry’ environment. They work with a team, they work with an actor, and the footage they record is going to be viewed and judged by an audience.
They must show their footage the following week to their peers for review and comments and for me to give each student feedback on their strengths, weakness and areas to improve. This helps them to develop their portfolio of shots which is summatively assessed.
Students love this approach as they all become very serious and focused on achieving the best results. The exercise makes them ‘raise their game.’ In the end of the module survey this is always mentioned as their favourite week of the module.
The original clip that students had to copy was from Eyes Wide Shut (http://www.steadishots.org/shots_detail.cfm?shotID=45).’