AS Media
G321
Foundation
Portfolio
Tuesday 14th October
Finished Video and Evaluation
This is our finished video, edited and uploaded to YouTube where it can be viewed by the public.
As you can see there's nothing on the walls that could cause continuity mistakes in our clip.
Using the other side of the corridor meant there was no room for continuity mistakes because the walls were plain and all looked the same.
Because we filmed across two days it meant we could have made an error in prop placement if we weren't careful. To ensure this didn't happen we took pictures of the location and the props so we could put them in the exact same position for the next time we filmed. This means we avoided continuity mistakes involving all elements of mise en scene in our clip by keeping everything the same each time we filmed.
We were given three specific camera techniques we had to use within our clip.
Those three were;
1. Match On Action
2. Shot Reverse Shot
3. 180 Degree Rule
Evaluation
Our Preliminary Task was to film a short clip (about a minute long) of one person walking through a door, into a room, sitting across from another person and then saying a line each. This task is to test our filming, editing and how we keep continuity throughout our filming. This is my evaluation of our clip and what we did.
Since the task was to test how we managed continuity we had to take measures to ensure there were no continuity errors in the clip. To ensure our continuity before we started filming we looked at the location we were shooting in to try and spot where continuity could go wrong. We started by shooting the walking in the corridor, originally we were going to shoot looking at the other side of the corridor. We switched and filmed
the opposite side because there were various things on the wall that would have been seen in the clip; since we filmed several takes of each shot we wanted to make sure that our actor didn't walk past the same poster or board more than once.
1. Match On Action is switching the angle/side of the subject you're filming from. In our clip we used match on action when our character (Police Officer) walked through the door. It goes from an over the shoulder shot of her hand on the door handle to a long shot of her walking in the room. I think we used our match on action quite accurately, there's a smooth transition from one side of the door to the other. It's clear what's happening and that we're watching the character walk into the room. We used this to create a smooth transition and aided our continuity and how the cuts ran together.
2. Shot Reverse Shot is switching between two subjects repeatedly. This is usually used when characters are having a conversation on screen. We used shot reverse shot when our characters said their lines, first shot of criminal, second shot of police and then back to the shot of the criminal. We used this to show the characters different points of view, connect the characters together; show they're communicating with one another and also to show the reaction of the criminal to what the police officer says. I think we did this effectively in our short clip. It was clear they were communicating, the camera was steady and meant we had no image movement due to an unsteady camera. This was good continuity because you can clearly see the props on the desk in both scenes, none of the props move and no new proprs are seen in either shot.
POV Shot from one side of the door.
POV Shot from the other side of the door.
3. 180 Degree Angle is the area in which you can shoot. It's a semi circle that you can shoot within or around. Our 180 Degree angle is consitent throughout the clip. We stayed shooting in the same area and didn't move outside of our semi circle. Our area to shoot in is detailed below.
The green line represents the semi circle we filmed in.
The red dots represent the spots we filmed on.
I think we used this effectively. We didn't move outside our 180 degrees and therefore no continuity mistakes were made involving any of the shooting we did at this location.
Editing
In order to try and make our clip more interesting we tried to use various camera and editing techniques.
We used close ups of the police officers feet walking to create suspense and a sense of mystery about who the feet belong to. I think we did this effectively; the camera doesn't move and you cannot see anything in the shot except her feet. We also created the same effect by purposely not showing the police officers face until she sits down. Until she's sat across from the criminal you don't see anything except her feet and torso. I think we selected the right shots and objects to film to successfully create the suspense within the viewer.
Because our clip was a police drama we looked at examples of texts that this genre of show uses, we found that they were typically white and used smart/formal fonts. Below are a few examples of the fonts used, we based our colour and style on those that we found. As you can see they mostly use white fonts with a formal style.
I think one of our strengths was the continuity, we made no mistakes whilst filming. Everything was kept the same in each shot, every time we filmed we made sure all the props and costumes were identical to the previous time we filmed.
You can see the circled folder when we filmed from either side of the desk
I think a weakness in our clip was the sound and the background noise. There was background noise during some of the walking scenes that we could have eliminated and then added different noises for effect. During our main task we will consider sound more carefully and add our own sounds and background music for effect. The sound and background noise is what I would change if I were to do it again and what I will consider when we edit our filming for the main task.