Group 1 AS 2015/16: January 2016

Preliminary Evaluation

For our preliminary task we were required to produce a piece of film in which a character walked across a room, opened a door, sat down in a chair opposite another character and exchanged a two (or so) sentence conversation. The main aim of this task was to clearly display good continuity editing by the time the final product had been made. Although this may seem like a simple concept there was a number of different factors we had to take into consideration before, during and after filming to make the piece of film achieve a sense of verisimilitude.

Before filming had begun we had to do a certain amount of planning. Considering we only had a limited amount of time to film material we could only film within the premises of the school therefore there wasn't a great variation of locations to choose from however it was relatively easy to find a location which suited the criteria for the short clip. We used a door in the sixth form block and the seats outside as the location for our short piece of film. There is a corridor just before the door which was perfect for us to film Pio walking down and enabled us to use of a variety of different shots. Initially our concept was that serious tension would be created whilst Pio was walking and then we would have a light hearted funny conversation to tease the audience, however, as concepts do in the film industry, this concept changed a number of times as filming went on and we ended up deciding to do a chewing gum advert with all the set actions included. Therefore our initial reaction intentions didn't meet an outcome however we were happy with our final product.

In terms of filming we only had a short amount of time so once we had agreed on a final concept we had to work highly efficiently in order to get enough footage to create a respectable and professional looking piece of film. When filming we had to consider who would actually be featuring in the clip and who would be doing the bulk of the camera work. We also had to decide which order we would film the three set actions in. Moreover at this point we also had to consider whether we were applying the three principles of continuity editing or not. These are the 180°degree rule, the ability to match on action and the use of shot reverse shot.

Match on action refers to when you cut during an action to another camera angle but showing the action from the same point in time that you left it from the previous shot. An example of this from our short clip is when Pio opens the door and the camera angle changes to an outward view of Pio coming through the door but it doesn't seem as if there's any time between the two therefore there is clear continuous flow. The 180° degree rule refers to an imaginary line which cuts through the middle of the scene, from side to side with respect to the camera. Crossing the line changes the viewer's perspective in such a way that it may cause disorientation and confusion. For this reason, crossing the line is usually something to be avoided, however in our clip we did so a few times for example when I and Pio were talking. This is therefore a slight weakness of what we did and is certainly something we would go back and change if we had time to do so. Shot reverse shot refers to when a shot is filmed over the shoulder of the characters who are in conversation with each other. This is done to give a point of view of each character and put the audience in the shoes of the different characters thus enhancing the immersive experience.

After filming a huge part of the process of producing the final piece of film was editing. We used 'Final Cut Pro' editing software on the Apple iMacs to edit our clip. I feel that after this exercise our group now has a firm grasp on the basic principles of editing. Firstly we had to choose which footage we actually wanted to use and then discarded the footage we didn't need. We then trimmed the length of clips and changed the order of certain clips to appear chronologically on screen. This was a long and slightly tedious exercise but it's absolutely vital in terms of producing an aesthetically pleasing and continuously flowing piece of film. We also inserted text into our clip which also added a sense of professionalism. Finally another thing we included was sound. This encompasses music and sound effects of which we used both. Something we need to now look at improving is the quality of sound and also lighting and getting the camera in focus before filming. Overall there is a lot of skills we as a group and I as an individual can take from having done this exercise.