Preliminary Task- Evaluation

Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

The task given was to film and edit a continuity sequence including a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. 

I worked with Georgie, Matt and Aidan. Georgie took the role of acting as she hadn't had much experience in directing before. In order to enhance her camera knowledge, she did film a few shots which she wasn't acting in, including one of our most successful shots; the finale. Aidan decided to act in our prelim as he has had much experience in directing. However, he still made a large contribution to the directing and framing of shots. Matt took the role of director, doing a lot of the camera work. This was because he has regularly acted in media studies and wanted to have more experience in directing and filming. I assisted Matt in directing and filming as this is the role I find most enjoyable. I helped with framing and composition, and filmed a fair proportion of the shots myself. In order to equally share the editing, we divided into two groups, mine being me and Matt. The group worked well divided into these roles, and I feel we all made an equal contribution towards the final result.

How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?

As a group, we sat down and discussed our ideas for the sequence. We soon came to an agreement about the idea of an interrogation. Despite not having all of our shots clearly thought out, we did draw up a storyboard of a few of the main shots. We also wrote a brief script for the sequence. Luckily our improvisation paid off, but in hindsight it would've saved a lot of time to plan our shots more clearly. When planning our sequence, our main focus was ensuring that we would include everything in the brief. In addition, we wanted to portray some of the genre, but in doing so I feel we paid a little too much attention to the narrative. 

What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?

To film the sequence we used one of the school's digital cameras (Canon HV30) with an attached shotgun microphone and tripod. We used the equipment in various ways to produce our shots. Ranging from extending the tripod to gain long shots and establishing shots, to hand held camera work for close up shots such as Georgie crying and the point-of-view of the gun.
In order to edit our sequence, we used Adobe Premier Pro. We went through our shots, selecting the appropriate ones and cutting them down using in and out points. We placed them in the timeline as we went along, using alternating tracks, and then rearranged them into the correct order. Finally, we cut each shot down so the sequence would flow seamlessly. In order to produce the shot-reverse-shots of the conversation, we used the razor tool to divide up the shots.

What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

When planning our shots, we had to think about how difficult it would be to film our sequence in a limited time. Therefore, we tried to keep it simple. In addition, we had to ensure that we had permission from the media teachers to film in PA11, and organise to share the corridor with other groups. We also had to organise props and costumes. When planning, we hadn't taken into consideration the chairs we would have to move out of PA11. Therefore, we had to do this while shooting which did slow us down by quite a bit. During the shoot, we had to control lighting and sound as well as keep within our time constraint and following the continuity rules. When editing, we had to ensure that our continuity was correct by correctly editing techniques like match-on-action and shot-reverse-shot. We were given a time constraint for editing too, so we didn't have time to add effects or music to our sequence.

How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently?

I feel our sequence was successful in that we didn't break the following continuity rules:

• shot-reverse-shot
• match-on-action
• 180° rule
• 30° rule

We also followed the brief by including Aidan opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down opposite Georgie with whom he exchanged some dialogue. I feel this was all done successfully, however if we included less dialogue it would've been much quicker to film and edit.
In addition, if we had planned our shots better then we wouldn't have had to improvise as much. This would've also prevented us from getting carried away with the narrative during the shoot, making editing a much simpler and faster process. Having more time to shoot would've enabled us to film more takes and eliminate mistakes such as the camera jog in the scene of Georgie standing up.

Editing was smooth and the sequence came together successfully. The division of the roles worked well and I feel we were extremely successful as a group.
 

What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?
 

From completing this task, I have learned the importance of pre-production, especially when under a time constraint. I will take this knowledge with me when planning the rest of my foundation coursework. In addition, I have learned how to abide by continuity rules including 30°, 180° and match-on-action. These techniques are incredibly important in ensuring that narrative flow is not interrupted and the sequence is easy for the audience to watch.