Continuity task - the end product

This is the final continuity task, we filmed twice, as the original footage had a lot of technical errors that we wanted to improve on, like bad framing, with parts of the characters cut off, and some background noise that was overpowering the voices of the actors. We put this together quite quickly, so the editing is not perfect, and could have been finished to a much higer standard.





evaluation

Our final Continuity task was really quite poor, as there were so many technical incompetencies within it. firstly the positioning of the title at the very beginning is off, it is too far to the left, so some of it is cut off. this is an editing error that could be easily corrected, it more attention had been paid to detail. my next issue is with the transitions that were chose in the first few shots, they were used to slow the piece down and give the ilusion of time between the shots, but they are unneccesary and look quite cheap and amateur, so i would not have chosen them personally. i think this was one persons choice and we didnt work as a group enough when coming to some of the decisions. Next in the first shot, the character position in the shot is not right, it should either be central or not, but looks like it was supposed to be central. framing is a basic part of filming, and bad framing looks cheap and is less natural to watch. some of our framing was not right, and some of our positioning was simply not paid attention to, we have learnt from reviewing this that framing and positioning are more important than we originall thought, so we will pay more attention to getting them right in our opening. This is the shot where the positioning was poor:

the character would have looked better placed centrally, it would have looked much neater.

another issue we had was the angle we were shooting at, as we struggled with getting out tripod to be level, this gave some wonky shots that lookd unnatural and poorly filmed. looking back at this we now realise we need to check the spirit level on the tripod at all times to keep it level, this way it looks smoother and the change from shot to shot will be smoother and more realistic.

in this shot you can see clearly that it is not level, by looking at the celing and floor and the angle that they are at, this is poor quality filming, and we are going to make sure we dont do this in the final opening

A positive about our continuity task is the quality of the movement, the camera pans and tilts very smoothly, and ther is no jolts or shakes in the camera. This is sometimes tricky and something we are proud of, as the camera moves very fluidly. however, there is alot of background noise over the dialogue, and this is something we tried to avoid, but it was filmed in a noisy school so we must have been unlucky with timing, as there are certain times where the school is louder. this detracts the audiences concentration from the dialogue and makes it less enojyable to watch. the shot - revers - shot that we had to include as part of the guidelines was succesful, we did an over the shoulder on, which, while the editing was a little choppy, worked quite well. the end of the clip is the worse, as we left it un edited, we needed to cut it a bit shorter as their are some seconds at the end which weren't supposed to be included, and we dont have any outro transition, so this is another example of sloppy editing.

We have learnt alot from the continuity task, mainly what our groups strengths and weaknesses are, and that we need to communicate more as a group, a some of the elemtns of the continuity task were not decided on by the group but by one individual. we learnt alot about how to use the equipment, such as looking at the spirit level, and also about how difficult it is to get quality filming, because you need to take into account so many factors, such as positioning, noise levels, framing, angles that we didnt pay attention to whilst filming the continuity task. i think this has given us a greater knowledge because we have learnt from our mistakes that we made so frequently in this task.

Planning - The Continuity task

the continuity task is to help us practice planning, filming and editing, then reviewing and refining before we start the final product. It is going to help us know hwo to improve next time, and what our strong points our in the group, so we can use the team effectively.

storyboarding

we storyboarded our idea for the continuity task , which involved us sitting round together and deciding on the theme, the shots, angles and how we were going to include the tasks we were given. i have included here our drafted storyboard which we put together quickly. we adapted and changed it on location due to restrictions such as space availability. the first shot is a long shot of a man walking down a corridor, hooded. the camera pans as he turns the corner, we then got a mid shot of him opening the door. there is then another long shot of the man as he enters the room. the camera then pans him, at a mid shot distance, and tilts as he sits down. there is then a close up shot reverse shot of a conversation. and an extreme close up of the characters swapping goods. this is how it will end. the whole storyboard has been planned using an eye level angle, so we are keeping it natural. The narrative is of a man walking into a room and doing a shifty deal, as this si a simple subject to represent in a short space of time. We have marked on the stroyboard where the 180 degree line is in some of the shots, to help us know where we can film, and nto break through it, as this gives an unnatural feel.

once we began filming we realised we needed to change a lot of different aspects of the storyboards such as the shot styles and the actual storyline. we wanted to mix up some of the shot styles, as we chose very safe uninteresting ones, and wanted to use the onctinuity task as a practice of different shot we could use, so we changed quite a few of the angles and framing when were on location. We also had a problem securing the location we originally planned the stroyboard around, as we intended to start in an open corridor, which at our time of filming was filled with students, which gave overwhelming background noise, something we felt was very amateur and made the narrative difficult to understand. we then used a different location, so had to change what was happening in the original scenes, as we couldnt get the angles we wanted from the new location.

we also assigned two members of the group to write a shot list, props list, and script for the characters. the props list was minimal, as the main focus of the continuity task is the filming, and getting familiar with the equipment, rather than the content.

I was important that we planned and storyboarded the continuity task properly before filming so we were all on the same page, and aware of what our roles were. working in a team is easier when we have a strict plan to stick to.

research findings - what i have learned and how this will help me

from my research i have learnt alot about successful thrillers, why they are successful and have broken them down and analysed them to give me an understanding of the editing, sound, mis en scene, and what effects these have on the narrative. it was useful researching into camera angles, sound etc. to give me a background knowledge when i was analysing them, it was also good to start to think about not only how they can be used, but what meaning and connotations they can give to a scene. this will help me know what to do and what not to do and will give me a background knowledge to shape our thriller opening. it will also be useful having more depth in my knowledge of filming, such as camera and mis en scene, to make our opening deeper, so that is it not simply aesthetically or narratively effective but has a deeper meaning and understanding, which is what makes film excellent, when all the elements are working together, so the sound and camera and mis en scene, together with the editing are working to make a piece that is conveying the same meaning, such as a soft focus combined with an off centre character placement, and low level lighting, to show the character is insignificant or unimportant in the scene.
the initial research was useful so our thriller opening will look more in the style of a thriller, as i understand the codes and conventions more than previously. it was also useful to look into the origins of genre, and how it has changed and developed over the years, so i can have an understanding of the freedom of genre these days, and the disintegration of the boundaries that used to exist. From watching the thriller openings i learned what the professionals have done and how they do it, what a good opening looks like, but also the mistakes that even professionals make. analysing and breaking them down helped me understand how they use elements of film working together to make them succesful, and meaning is not conveyed simply through the narrative. The most useful thing to help with planning our opening was watching the previous student openings as we could mark them against a mark scheme, and then we knew what we were aiming for, and the mistakes that previous students have made, such as shaky filming and cliched story lines, we will then steer clear of hand held filming and psychological thrillers that can end up stereotypical, it was nice to see what we were aiming for.we are now going to go on to planning and mind mapping our idea for the opening , thinking about what we learnt from research. we haven't made any decisions yet about it, and most of our research has been quite individual, so we are now going to come together to talk about what we've foudn out and make some agreements.