Evaluation of my preliminary task

Evaluation of my preliminary task.

 

My task was to film and edit a sequence to show a person entering a room and starting a conversation. This film was to be a maximum of two minutes long and the task should demonstrate well portrayed editing and cinematography. We should have demonstrated such techniques as the 180° rule, match on action, shot reverse shot and continuity.

 

We used many shots e.g. long shots, mid shots and extreme close ups. We used ECUs (extreme close ups) to create tension. This creates tension for the audience because the audience feel dangerously close to the action, our first ECU was of Emma tapping her fingers on her desk (as shown above) the camera was focused on her fingers instead of her face. This makes her seem dangerous as she has no identity, the audience do not know what she looks like. Also the sound of her tapping her fingers on the table mimics a heartbeat which is a sound commonly used to create tension in thriller films. Both of these techniques make the scene have high tension. This shot is well framed as the point of focus is on Emma’s fingers tapping. This is because we made sure her fingers were in the centre as this makes the viewer focus on them. We could have improved this shot by zooming into the fingers even further so they took up the whole shot. This would have made sure the viewers attention would not be moved from her tapping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The continuity of the above shots is almost most perfect. These shots are effective because they make the viewer get closer to the action instead of being at a distance. Being close to the action makes the viewer feel like part of the action and feel involved. This also makes the viewer feel empathy of the person in the shot. These shots also stick to the 180° rule. This is important because if the 180° rule is broken it can confuse the viewer. Unfortunately the 180° rule is broken in our film, it is only broken once but it could confuse the audience. The breaking of the 180° rule is shown below, as you can see the camera is filming from the left when my feet are being filmed. However when I am being filmed from behind the camera is slightly more to the right. This breaks the 180°rule and so this is an area we could have improved on.

One of the strengths of the editing we used was the use of shot reverse shot. Throughout the interview the camera continually switch between the two characters. This showed reactions of the characters after the other had spoken. Shot reverse shot helped to show how the interview was going through expressions on the characters faces.

 

The lighting of my preliminary was very successful. We filmed during the day so natural lighting was used throughout the film. We thought natural lighting was good because it doesn’t make the shot to light or dark and the lighting that day was fine as it was.

 

 

 

 

Making a preliminary film has help me learn many things in terms of technical skills and organisation that will help me both shoot and edit an effective thriller. First of all I have learnt that to create a good film you need to take more than one shot of each scene because if one shot is slightly missed then it is very hard to keep continuity unless you have a cut away that can be used. To prevent this from being a problem in my final piece I will take at least three shots of the same scene. Also I have learnt that if the dialogue is not fully established before filming the scene can be ruined and it can make the whole film out of sync. I will plan any dialogue I may use in my final thriller film so this is not a problem in my final piece. In this preliminary task the 180° rule was broken. I now know how easy it is to break this rule and so I will be especially careful with this during the filming of my final piece.