'Preliminary Exercise Brief...
In groups of no more than 4 complete a 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 shot.What is Continuity...
Continuity is "A detailed script or scenario consulted to avoid discrepancies from shot to shot in a film, allowing the various scenes to be shot out of order" (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/continuity).
Continuity Production Techniques...
180 degree rule: The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.
180 degree rule: The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.
Reference : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_degree_rule
Shot/Reverse shot: Shot reverse shot is a film technique wherein one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.
Reference : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_reverse_shot
Camera Movement: Camera movement is one of the most expressive tools available to a filmmaker. It alters the relationship between the subject and the camera frame, shaping the viewer's perspective of space and time and controlling the delivery of narrative information. As the camera frame orients the viewer within the mise-en-scene, movement of the frame provides the illusion of the viewer journeying through the world of the narrative. The camera height and angle, the distance to a subject, and the composition of a shot may change during camera movement.
Reference : http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Academy-Awards-Crime-Films/Camera-Movement.html
Match on Action: A continuity cut which unites two different views of the same action together at the same moment in the movement, making it seems to continue uninterrupted; for example, when a character claps his hands and the film cuts to a close up of his hands as they come together.
Reference : http://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/program/122EC/Film-Terms-Glossary_Carman.docShot/Reverse shot: Shot reverse shot is a film technique wherein one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.
Reference : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_reverse_shot
Camera Movement: Camera movement is one of the most expressive tools available to a filmmaker. It alters the relationship between the subject and the camera frame, shaping the viewer's perspective of space and time and controlling the delivery of narrative information. As the camera frame orients the viewer within the mise-en-scene, movement of the frame provides the illusion of the viewer journeying through the world of the narrative. The camera height and angle, the distance to a subject, and the composition of a shot may change during camera movement.
Reference : http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Academy-Awards-Crime-Films/Camera-Movement.html
Match on Action: A continuity cut which unites two different views of the same action together at the same moment in the movement, making it seems to continue uninterrupted; for example, when a character claps his hands and the film cuts to a close up of his hands as they come together.
Shot Sizes: The Rule Of 3rd's: The Rule of Thirds is a important thumb in photography. The rule states that the image can be divided into 9 parts by two equally spaced lines horizontally and vertical. The four points formed by the intersections of the lines can be used to align features in the frame.
Framing: Frame definition file is a file made up of statements recognized by the command interpreter. Three types of frames can be defined in FMLI: menu frames, form frames, and text frames.FMLI recognizes the type of frame you are defining based on the contents of the frame definition file and certain file naming conventions. The following sections briefly describe these three types of frames. Detailed explanations of how to write frame definition files can be found in Frame definition files.
Plot of Prelim Script...
The plot of our script was a young man in a job interview. The script involved questions being asked by the interviewer eventually leading to the man getting mad and walking out of the room.
Location Recce...
Risk Assessment... 
Shot List...
Costume: In this scene, both characters will be dressed smart to compare with the plot. Sohail, the boss of the job agency wears a grey suit, black shirt and tie to refer to his title. Ryan also enters wearing a suit in order to help himself with securing the job he has come for. Sohail’s clothes represents his character in this scene as he sits by his desk awaiting his next customer professionally, however, Ryan’s clothes does not represent him fully as the audience finds out in the play when he loses his temper showing no profession.
Hair and Make-up: Ryan and Sohail will both have their hairs done smartly, possibly brushed to the side to portray the profession: Sohail being the boss; Ryan trying to secure his job. No make up will be applied to the characters as they are both boys.
Lighting: High key lighting will be used in this scene as it is neither horror nor happy, therefore natural light from the window and door located behind Sohail will also be used. There will be no special effect lights as there is no need to make it to dramatic.
Props: As this is a business scene, The basics will be needed such as: computer/laptop; documents/papers. Also files and cabinets will be needed to make it more office-type. There may be a picture on the wall however nothing to fancy in order to relate to the business mood.
Character Movement: In this scene, there is little movement. Ryan enters the building, loses his temper and then exits, showing that there is hardly any movement; however for a scene as short as this it could be classed as quite a lot of movement. Although there is mainly a lot of talking rather than movement, giving a clear image of what the scene is about.
Representing Time Period: Modern suits will be worn to represent the 21st Century. Lighting will also be in colour and of suitable colours to show modern technology.
