Prelim Excercise Evaluation

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

My group was a group of 3, Patricia, James, and myself. We did not have group leader, but we all shared our ideas and agreed on every decision that was made. The script was written by James and me, and the storyboard was drawn by Patricia. We decided that during the shooting process we would need to allocate roles, such as directing, acting, camera, sound and production assistant, but as we were a small group, James and Patricia acted in the sequence while I was director, camera, and sound, as the group felt I was most skilled on the camera and the James and Patricia are good actors. We shared the editing duties equally amongst us, all getting an equal chance to use the editing software, and we would continue discussions while editing until we were all agreed on the final sequence.

How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?
Firstly we had a group meeting which lasted about 30 minutes to decide on a basic plan for the sequence and draft a script. We then drew our storyboard and finalised the script based on a combination of all of our ideas, and then wrote a shot schedule in order to make our shoot as quick and efficient as possible by reducing the number of set ups we needed to do. When planning the sequence we tried to take the continuity theories into account, such as the match on action and 180 degree rules. For example when the boy sits down on the chair and rolls towards the girl, there is a cut while he is moving, and he must be in the same place just after the cut as he was just before the cut so it appears that no time has passed between the shots, and during the conversation, the two characters must only be shot from one side so it doesn’t look like they have switched sides during the sequence.

Here is the storyboard, shot list and script we produced while planning the sequence:


Group 3D

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

The camera we used to shoot the sequence was a Canon HV-30, which was mounted with a shotgun microphone and headphones to get improved sound quality, although we did not use the boom mic as we did not have any dialogue shot from far away. We used a tripod to keep the camera steady, and to get smooth camera movement. We used a clapper board so that we could clearly see each shot when editing. To edit, we used Adobe Premiere Pro, mainly because it is very simple to use, and to improve our skills on the program for future projects. We mainly used the razor tool to chop up the sequence, and used dual tracks so we could clearly see each shot. We also used the program’s title tool to create titles and the fade function at the start and end of the sequence.

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

Throughout the process, we had to take into account the laws of continuity so that we wouldn’t break any rules, breaking the flow of the sequence. When shooting we had to be aware that other groups were using the same space as us to film their sequences, so we were not able to shoot every shot as scheduled, for example we could not shoot the opening shot until the end. We also had noise interference from other groups, which meant that we had to have more takes because you can hear voices in the background. When editing, not everyone in the group was as confident with the program as others, so we made sure that everyone had an equal share on the program so that everybody could improve their skills. We also had to take into account time, working as efficiently as possible, while still shooting enough material so that we could easily edit it together later, for example, we shot the conversation twice, once from one side and once from the other, and cut it up and put it together on the edit suite.

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

Our sequence begins with a boy walking through the doors from outside and into a foyer area. He walks across the foyer, glancing into a room. He stops and walks through the door, having seen a girl sitting at a computer. He walks across the room, pulls up a chair, and tries to chat her up with a chat up line. She is not to pleased, turns off the computer and leaves, leaving him sat on his own in the room. I think our sequence has worked very well, and follows the continuity rules very well. We have 3 examples of match on action; when he walks through the door, when he slides on the chair and when she gets up to leave. All of them are in time and means that the sequence flows from shot to shot. The shot-reverse-shot works well, and we show the 180 degree rule well, shooting everything from one side on the action, so James is always facing to the left of frame, and Patricia is always facing to the left of frame. The reaction shot of Patricia as James walks in works well, as it introduces her and shows the relationship between the two characters, and allows us to demonstrate a match on action with another shot in the middle; he opens the door, she looks up, and it cuts back to him, slightly inside the room, as if half a second has passed, in which time, Patricia has looked up at him. I think the only problem with our sequence is when Patricia says ‘get away from me you freak’, the shot cuts to a reaction shot of James, and you cannot see Patricia begin to get up. She only gets up in the next shot, which doesn’t seem right, as she has waited for James’s reaction until she starts to get up. If I could shoot the sequence again, the shot of he conversation needs to include Patricia getting up to leave, and we could cut in James’s reaction and the cut back to Patricia walking away.
What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be signified when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?
From this task I have learned:
• The importance of planning a sequence to increase efficiency and the general process of filming a sequence that we will use when it comes to filming our opening sequences.
• I have improved my skills on the editing software that we will be using for the real sequence and I now feel completely confident when editing whereas I was unsure using the software in previous projects.
• To think about the rules of continuity all the way throughout the process, when planning, shooting, and editing.

