Hannah's Preliminary Task Evaluation

THE CONFESSION

PRELIMINARY TASK:

- We were given 30 minutes to come up with an initial idea and concept for our Preliminary film. 

- The brief we were given included; a character opening a door, walking across a room, sitting down in a chair opposite another character, and exchanges two sentences of conversation.
- We decided that our initial concept would be a police interview, as we felt it could meet the brief we were given, effectively.
- We also came up with our genre being a thriller and therefore chose a location based upon our initial concept and genre.
- Our location was located in our school hall, by the wings of the stage as we felt the darkness would help set an eerie atmosphere for our film.

AIM:
 - The aim of this production task was to practice three shots involved in continuity editing.

MATCH ON ACTION:

This is used to cut between two shots that show no time has passed between them. "Match on Action" is when you cut during an action to another camera angle but showing the action from the same point in time that you left it from the previous shot,

SHOT REVERSE SHOT:

Occurs when two characters are in conversation. It is done by filming one character looking off screen to where the other character is imagined to be, and vice versa. This can be seen in our film during the conversation between mine and Ciara's characters.

180 DEGREE RULE:

This references an imaginary l.ine which cuts through the middle of the scene from side to side with respect to the camera. Crossing the line changes the viewer's perspective in such a way that it may causes disorientation and confusion, For this reason, crossing the line is usually something be avoided.


Feedback:

WWW:
- We found that the intense music, helped us to achieve a tense, suspenseful atmoshpere and dark setting.

- The dark setting and music helped the audience to expect a psychological thriller.

- We also found that we used the shot reverse shot most fluent and effectively, as it helped us to achieve the goal of naturalism of continuity editing during the conversation between mine and Ciara's characters.


EBI:

- We understood that lighting was an issue. We chose the setting because we felt that it would help with the atmosphere we wanted to create and essentially we achieved this, although, we struggled to film well lit scenes. We ended up having to improvise and use the torch's on mine and Lauren's phones in order to get some more light.

- We would also film the door opening again. This is because in our piece we did not show my character shutting the door behind them, so this is something we will think about in our next piece of practical work in order to make it look more realistic.

Lauren's Preliminary Task Evaluation:

'The Confession':

Breif of task:

For our preliminary task we were asked to produce a short video with the following requirements:

• A character opens a door.
• Walks across a room.
• Sits down opposite another character.
• Exchanges two sentences of dialogue.
• Use the three principles of Continuity editing. 

·      

 Pre- Production:

As a group we (Hannah,  Ciara and I ) had a twenty-minute period in order to plan and decide what genre our short video would be based around; following this we quickly decided where we would film in order to achieve the atmosphere we wanted to flow throughout our video. We opted for a dark grungey looking location so our video appeared sinister, and fitted the thriller police interview we had envisioned in our heads. 

This location happened to be behind the stage curtains on our main stage in our school hall. we used props of the tables and chairs in which the characters sat opposite from each other - to create an effect as if the suspect was in an interview room. This set the scene but also incorporated one of the key aspects we needed.


Production: 

Throughout the production of the video we wanted to withhold an intense atmosphere and we achieved this through the eerie thriller music that played on and off throughout. Not only this but it was backed up by the dispersal of text through the use of placement of credits being at the beginning and the end ; and  the words coming and leaving the screen quickly in our credits sets the pace and reinforces the genre of our video.

The use of the dark music suited our dark environment, however we encountered issues with our lighting and is why we could not achieve a shot without the image appearing grainy and slightly blurred. Because of  the poor lighting,  flashes of faces are only visible and although this was the aim in order to make the piece seem more suspenseful ; the shots of the face's are not clear and therefore we did not achieve wholly the effect we wanted. 

To achieve any images of the characters I had to use the torches on mine and Hannah's phone, because of this I had to angle the phones to get any relatively clear shots. However we could have achieved a dark atmospheric video if we had more technical equipment to help us.

As a group we were successful in achieving the shot reverse shot; and it was smooth flowing when panning from Ciara's face and turning on to Hannah's. We could have improved our shot of Hannah going through the door and it closing behind her but again due to our lack of light this was not possible. Overall lighting was our biggest hindrance.

 Editing:

During the process of editing we used final cut pro to polish and round off our piece to the best of our ability.


