Evaluation of the Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we were asked to devise a short clip that demonstrated continuity editing. Continuity editing is a technique that is used to make the audience feel as though they are watching I real time. We were given a short amount to plan and film this task,however, my group and I worked fast and efficiently in planning to enable us to give us the most amount of time to film the preliminary video. As a group we decided upon a narrative to carry out for our video. We decided that because we could only use school space, it would work perfectly to carry out a school shooting take place in our school. We decided to use minimal dialogue and kept it to the required dialogue as we felt that it would be best to keep it simple for this piece. As a group we worked out the roles we would like to carry out: Katie and Natalia would take on the roles of students in the school and Jasleen played the role of the shooter (as well as directing). I took on the job of filming the video, however I did not decide to direct anything because I felt that it was more of a group input task, however, we did have to stick to a few guidelines for the task: a conversation consisting of two or more lines, a character opening a door and a shot of a character walking.

After deciding upon the narrative, roles, script and locations, it was time to move on to production. Before filming, we played around with angles, levels the camera would be best suited for the shot and how we would film the action whilst keeping in mind that it had to be fluid as it was a continuity editing task. Because we filmed inside, lighting was consistent throughout majority of shots, however, when there was a change in location, lighting became darker, i.e. in the theatre it was a lot darker which meant that the camera picked up less detail and made the image fuzzy. Because the school was empty at the time and the spaces we used were big, a lot of sound was reverberated and made it quiet when picked up by the camera's microphone. This was definitely a downfall and something we can learn to improve. The requirements of this task stated that we had to use three key principles of filming to carry out this task: Shot Reverse Shot, Match on Action and the 180 Degree Rule. These elements allow for a more realistic and make the video move fluidly and in real time, as if the audience was there. 

Shot Reverse Shot is used to capture a conversation engaged by two characters. An example of when we used this was when Katie and Natalia were sat opposite each other and engaged in a conversation about what was happening and the killer's whereabouts. We edited two seperate shots taken from each side of the conversation and edited to get the reaction of the speaker and the person engaged in the conversation. 

Match on Action is an editing technique whereby one shot cuts to another to portray the action that has taken place in the first shot; this must match the original shot. An example of this in our work can be seen when Natalia is running through the hallways and turns the corner to the theatre to open the door. Although the shots are taken from different places, it makes the audience feel that she never stopped running. 

180 Degree Rule is a rule where characters in the scene have the same left-right relationship with each other. We used this when the conversation in the theatre took place between Katie and Natalia.

To edit our raw footage, we used Final Cut Pro X and worked in pairs to produce two seperate final videos. Jasleen and I worked together and Natalia and Katie worked together. By using different sound, editing and other editorial enhancements, we ended up with completely different final products, even though we started off with the same raw footage. 

In addition, we were able to flip an entire clip, an example of this was the section of Natalia looking around and down to the floor before running through the door and down the hallway. This made it seem as if she was looking towards the door before receiving the text from Katie to meet in the theatre. Our two editing groups decided to use the track by Tiny Tim 'Tip Toe Through The Tulips', however, Jasleen and I went with a remixed version with a fast pace to create a sense of panic and fear. Katie and Natalia, however, went with the original and use only a small portion of the track because they decided to use some scary music that builds up in intensity without increasing pace. 

TITLE

MATCH ON ACTION

 

SHOT REVERSE SHOT