Preliminary Task FINAL and REVIEW

PRELIMINARY TASK REFLECTION

This was out given task for our preliminary:

·         Continuity task involving filming and editing 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.

We were given this task to do so we could practice out editing skills as well and applying all the camera techniques we have been learning during lesson time. It was the next step on from what we learnt when filming the practice task by adding some kind of narrative to the story, as well as playing around with Foley sounds. This would help us develop the techniques we needed to create our final project.

To start this task we created a shot list, and from this shot list we were able to draw up a storyboard. We used the storyboard to film all of the scenes; we then muted these scenes during the editing process and added in all of the diegetic and non-diegetic noises we wanted, eg- music, alarm clock and talking.

We were able to film or preliminary task within an hour, this included re filming a few scenes we were not happy with. On the whole the task went very well; we only had a problem when trying to interpret the 180 degree rule, which we later discovered we accidently didn’t obey in one of scenes. This is something that in the real thing we will play closer attention to, to make sure we don’t break this rule at all. I was very happy with our match on action sequence and the overall piece of work other than the 180 degree rule.

We had a few difficulties in maintaining the continuity, we often had issue with whether the mug which Katie (our actor) was drinking with being up or down. We had to make a note on a piece of paper of when the mug would be up and when it would be down to help the editing seem seamless.

If we were to film this task again I would definitely go back and re film the part which doesn’t apply to the 180 degree rule, I would also go back and improve some of the sounds I added in as some of them aren’t realistic and I think I could improve the quality of some of them.

I learnt about how to make an effective match on action as well as a shot reverse shot, I also learnt that applying the 180 degree rule can be difficult and next time we should draw a diagram of the setting and then place the line on this map to make sure we do not cross it and break the rule. I also learnt how to download royalty free music, and some good websites to do this from which may help me find music for my final video.