Preliminary Task One

Below is the result of our first preliminary task:

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.  

Although we didn't adhere entirely to the task, such as not having the character sit opposite another, we did include everything else that was required. We also had the character meet two others and come face-to-face with them, they just weren't sitting down at the time.

There are a few flaws and problems with it, but this was our first time working as a group and working with the equipment and editing software. Overall, we were very pleased with our effort, except there are a few problems that we definitely would change if we went back and filmed it again.

During the first sequence, where a man is seen walking down a corridor, there is a bit of a stall and judder in the panning as he walks around the corner. This wasn't intentional, the camera just got knocked unfortunately and we didn't realise how badly until we were editing the final clip together. The stall was because Holly realised she hadn't moved the camera far enough a little too late. We would also change the length of the corridor scene and either add intention jump-cuts or an elipse, and show him walking the start of the corridor, then rounding the corner to the stairs. Again, we didn't realise how long it was until it was a little too late.

There was a small problem with the credits at the top of the stairs, but that was something we couldn't get rid of. Fortunately, it gave us the name for our film and production company; 'CAM RAW'. Every cloud has a silver lining, as they say.

During the fight scene, we changed from full colour to black and white. We felt this added an effect of drama and increased the tension slightly, although upon peer review and feedback we discovered that this wasn't necessarily the case.

One problem we didn't notice until someone pointed it out during peer review was the continuity error with the wig during the final scene. We didn't notice it moved from the desk to my lap until one of our peers pointed it out to us after we'd edited it all together.

We were very proud of some of the camera angles we achieved during the fight scene, particularly as they break through the doorway. We also liked how we managed to get the head-but and music crescendo perfectly in sync. As well as this, the graphic match with the doorway worked wonderfully. The part we are most proud of, however, is the graphic match in the mirror at the end. We have decided to include a similar shot in our final film, since we feel it worked so well.

Overall, we are very proud of this film, especially since it was our first time making something like this, but as I have highlighted there are many floors and errors that we will ensure don't occur during our final film.