Propp's Theory Analysis: Finding Nemo

Characters:

• Hero: Marlin
• Villian: People
• Helper: Dory
• Victim : Nemo

Functions:

• No. 2. : Marlin warns Nemo never to swim over the drop off out into the ocean
• No. 3: Nemo swims out over the drop off into the ocean and is captured
• No. 11: Marlin leaves the reef to find Nemo
• No. 14: Marlin meets Dory who reads the adress on the goggles and they leave for sydney
• No. 15: Marlin and Dory are swallowed by a whale, who transports them to Sydney
• No. 25: After failing to swim out of the tank, Nemo manages to be flushed down the dentist's sink and escapes to the ocean
• No.26: Marlin and Nemo are reunited
• No. 30: Humans lose all of their fish

Criticisms of the theory

• The theory is based on folklore, and may not be as relevant to more recent stories
• There are very few stories that feature all 8 characters and all 31 functions
• It follows a very rigid structure. Most stories are much more complicated than the theory suggests, for example in Always Outnumbered, instead of the film ending with him getting a job, it ends with his best friend dying of cancer on a public bench while he gets on a bus to go and contiue his life as normal
  

Todorov's Narrative Theory: Shaft Opening

1. Who are the agents: the protogonist and antagonist.

• The protagonist is Shaft, a detective. From the opening scene we get sense that he is very good at his job, as he spots the waitress and reads her body language to finds the suspect. He also spots the blood on his finger and on her face. We also get the sense that he is ruthless, by the way he punches Walter when he makes a racist remark about the victim. He also seems to be unpopular, as another detective detective says "Please tell me he's not running this case".



• Walter is the antagonist, the son of a rich property developer. He murders the victim in a racist attack, and then continues to mock him racially as he is dying, suggesting that he is a racist. He seems very cocky because of the wealth and power of his father, as if he knows for sure that he will not be caught for his crime.

2. Describe the Equilibrium. How is it represented? What kind of camera shots can you identify?

• The film begins in equilibrium, with Shaft attending to another case as he would every day.



• The scene begins with a large pan of the city and his car coming into shot, which cuts into an MS of the car pulling up and Shaft getting out, immediately introducing him as the main character. A forwards track behind him shows him almost swaggering to the crime scene, and his long black leather coat and the music in the background emphasises that he is a very smooth character.
  

3. Is the Disruption or Disequilibrium introduced or hinted at?

• The equilibrium is disrupted when Walter murders the victim. The murder would just be like any other case, but as this is a racial attack, and Walter appears so smug, Shaft takes this case personally.


• The one witness to the crime disappears, so Shaft needs to find her.
  

4. Are there any visual/verbal/aural clues that hint at what the hero's journey might be? (e.g having to solve the murders within a time-limit of seven days in "Seven")

• You can tell by the wealth and arrogance of Walter that he is not going to be easy to convict, and also the witness has gone missing. This implies that Shaft will spend the rest of the film trying to convict Walter of the murder, and he will need to find the witness in order to do this.

5. From your knowledge of the film, how will the equilibrium be restored and what will be the new equilibrium?

• The new equilibrium comes at the end of the film when, after two failed court hearings, Walter is convicted. The witness is found and she testifies against him.
• The new equilibrium is the same as at the beginning; Shaft will still have more cases to solve. Walter is now dead, having been shot outside the courtroom.
  

Always Outnumbered Continuity Analysis

Continuity

• The first shot of the scene, the establishing shot of the diner, has a sound bridge over it which continues into the next shot of Socrates talking. This makes it clear that he is inside the diner and makes the previous scene flow into the new one.
• When Willy enters the diner, shot steps are used so that there is no sense that the audience has jumped into the action. A long shot is used, which moves to a mid shot and eventually a close up when he sits down, as if the audience has stayed in the same place and Willy has walked towards them.
• When Willy is ordering the pies, the 180 degree rule is used, but in three directions, and shot reverse shot is used; it is as if the audience is positioned in one position for the whole of the conversation and the camera has been rotated to see each character.
• During the conversation between Socrates and Willy, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule is used to see the other character from each persons point of view.
• The master shot is of the waitress; a cut away to her is used to give variety and to break up the action. Without this, the scene would be very boring.
• During the conversation, shot variety is used to give a greater sense of emotion. MCUs and MSs are used during 'normal' conversation and CUs are used at moments of tension between the two.
• When Willy stands up, a HA is used to show him from Socrates's point of view to put the audience in his place to increase the sense of feeling.
• When Socrates puts the knife on the table, match on action is used to make the sequence flow, as if he had taken the knife out of his pocket and put it on the table all in one go, when in reality it would have been shot at different times, and has been edited to get the timing right.