Preliminary Task: Continuity Task Evaluation
The task was to create, film and edit a short sequence of a character opening a door, walking across the room, sitting down and exchanging a few lines of dialogue with another character. In order to achieve this an understanding of the following: match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule is needed.
The camera angles that were needed to be present in the production were as those above. Within the storyboards all of these were incorporated and were then followed closely by the actual production. Match on action is when within one shot an action can be seen taking place but then in another shot the same action is continued however from a different angles, this is to prevent the use of an entire sequence of movement and also to move the scene forward in time. A shot/ reverse shot most generally when a shot is taken from over the shoulder of one character who is speaking to another, the same shot is then replicated but from the exact opposite, so over the other character’s shoulder. A shot/ reverse shot must comply by the 180 degree rule as each character must stay on the same side of the scree throughout the scene in order to avoid confusion amongst the audience.the only exception is if the audience can physically see the shot moving past the previous 180 degrees and going to the opposite. It was these shots that were imbedded within the storyboard and the production.
The use of diegetic sound (natural sound) within the sequence, such as the sound of the door shutting and the footsteps of the male character walking across the room creates a sense of reality in the scene as these are sounds which are heard by all almost on a day-to-day basis. The non-diegetic sounds that were edited into the sequence were the soundtrack created on the program garageband. The soundtrack, unfortunately did not match the scene, this was done deliberately as the scene and the dialogue exchanged was not of a nature to which an appropriate soundtrack could be created. Other non-diegetic sounds that would be useful to be edited in to the sequence include the typical diegetic sounds that would be heard within an empty classroom where the sequence was filmed. This would not include much, and there were no diegetic examples present of these (such as computer sounds) on filming.
The mise-en-scene used in the production was that, with the resources that were available, the set on which filming took place was in a classroom. The classroom was picked in order to look similar to an office, where the storyboard represented the scene. Despite this, the spoken pieces made by the characters in the production did not very well match the set on which it was based. Also, unfortunately, after having filmed and started the editing process, there was the problem that the tri-pod for the camera was left in shot when the camera was being used by hand. This is a problem that shall be avoided in the final production. The costumes of the characters were also very basic and casual (as it was filmed on a normal college day) and did not match the set appropriately either.
The initial experience with the program final cut pro was quite a successful despite the trouble with the transitions as the clips did not have enough room to work with at either end in order for the transitions to work successfully. The addition of music made from garageband was also successful even though the music that was created was complete;y disjointed from the piece. This was deliberate as, because the speech and movement of the sequence was not of any particular definable genre the music could not be matched exactly.
During the filming part of the task, team work was very effective as one person was using the camera and the other two were on the camera. However, when editing the two people that were on the camera left the lesson group to do a different subject and I was left to edit alone. Despite this, the editing was not a complete disaster. Altogether, I think that the teamwork could have done with a bit of work as the other members had left.
In conclusion, I believe above everything else, the preliminary task, for me was a stepping stone and a learning curve for the final production. The use of mise-en-scene (particularly the tri-pod situation) will be though out a lot more in the final piece. Along with the use of lighting and costume, editing and other aspects will be improved with practice and ready for the final production. By this time also, I shall be in a group again and this will help greatly as all of the weight will not be on myself.
