PRELIMINARY TASK – THE EVALUATION

______________________________________________________________________

DEVON DALTON | SCOTT COLLINS | CHARLOTTE MORRISON | JESSICA FOSTER

Continuity Editing
I believe that my Preliminary Task used continuity editing well as we ensured
that actions were continued and that clips pieced together well and did not
jump and skip any actions. It is evident we used continuity as the camera stayed
focused on the main character whenever possible, and the surroundings were
also continuous.

Some examples of continuity are:

When the camera uses and extreme close up of a can on the floor and
the audience see and pair of feet and a hand reach down to pick up the
can. The shot then flows into a medium close up of the character
standing back up with a can in his right hand.

When the character continues to walk around the corner, and the shot
changes to a long shot of around the same corner and the protagonist
enters the frame.

When the main character walks through 2 sets of doors, match-on-
action is used and the action is carried out through the other side for
both actions.

When the protagonist is descending down the flight of stairs and
begins to reach the landing, the camera cuts from a high angle shot to
a medium close up at the bottom of the stairs as the character climbs
down the last few steps, showing continuity in his actions.

When the protagonist and antagonist have met and engage in
conversation, shot-reverse-shot is used to display continuity in the
dialogue as they respond to each other’s previous comment and the
camera focuses on the character speaking at the appropriate time.

Task Requirements
While planning the filming, we concentrated on fitting in all the task requirements into the piece and
fitting them in so that the film was able to flow at the same time. We found that not only were the
requirements helpful, but crucial if we wanted the film to make sense and look professional.

We used match-on-action in several shots. We not only used it to show the

protagonist going through a set of doors, but we used it to carry on the
action of the character picking up an object, walking around a corner and
reaching the landing of a set of stairs. We tried to use match-on-action
wherever possible as it demonstrates continuity well and helps the film piece
together.

Shot-reverse-shot was used in conversation between the protagonist and

the antagonist. As each character spoke in turn, the camera would switch to
the appropriate character. Shot-reverse-shot was helpful as it displayed
both of the character’s reactions and showed the audience who was speaking
and when.

The 180° rule was kept all throughout conversation between the characters.
We kept both cameras one half of the room so that the surroundings were
constant and the audience stayed on one half of the characters. The 180°
rule was a simple technique, but was very effective in preventing confusion
for the audience and keeping the characters and dialogue continuous.

Group Compatibility
On the whole, I believe that our group worked genuinely well in terms of completing the task on time
arranging filming/editing sessions. A big plus to working in the group that I did was that we all knew
 each other fairly well and knew what our strengths and weaknesses of working together as a group
would be.

When we came across a problem or an issue, we were able to tackle it quickly with new ideas and come
up with good solutions quickly that we could all agree on. We were all keen on our storyline and had
similar tastes in ideas. I believe the reason our group was so successful is due to the fact that we all
communicated well and contributed our individual thoughts and ideas into the task. We all had our
fair share of input and generally got along really well.

Improvements
If we were to re-film our piece, I would have made quite a few improvements to benefit the audience’s
interpretation and the quality of our film.

Improvements I would make would be:

To prolong the ending of the film by adding a wake-
up scene that shows the protagonist sitting up in bed
as if waking up from a dream. Although we decided
not to include this scene to leave our film as a bit of a
cliff-hanger, we left our audience a little more
confused than we intended. Adding this scene would
clarify the purpose of the events in the film and
would further explain that the film was actually an
advert for a product that eliminates bad dreams.

To improve the shot-reverse-shot used in conversation by including the back of the head
and/or shoulder of the opposite character in the side of the frame to show the audience more
clearly that the characters are in the same room. Without an acknowledgement of the other
character in the shot, there is no evidence that the characters are speaking face to face and,
for all the audience know, they could be in completely separate rooms. By adding this small
improvement, the use of conversation would be more apparent and the use of shot-
reverse-shot would be a lot more effective.

To fade out the non-diegetic music that begins

to play at the beginning of the reveal shot when
the antagonist is introduced into the film. The
music starts suddenly, which is intended as it
can be comical, but ends abruptly and comes
across as jumpy and discontinuous. To get rid
of this problem, I would have the music fade out
and into the dialogue so that the sound is kept
continuous and flows together more smoothly.

