Preliminary Task: Evaluation

I believe my piece has demonstrated continuity well because it is clear to the audience and flows nicely from the first scene; we make it flow by cutting straight away to the next shot shown at the start with the conversation between Connor and Dan, although we did have some issues with continuity at the end of our piece where we made a shot break the 180 degree rule, we worked around this by cutting a bit of footage from the last scene but it does look out of place, this is something I shall keep in mind for my main film task.

I have demonstrated these techniques, I believe that my match on action is better and clearer than shot reverse shot and 180 degree rule but all techniques are in my piece, these techniques are helpful as it helps the audience understand what is going on; the 180 degree rule makes the audience not be confused on what side the characters are, as they will always stay on a certain side unless moved somewhere else. Match on action helps the audience transition through places, mostly doors so they are able to follow the characters on screen. Shot reverse shot can be used for many things but mainly for conversations and allows the audience to see the characters talking. I believe that the majority of my group didn’t do much work and left it to me and another person to do; which made it more difficult to complete to a high quality and we were rushed for time making it quite stressful.

If I were to film this piece again I would be a lot more aware of where the camera is and what is shown in the shot as there were a few errors in the piece, breaking the media illusion to the audience. Also I would always keep in mind the 180 degree rule as we had problems with this making it tough to work around when editing. I believe that we could improve on our planning as we had a few problems with actors not being able to do days, making it difficult to work around. In addition making sure we have a clear idea of what we will film, so we don’t have to be changing anything when filming.

I did use transitions in my piece, I used a transition between the scene when Dan and Damian are interrogating Connor and when Matt is sitting down, I used a transition here to make a clear understanding to the audience this is a different location and a small bit of time has passed, I wanted to show this so it made it more dramatic to the audience, making them question what had just happened to Connor.

I have a learnt a lot about the editing software, such as importing the video, splitting the clips, changing the contrast, brightness, I also learnt how to import sound and make sound loud or quiet, and all of these techniques have been very useful to making my piece look like I wanted it to and sound like I did as well.

I have learnt many techniques about technologies and media, I have learnt about camera skills and that there is a huge difference from what you see and what the camera picks up, so you must be aware at all times to create a good piece of media. I’ve also learnt many editing techniques and its best to over film than under film, shooting a scene a few times is a good thing to do so you have no trouble when editing, also using things such as sound to highlight things and give things significance. Creating this film has helped me a lot and given me many ideas for my main film task.