Introduction: Our preliminary exercise was an introductory task involving the filming and editing of a character opening a door, crossing a room and exchanging a couple of lines of dialogue with another character. It was important that we demonstrated match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?
I was in one of the smaller groups when completing this task, working in a three with Kayvon and Alice, so it was inevitable that there would be only one person filming and two actors. However, when we were not needed for acting, we were helping out with the filming and during both the planning and the editing, the work done was split fairly evenly between out group. We made sure to edit the same amount of shots each and all contributed when planning the sequence.
During the planning process I contributed frequently in order to help us come up with the idea for the story. However, due to my lack of experience with regards to filming, my contribution during the filming process was fairly limited and I focused on what I am most comfortable and familiar with - acting rather than filming and helping out in any way I could. During the editing process, I was slower than my team mates as I have not edited a film before, but I did edit just as much as my more experienced team mates and contributed with helpful suggestions on how to improve our film sequence since we were faced with a few problems due to the lack of planning of the shots.
How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?
When planning, we started by having a group discussion in which we spoke about the genre and story of the sequence, settling for a James Bond-like sequence with me playing the villain and stroking a toy dog and Kayvon playing the hero. We then arranged what we were going to wear and where we were going to shoot the sequence, which we decided was going to be in the Media block as it meant that we would not have to take booking the location into account as the Media block had already been booked for the purpose of the preliminary exercise. Also, we would have a technician on hand if we had problems with our cameras and would not need to have a back-up in case someone else was in our room on the day, whereas we would need to take this into account in any other location on the school site.
Apart from these few things, we did not write up a script or have a particular shot sequence, only deciding that we would film the outside shots first in order to allow other groups to use the corridor after us and to enable another group to use the room we had chosen for one of their shots. Having a shot sequence may have aided and enhanced the filming and editing process as we found, during our editing, that two shots we wanted to use were too similar and therefore looked like a jump shot. This would have been avoided if he had carefully planned our shots beforehand and drawn a storyboard, as we would have discovered this before filming and corrected it.
The main theory we took into account was continuity. We did this by obeying rules such as the 180-degree rule when the two characters were talking and edited our scene so that the door opening was an example of match on action. However, we realised during editing that the last shot in the sequence broke the 180-degree rule. This could have been avoided if we had planned our shots thoroughly beforehand and drawn a storyboard. Although our spontaneity provided us with fairly humorous shots during the shoot, it also made it harder to spot continuity issues. Therefore, if we are to repeat this exercise, I would take the shots into greater account.
What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?
To complete this task we used:
- Sony camera
- Tripod
- Non-linear editing system: Premiere Pro
We used the Sony camera to film the sequence and the tripod to keep the camera steady during the filming process.Premiere Pro was the software we used in order to edit the sequence. It was a non-linear editing system, meaning we did not have to edit the sequence chronologically.
What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?
There were a range of things in all three stages of producing our sequence that it was important to take into account in order to produce the best sequence we possibly could.
Some of the most important things we had to consider throughout the whole process was the audience's ability to suspend their disbelief and obeying the 180-degree rule. These two were particularly important as they affected how believable our sequence was. If the cuts were obvious to the audience, it would be more difficult to suspend their disbelief and not sticking to the 180-degree rule would mean that the shots would be disillusioning to the audience and the sense of two characters talking to one another would not be achieved.
Also, planning, shooting and editing to time was extremely important, so it was essential that one of the people in our group always knew what the time was so that we would not run overtime.
Planning
During the planning stage it was important that we had taken into account our chosen genre. This was in order to make sure we kept to this particular genre throughout the filming and make sure that our script, lighting and shot types were all reflective of this chosen genre.
Another essential thing we had to take into account was the light. It was obvious that lighting would change throughout the day and so it was important that we took all the shots we needed in the same place in order to avoid a change in natural lighting during the shooting process. This was easy to do as we only had two locations to take into consideration: outside the media classroom and inside.
We needed to make sure that the props and costume required for the shooting was ready for the day. We did this by sorting out what each person in our group was going to bring and then setting reminders to make sure it was brought. We needed to make sure that the rooms were set up to our liking for our shoot as any changes in the set during the shoot would spoil continuity, so we considered what would need to be moved and brought into the room and then took care of this before the beginning of the shooting.
Shooting
During the shooting stage we needed to consider where we placed the objects in the room as any visible movement of objects in the rooms we used would spoil the continuity of the sequence. Therefore, both during the planning and shooting processes it was important to take into account where the objects in the room would be. Also, linking into this idea is also the fact that I was not to move the chair I was sitting on.
We had to make sure we had taken at least three takes of each shot in order to make sure that we had accounted for any errors we may have made during the shooting process. This would limit the amount of errors we would have to deal with during the editing process.
Another important thing to take into consideration was making sure that everyone the microphone could pic up was not making any noise. This was important in order to make the sequence more plausible, enabling the audience to suspend their disbelief easier.
Editing
During the editing process it was vital that we did not mix shots with my glasses on and my glasses off. It was important that we established where I took my glasses off. Also, match-on-action was another essential part of the editing process. We needed to make sure that the door opening seemed realistic and was smooth as it went over two shots.
How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and in hindsight, what you would improve/do differently?
We were faced with many difficulties mainly through our editing process. Our problems started when we had two different very similar shots we wanted to use consecutively. However, if we were to do this, we would have created a jump shot due to the similarities in the angle of the shot and this was not desirable for our sequence. We tried many methods in order to solve this problem, but found that the fact that I had taken my glasses off half-way through the sequence meant that the order could not be drastically changed. We managed to overcome this eventually after much deliberation by adding in another shot of my character, the villain, in between the two shots.
Also, we were forced to change what the hero did in order to solve the issues associated with the fact that we had not put out a chair for the hero to sit on from the start of the shooting process. We could not, however, add in the chair as the previous shots had shown that there had not previously been a chair there. Instead, we made the hero, played by Kayvon, lie on the table, which created a more comic effect.
After watching back our sequence, I have realised that we did not stick to the 180-degree rule in the last shot. This ruined the illusion that the two characters were looking at one another and may have confused the audience.
If I were to repeat this task, I would have made a storyboard and planned out each shot in detail during the planning process in order to avoid major problems such as the one we were faced with during the editing process. These problems were caused by the fact that we had left much of the shooting to improvisation on the day rather than fully formulating our ideas on paper before the shoot. This would have also saved time and we would have avoided breaching the 180-degree rule in the last shot.
Although we were faced with many difficulties, I believe that we created an extremely successful sequence. We stuck to the theory of continuity almost rigidly by matching the action and sticking to the 180-degree rule almost constantly until the end shot.
What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?
Despite having been on set for many films and television shows in the past, I have always found myself only involved in the acting process. I found that it was an extremely helpful exercise as I was able to find more about the theory of continuity and also how to edit using the non-linear editing software.
As I have not previously done media as a subject, I found this task helpful as it made me closer to my fellow media students and helped me develop the skill of working in a team for the next shoot. I have found that the preliminary activity has prepared me extremely well for the rest of the foundation coursework and the rest of the media A-Level course as well as later on in life.
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