Preliminary Task: Editing and Evaluation

For the preliminary task we were given the set brief to produce a short clip that shows a character walking and opening a door, sitting across from another character and exchanging a few lines of dialogue. In this we had to include an establishing shot (extreme long shot), shot/reverse shot, the 180-degree rule and demonstrate match on action. We also had to include some form of camera movement and angle like panning and high angle.

First thing we did as a group during pre-production was to create a mind map of different scenarios we could use for the task, this helped us to narrow down our ideas. We discussed which ones would be more achievable than others and which ones would be the easiest to get the location for. After, we created a story board consisting of 12 panels. Each panel represented each individual shot and had information on for: what number shot it was, whether it was an exterior or interior shot, the location, the type of camera shot, the type of camera movement, the type of camera angle and the cast required. They also made a small sketch of the shot and any extra information like dialogue. This gave us a clear direction in how we would film each shot. Our group then went out to do location planning which is where we take picture of each of the locations and wrote if it was easy to access and if there were any problems which there were not. This led onto casting in which we wrote about our character, what age, gender and hobbies they had and wrote about the person who is playing that character. We chose people who follow orders well and can adapt to their character. Shot list planning came after which is where we organised our shots in order of which we were going to shoot them and paired them with a description and an allotted amount of time we would spend on them. We also wrote what shot they were. This gave us a clear plan and was a much clearer layout. Finally, was the schedule which is where we decided what date and time to start filming, the number of scenes in a location and who was in it which had all the in information in one concise format.

Filming had then started which is the production part of the project which we had some difficulty in arranging. For the Monday we planned to film we only got up to shot 8 before our cast members had to go home. Our next problem was that one of the group members was ill so we tried to film without them but the girl we had casted as Mia had another preliminary task she was working on and had to cancel. Also I was part of another group project so I had to miss a day of filming. During filming our group took turns in taking shots and directing the actors, I did the hallway shot and some of the last shots where Mia walked out of the room. I also helped with directing by showing Marek's (Timmy) how he should walk and how to say the dialogue.

We the got to the editing in which we had realised that we accidentally deleted our establishing shot of our school off of the camera so we had a missing shot. The footage that we got we uploaded to the mac and edited it in premier pro. We learnt how to cut our footage so it had match on action and learnt how to get our footage onto the programme. After we had finished editing our footage together we learned how to render it, which collected it together as one clip. After rendering was complete we exported it to our desktop in which the we had completed post-production.

The preliminary task didn’t go as well as I expected as there were quite a few drawbacks. The first one was planning times to film as people were ill as had their own projects to do. The second was the accidental deletion of footage so we didn’t meet the 12 shot criteria although this taught us how to use the camera better. I think the execution of camera movements was one of our groups strong point as we had no problem with them and it made it easier to edit it later on in post-production. One of the weaknesses was when we got to the later shots where Mia walks out of the room as the lighting in the background blacked out her face so you couldn’t see it and Timmy was stood up in one shot which was very hard to edit around so I feel as though it impacted the overall result. I could improve when it comes to filming as if we had considered lighting and every detail it would have made it easier to edit later on. Another area of improvement is using the camera because if we knew how to use it better we wouldn’t have deleted important footage that was needed for editing.