Preliminary Task - "Did You Bring It?"

For our preliminary task we created a scene from a script we were given. The aim of this task was to become used to the equipment and concepts of a film. During this we also learnt how to use the editing software. Our scene displays concepts such as "shot-reverse-shot" and transitions between each frame.

Media Evaluation


For our preliminary task we were asked to film a bar scene using different camera angles and shots. I feel that we demonstrated continuity well to a certain extent as the whole scene seems to run smoothly. There were times where we had to be careful to cut out parts, as background characters would suddenly appear and disappear at times where we had taken different shots and they had moved. But I feel we handled this well and erased this problem all together. However there is a stage right at the beginning of the scene where you can hear the door slam twice when the camera is on one of the actors. This is where we took different pieces of film and did not realise, but we felt it would be difficult to cut this without the scene looking jumpy and as the scene was in the bar we thought that more than one person may have been walking through the door. The door slams were also covered a lot by our backing track as at this moment in the scene it is quite loud.
I feel that that we demonstrated match-on-action well, as I did not feel that the scene seemed like there were seconds missing and it all seemed to run smoothly. We had to be particularly careful of this when one of the characters hands over an object in a bag and the shot goes from a long shot to a close up where the other character received it. We had to carefully cut the tape when the bag is the same distance away from the character in both shots. I feel we did this well and a difference is not noticed, but it could have perhaps been slightly more accurate. I also feel we demonstrated the 180 degree rule well as the cameras were all set to the same side of the actors and this did not change throughout the scene. This is so the audience do not feel confused by the conversation and the positioning of the characters and they were always filmed from the same side.
Our group as a whole worked well together, we completed our task on time and we all had ideas to add so the outcome was a result of all our ideas. However I do feel that some members did more in some aspects as they took to the program a lot more easily than others, but this was evened out in other aspects like the filming and I think that most people in the end played a quite equal role in the whole process.
I feel there are a couple of moments where the actor involuntarily paused in the shot that given the chance we could have cut out as well as the extra door banging at the start of the scene. I also would have made the mise-en-scene a lot more believable and given the time I would like to have made the filming area a lot more bar-like. Due to the lack of mise-en-scene the piece seemed slightly confusing to the audience as they were not able to recognise where the characters were and what was actually happening.
I feel the video was planned and thought through well. We generally knew which clips we wanted to use for each shot in the scene as we remembered which pieces were filmed smoothly and well which meant we were able to plan out which film we would use for each shot. However at times we did not use our best material I feel and if we had planned a little more then we could have perfected the piece more.
We felt it was important to use transitions with our piece to keep it interesting and running smoothly. When the characters spoke we chose to make them fade into one another which I feel looked good, but the program seemed to make the shade of the scene temporarily change which I feel could have been improved with more knowledge of the program or a change of transitions. We also added transitions before and after the subtitles, making the scene fade to black and then fade to white, this is because we felt that this would portray the darkness of it. We also had the whole scene in black and white because the colourful background of the area didn’t seem to give of the slightly threatening feel we aimed for, also by doing the scene did not seem to so obviously not be filmed in a bar.
The editing software was mostly self-taught by my group members and i; we learned to work out the basics by ourselves with trial and error as we started from scratch with no prior knowledge of how to work it. We also learned to accurately guess when to cut and past the pieces of film as at times the program didn’t work properly and this made it hard to see the piece running smoothly. This piece also taught me to use the cameras properly and the different ways I can use them to film.