Evaluation...
After filming our clip the first time we soon decided soon after watching it through that it was the best to re-do the whole preliminary task again. As a group we all come to the same conclusion that we was not happy to hand this piece of filming in as coursework. The reason why ended up re-filming was because of many mistakes. One problem that arose from this was the actors laughing, we noticed this when editing and all agreed it made it look unprofessional. the other problem we encountered was others in the clip. As another group was in the room a few got in some of the clips and ruined the scenes we had. After this we soon re-filmed. We found the second time was much more productive and all the mistakes we made in the first we soon made better in the second. When we edited all the clips we were very happy after re-doing it
After filming our clip the first time we soon decided soon after watching it through that it was the best to re-do the whole preliminary task again. As a group we all come to the same conclusion that we was not happy to hand this piece of filming in as coursework. The reason why ended up re-filming was because of many mistakes. One problem that arose from this was the actors laughing, we noticed this when editing and all agreed it made it look unprofessional. the other problem we encountered was others in the clip. As another group was in the room a few got in some of the clips and ruined the scenes we had. After this we soon re-filmed. We found the second time was much more productive and all the mistakes we made in the first we soon made better in the second. When we edited all the clips we were very happy after re-doing it
Now i have researched all the above shots i can now pay more attention when i am filming to each shot. When i next annotate the script it can be more detailed and pay more attention. This is because i know more after looking each definition up. If i did not do this then i could risk ruining the whole filming. I have learnt that the 180 degree shot is an important element. Even though it is very confusing but once learnt can be very easy. I found out during the editing stage that shot reverse shot has to be done to get the top band grades. It consists of one shot then the reverse shot of that, during the editing stage we had to take screen shots to show this continuity technique. Match on action is another continuity technique that we had to add to our filming. It involved matching the movement across two shots. Unfortunately we did not use this technique as we did not add it in. This is a continuity skill we will have to think about next time and if we did re-do our filming again would have to add it in.
As i was filming our project i learnt how to work the camera. What i learnt was how to zoom in and pause while recording etc. I also became very font of shot sizes. With having to walk all round the room to shoot each scene i soon learnt all of my shots from an extreme close up to a long shot. I think what I done well when filming was not stopping the camera before the actors Ryan and Sohail stopped talking. This was good as we could cut the clip down so it was perfect. What i think i could have improved was having more accuracy on positioning of the camera. overall I think I done good considering it was my first time filming and if improve filming positions would be even better.
I believe doing this task has helped me gain many much needed skills when editing the filming in the editing suite. The editing software helped me edit anything from the volume in the room to the length of the shot. After a short while editing the clips i soon got to grips with it all. I enjoyed editing the clips so they were all in context and fitted with each other. I want to develop
As a group we all worked on separate parts of the pre-production. For instance some of us did the storyboards why another person was working on the script. This gave everyone in the group to each have a role in the planning. We completed each task and this helped us when we did our filming. Overall we kept to our original script and used it while filming. What we could have improved was our storyboards which were not done to the best of quality. We did not use them to help us while filming. This is an improvement that could be made when we next film.
Overall publishing our work on the blogger made it quick and easy to store all our work in one safe place. It allowed us to show our work and explain what we did. The only problem i had was getting used to working it. I got to grips with using it after a while but found it hard in the beginning to really get moving. After playing round with blogger for a while i soon knew how to work it and that helped me complete my work quicker.
I believe doing this task has helped me gain many much needed skills when editing the filming in the editing suite. The editing software helped me edit anything from the volume in the room to the length of the shot. After a short while editing the clips i soon got to grips with it all. I enjoyed editing the clips so they were all in context and fitted with each other. I want to develop
As a group we all worked on separate parts of the pre-production. For instance some of us did the storyboards why another person was working on the script. This gave everyone in the group to each have a role in the planning. We completed each task and this helped us when we did our filming. Overall we kept to our original script and used it while filming. What we could have improved was our storyboards which were not done to the best of quality. We did not use them to help us while filming. This is an improvement that could be made when we next film.
Overall publishing our work on the blogger made it quick and easy to store all our work in one safe place. It allowed us to show our work and explain what we did. The only problem i had was getting used to working it. I got to grips with using it after a while but found it hard in the beginning to really get moving. After playing round with blogger for a while i soon knew how to work it and that helped me complete my work quicker.
