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.