To re-film certain parts of the film where the camera is shaky or unstable. By having jogged
camera movements, this causes the audience to pay more attention to the steadiness of the
camera and can distract the viewer from paying attention to the storyline and the angles
/shots used. To improve this, I would re-film any unstable camera movements to prevent
catching the attention of the examiner/audience.

Planning
In terms of planning for our film, we could have improved a few things. In general, we did have a good
storyboard and a thorough script, and we knew who was doing what. But the problem was sticking to
the plan when it came around to filming.

Some key planning issues were:

Changing things at the last minute. Although we followed the main concept of our storyline
and kept most of the important parts in the film, we left out some pieces that could have
largely improved our preliminary task. For example, in our storyboard, we drew and
planned our wake up scene to finish off the whole dream idea. But when it came to the end of
our filming, we ran out of time and decided not to include that section and thought it would
be a good idea to leave our audience guessing. Looking back on it now, I think that decision
resulted in too much confusion and took a toll to our storyline. I think this problem was
 caused by not sticking to our original plan and
thinking that we could finish the filming in one
booked session. In the future, this problem can
be resolved by fully examining what parts of the
film are crucial and the importance of each shot.

Booking enough filming sessions. The group was

good at organizing when people were free to
arrange a filming session, but the problem lies
with the fact that we only booked one. If we had
booked one more, we would have been able to
stick to our original plan and include all of the
improvements in the final piece. I think the
reason we never booked enough time with the cameras is because we felt we needed to give
more of our time to the editing side of the task, and rushed through the filming. This problem
could have been easily solved by simply booking another session and organizing our time
more efficiently.

Transitions
Altogether, we used a total of 2 transitions. The reason we did not
use more is because as a group, we believed that transitions
display discontinuity and, for the preliminary task, we were
aiming to demonstrate continuity in the film. For instance, if we
had used a transition between the character picking up the can
and the character rising with the object in his hand, this would
imply that we cut out an action between the 2 shots using a
transition and would show discontinuity in the filming.

Our first transition used was a fade-to-image between a long

shot of the character standing at the end of the hallway and a
backwards tracking shot of the protagonist walking down the
hallway towards the camera. Although this transition does show a
slight lack in continuity, we chose to use the fade-to-image as
appose to not using any transition at all. Without a transition
between the two shots, discontinuity would have been even more
apparent as the first shot would have messily jumped into the second shot. The use of this transition
helped conceal an untidy cut and cleanly blended the clips.

The second transition used was a fade-to-black transition between a zoom shot of the protagonist
screaming and a black screen with words fading in and out in unison with the non-diegetic advert
jingle. We used this transition as it effectively signifies the end of the dream and prepares the audience
for an important explanation to the purpose of the film. Without the
fade-to-black transition, discontinuity would be very evident and, if
it were being graded, would resemble a major flaw to the examiner.

Working with Editing Software

By working with the editing software on the Mac and watching
members of my group use it, I learnt the basics of editing and how
important editing is when filmmaking. I learnt how to:

Cut clips and manipulate how long they run for

Exaggerate sounds using the Foley effect

Add transitions between slides

Add non-diegetic sound

Add text on top of images and add different text effects

Manipulate the lighting in film

I found all of this fairly easy to learn and a very useful introduction to editing as I can now understand
how big a role editing plays in the filmmaking industry. I also found that it was very time consuming,
and took quite a bit longer than filming did. I’m glad I have learnt what I have about using editing
software as I can now apply these skills to my final AS film piece.
 Working with Technologies
By working with technologies such as the cameras, tripods and dollies, I now have a better insight into
the production of films and how things work. I have
learnt the basics of using equipment in filmmaking,
such as:

Setting up a tripod and dolly

Manoeuvring a camera on a tripod to keep a
pan steady

Keeping a tracking shot steady by using a dolly

Using a tripod to keep a shot steady at different
heights and angles

I also found this easy to learn and a useful introduction

to filming. I’ve also had time to practice keeping a shot steady and have learnt that filming something
right takes hard work and patience. I hope that I will take the filming mistakes into consideration
when filming my final AS piece to prevent repeating the same errors I made in my Preliminary Task.