Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The preliminary task re-familiarised me with the camera and the process of shooting and editing collectively, and all the planning that precedes this. Although completed in a shorter space of time, our preliminary task prepared us for many of the processes we would use again.
Preliminary Task Brief:
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match-on-action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
Main Task Brief:
The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright free source.
Our Preliminary Task, version edited by myself and Ellie:
Our test shoot edit to try out our opening sequence idea:
Continuity & Editing
One of the most valuable aspects of our preliminary task and learning towards our final opening sequence was education on continuity. It is vital for an effective, believable media product; we learnt this from both our successes and mistakes in continuity.
Cross Cutting
Prelim: Film Opening:
Editing two separately shot, different narratives together to tell two stories at once. Eventually the characters in the separate shots meet and interact as the narratives merge into one.
Above are examples from both prelim and final task edit.
Match-on-Action
Prelim:
We were limited to shooting only in a double lesson, editing in the same day, and also having a very short amount of time to plan prior to the task. This meant we had far less time to be perfectionist or particularly ambitious and just focused on completing it within the guidelines.
We experienced varied levels of success in shooting and editing our prelim; above we have an effective action match as Aidan drops the clipboard (left) and a less well shot and edited action match as he opens and enters the door using 3 shots that look slightly jumpy (right).
Film Opening:
For our final product we had more time to plan, shoot and edit our sequence, therefore our use of continuity techniques could be far more ambitious. However this did leave more potential for mistakes; despite a lot of learning, like before, action matches had varied success here too.
To the left are more successful shots, with a difficult but fairly smooth action match of Dan (me) running around the corner, and below, an even more ambitious shot/reverse shot action match as he runs over the camera, my right foot falling first and then cutting to show my left foot hit the ground one step later. The shot doesn't even break the 180 degree rule, the camera being at the same spot and rotated about 175 degrees in preparation to shoot the other way! However my distance from the wall and position relative to the line in the pavement makes it look a little like the wrong foot lands next even when it is the correct one.
To the right are two fairly basic mistakes that I must take most responsibility for; the movement of my hands. During the inside shots I failed to completely keep track of where they would be in the next shot, so the fact that we shot indoors with more shots after our practice shoot meant that continuity errors such as my hand/arm position were harder to avoid. The gif below shows a successful action match then right after in the next shot a failed action match where continuity is broken due to my fist going from open to closed. Although less noticeable, it is an error nonetheless - but has taught me as a director AND as an actor to think about continuity in even more detail.
Jump-shots/30 degree rule
I made a Slideshare presentation to display my learning on this:
Shot/Reverse Shot
The preliminary task taught us how to use shot/reverse shot. One example of its use is mentioned under match-on-action but its main use is to show conversation. We learnt to shoot entire conversations from two opposite sides (as well as other angles) without breaking the 180 degree rule in order for the audience to see both characters speaking, and gauge their reactions in conversation.
Costume/hair etc continuity
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| Two shots taken in the our test shoot that made it into the final edit |
We made sure our actors wore the exact same costume for both our test and final shoots in case we would be able to take some of the best test shots for the real edit, seeing as we used the same equipment to take them. It is almost impossible to tell that the two first shots in our finished sequence came from a separate shoot on another day because of this. My hair had grown slightly since then so we could only use shots where hair isn't really noticeable but fortunately we did not need to. We knew that significant change in hair and costume would be very noticeable by using common sense, and learnt from this that if as much as possible stayed the same we could still achieve a high standard of continuity.
In Summary...
Not including the titles at the beginning and end, our final film opening was only 5 seconds longer in edited, filmed footage than the preliminary task yet used about 20 shots more; around 40 shots compared to around 20 shots in the prelim. This was due to shooting from more angles and distances and using a lot more cuts. We could be more ambitious and still our continuity was better overall in our final opening sequence due to our learning.
Pre-Production/Planning
We went into the preliminary task with quite insufficient planning, which caused a hindrance into shooting it and how long this took.
- The script was largely unplanned
- Our shootboard was insufficient, having too few shots
This meant: - Not knowing shot numbers for the clapperboard, making editing far slower
- Lots of improvisation on set, eating away a lot of our time
This drilled into us the lesson that planning should be thorough, concise, and not neglected!
Summary
Through this project I feel I have become more comfortable to edit independently and have learnt to rely on teachers/our technician a little less, working out technological issues more independently. While acting I learnt to take more of a role in directing the sequence, as even though I was in shot I was visualising how the shot would look, offering advice and constructive comments to the group members on camera before and after a shot.
Another of the main points of learning I personally made was working as a team. It was a skill I had some of already through experience in Media Studies but an aspect in which I do not cease to learn - every time I plan, shoot, and edit with a new group of people I learn the individual strengths of each person and help to build the confidence of others in areas where it is not as high, particularly if it is somewhere I feel confident. Our group dynamics turned out to be very effective due to the efforts put in by all of us as a collective, with everyone willing to make sacrifices to help the project run smoothly. With improved skills in directing, planning, editing and other areas, I myself now feel more confident through the experience of this project, and feel my contributions to future projects can be stronger as a result of this.
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