Preliminary Continuity Task Evaluation

The preliminary exercise was a continuity task involving filming and editing of a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, where they exchange a couple of lines of dialogue. In the task our main focus was to make sure we demonstrate math on action, shot/ reverse shot and to follow the 180-degree rule.

We planed out what we wanted to by doing a storyboard, which had 9 shots of different frames that we wanted to shoot. This was very useful because it helped us keep on task and made us more organised. We planed a script of short lines of dialogue for the 2 characters.

Investigator: Are you ready to talk yet?Victim: Talk about what exactly?
Investigator: Talk about your involvement, about the murder of Elizabeth Whales… the 14 year old innocent school girl, who had just happened to be walking home at the incident
Victim: you’ve got no proof

Old Preliminary Task: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xOzrOaqPEk&feature=channel

We decided to give each other roles for this task, such as director, director assistance and the 2 actors. Filming was hard at first because we couldn’t find a suitable setting to film it in. our aim was to film it in a secluded setting, to create a feeling of a chilling atmosphere. We wanted to do this because we were trying to experiment doing it in “horror” style. Keeping the camera steady and not shaky was hard, so using the tripod helped, however it was difficult filming in a tight space. We had trouble keeping to the continuity of the task, because we kept moving our positions of the tripod which had an effect on how much we saw of the characters. There was another group next to us, which made it difficult to hear the dialogue of the two characters. Once we got it all filmed, we noticed that we had allot of footage that we didn’t know was good. We used an apple MAC to help edit our filming. We used a programme called ‘Imovies’. This gave us a wide range of options on how to edit our film. Using imovies was tricky at first, how ever once playing around with the tool bar we managed to edit our film. We adjusted the video exposure: 191, brightness:-34, contrast: 0, saturation: 57, changing them meant we could change the lighting on the footage into a more white/grey light to create an old, Creepy effect. However this meant that on some scenes you couldn’t see the characters face very well. We felt as a group we wasn’t very happy with it because it was very jumpy and didn’t flow into a continuality style, and was very confusing for the audience

This was where we majorly went wrong; we got the 180 degree rule wrong. We should have filmed on the both sides, however we didn’t, it made the conversation very confusing

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New and Improved Preliminary task: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltHe7aDh7YU&feature=channel

Once knowing our mistakes on our first Preliminary task, we recognised our mistakes and knew how to improve them. The mistakes we made on the first go were: we didn’t follow the 180 degree rule. The first time we had the camera, we where shooting form different shoulders, however they should be identical, so the audience doesn’t get confused. Our match on action didn’t flow correctly and it was very confusing on where the character was coming from.We chose a simple setting such a meeting room, which was quite, so it allowed us to film peacefully without interruptions. We followed our story board and script, however we improved and changed it slightly once we knew where our errors where. This time we followed the 180 degree rule by having the camera film on the same sides. We used a simple fade through white to help beginning the video and the finished wit the fade through black which made it look more professional as well as indicating it was over.The second time was a lot quicker and easier. I felt the simpler we made it, the better it came out. The first task we tried to hard which made it confusing and not so smooth, however after doing this task, I’ve learnt many new skills and improved my filming and editing knowledge. I feel that this will helped me when I have to do the main task of an opening of a new fiction film.

Having the footage of someone walking in from behind and then seeing a medium shot of them walking through the door in a front view, made it clear where the character came from and clearer for the audience to understand.

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This time we followed the 180 degree rule by having the camera film on the same sides. The victims left, the inspector’s right. This was something we didn’t do on our first go.