We imported each clip from our desktop onto Final cut pro , and cut down the clips to the vital bits we wanted. Furthermore we pieced them together so that the video flowed, we then searched YouTube to find a soundtrack that fitted our genre and suited the footage we had put together to make our video.
 
We found a soundtrack that was eerie and went well with the dark Sinicism of our video. we YouTube converted and imported it through ITunes into final cut pro , we done this several times as we had to cut and position the music in various places.


finally , we added the credits to the video and we chose the dispersing text in order to set the pace and genre of the film which continues throughout our piece, the use of red text is alarming and honed in further on our genre solidifying it.

Ciara's Preliminary Task Evaluation

The Confession 

The brief 

The Brief of the task was to practice our continuity editing whilst including a character opening a door, walking across a room, sitting down on a chair opposite another character and exchanging two sentences of conversation.

Pre-Production:

The pre-production stage typically consists of story-boards, script writing, location planning, casting etc. However due to out limited time we had to skip the majority of this part and go strait into production where we quickly thought of an idea involving a police interview set in a dark location. Although we wanted to use a drama classroom that had lighting equipment, this was in use so we decided to go behind the school stage in the main hall. 

Production:

During production we found that behind the stage was cramped when we placed a table and two chairs in. As well as this, we found that although the lighting behind the stage created a tense and sinister atmosphere at some points it was too dark so we had to compromise and use our torch phones when Lauren (the camerawoman) was filming Hannah and I (the actresses). This also proved difficult in the editing stage.


Post Production:

For editing we used final cut pro. We found that due to lighting, we were unable to use some of our better clips, ultimately limiting our footage. However the lighting also meant that the clips that were available did allow us to achieve the intense atmosphere we were looking for. 

In addition we added a sinister sounding music and imported it from YouTube to final cut pro. However due to Hannah and my dialogue we had to edit and cut the music around this so the audience could hear our conversation.

As well as this, we added credits to our opening, as a group we decided to have them softly appearing on the scene, contrasting with the tone that the music sets creating a suspicious and sinister atmosphere to our piece.

To finish off we tried to incorporate as many of the continuity editing principles as possible that included 'Match On Action' and 'Shot reverse Shot' however dues to tight space and limited time we were unable to incorporate the 180 degree rule.

Match On Action 

This is cutting from one shot to another view that matches the action and pace of the first shot. We added this in when Hannah opened the door and was then filmed on the other side.

Shot Reverse Shot
This is when the two characters are in conversation, one of the characters is filmed looking off screen to where the other character is, and vice versa. This technique was added when Hannah and I were in conversation.

Evaluation:
Once we had finished our post-production stage we up loaded it to YouTube and received feedback from out class.

W W W:

• tense music creates a dark atmosphere and works well with the dimmed lighting.
• intercepted credits creates suspense.
• close up shots of the actresses creates an intense atmosphere.

E B I:

• Dialogue was uneven and could be clearer if we used proper microphones;
• could show Hannah on the other side of the door.
• If we had clearer but still dimmed lighting.

Ciara's One Minute Film

Scream School

Pre Production:

We were given four lessons to plan, produce and edit our one minute clip so we very quickly decided that the genre of our film would be a horror based around a murder mystery.

We then created a story board with the key scenes in the clip and allocated who would play each part and who would film; a script was not necessary as we didn't want much dialogue so that the scream would stand out. 

Hannah and I then went to find a location and we ended up using the music block as it was quiet and easily accessible. It also gave us control over empty rooms so we could play around with the lighting.




Production:

We were only given a short time so had to adapt to the camera quickly. Etienne was the camera man. 

As a group we decided it would be best to not use the tripod and have the camera being held by hand following us through the action. This allowed the audience to be placed in the action and feel more involved.




Post Production:

All four of us had a go at editing the footage using final cut pro. It was our first time using the software however we still managed to finish editing it.

We trimmed the footage, cut out sound, added music, transitions and a black and white effect to fit the genre of the film.

We finished the post production prosess by uploading the footage onto YouTube through Hannah's channel.





My Reflection:

W W W: The hand held camera work went well with the genre of the film and helped the audience fee involved. Also we were all able to use final cut pro and use various techniques such as transitions.

E B I: There was a slow pace start to our one minute film clip which would perhaps work better at the beginning of a film rather than in the middle of a film.