1. Our task was to film a short clip using continuity techniques. The
techniques that should’ve been included were: the 180 degree rule, shot
reverse shot and match on action.
2. What have you learned during the making of your preliminary
task?
From making my preliminary task I have learnt a range of different things
and it has taught me valuable lessons that I can take to help me
complete future tasks.
Its taught me that making even a short clip is very difficult! Firstly, it’s
taught me how to use a video camera properly and how to set up a shot
that is effective.
I more or less know how to use the editing software that the school
provides for us, even if this skill is still a bit rough around the edges.
Time management and knowing when the room we filmed in was free to
use was a massive impact on this task and has taught me how to work
around this issue when it comes to the next task and how I can use my
time effectively when it is not convenient to film, especially when
trying to maintain continuity throughout.
3. Areas of success
As an area of success I was very proud and happy with our final piece, as
when we first starting editing our film, I was very under confident
about how it was going to turn out but after finishing filming and
sitting down to edit properly, it came together well.
We also improved on our initial ideas for our short clip and added extras
to make the final product a lot better.
We maintained continuity throughout the clip so we made sure that on
the days of filming we wore the same clothes and we made sure that we
filmed in the same class room
We used a range of different camera angles/shots to create different
effects at different points of the clip.
4. Areas for development
As an area of development, I think the thing that our group failed on time
judgment and time management. We completed the filming and
editing in time and submitted our film by the deadline but we was also
very pushed for time and we didn’t judge the scale of time that we had
correctly. This is something that we are definitely not doing for our
main task.
Another thing we could improve on is playing with the editing software
more. We know the basics and how to put the clips together, how to
crop clips, how to change the colour of a clip etc. But the audio of
myself and James exchanging dialogue in a scene was very quiet in
comparison to the music we had added to the background.
In regard to our main task, we will make sure that we are on top of filming
straight away and we will not leave the editing until the whole short
film is shot.
5. How well did you meet the task brief?
In our final piece, we managed to use match on action effectively, making it look
like the film flowed together which made it look a lot more realistic even if it
was shot completely different.
However, we didn’t manage to use the 180 degree rule or shot reverse shot as it was
too difficult to include these techniques within our final piece but we did
attempt to shoot these shots but proved to be a struggle so we didn’t include
them within our product. In contrast to that, it was very easy to pick up the
serious emotions the characters portrayed throughout the whole film.
7. Evaluate your contribution to the group’s work...
The role I had in my group, originally was camera woman but after a
discussion with my group, we decided that I was not the best person for
this job and I swapped with another member of my group and my job
was to play a role in the final product.
The skills I have learnt from this role is to stop being shy and just to film
the scene, otherwise we wouldn’t have completed the task. I have also
learnt how to judge which scene was good and which ones needed to be
filmed again to make the final piece look as good as it possibly could.
My group and I worked very well together and all of us contributed well to
the task and our allocated roles. I played a role in the short film as did
James and Reece was camera man and then we all gave our input when
it came to editing.