Preliminary Task - Evaluation

What did you learn about the cameras and editing software during the preliminary task?

Some of the skills we have learned come from the very basics of filming and editing. We learned basic operational skills with the camera, we learned about composition of shots and framing. We understood to achieve continuity, we must follow the 180 degree rule and we learned to put this into practice. We also learned how to operate the tripod and how to use this to create a varied amount of shots.
Through our preliminary task, we learned how to edit using Final Cut Pro 7. We learned basic skills such as importing clips, starting a new project and selecting specific footage for our time line. We learned how to trim footage using the 'mark in' 'mark out' technique and using the blade tool. We also learned to manipulate the image and sound using the effects available.

In the filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved?

We had a variety of shots which made the sequence look interesting. However, with the many shots at points, the piece may have looked over edited especially at the beginning of the sequence when the character walks through the door. Although we had a lot of editing, we feel we achieved good continuity. At one point we did not obey the 180 degree rule at the beginning when the character walks into room. We film other one shoulder of the teacher then when the character sits down we then obey the 180 degree other the shoulder. Although it is not majorly noticable, it does break the 180 degree rule we feel however that it does not affect continuity.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you have used a shot reverse shot combination in your film.

We had a conversation between a student and a teacher. The student walks into the room and sits down then the two have a conversation. We had a shot reverse shot combination when the two were talking. We obeyed the 180 degree rule during the shot reverse shot. This helped to the continuity of the piece. We shot these over the shoulder of the character being spoke to, so you can then see the student/teacher speaking. We kept to filming over opposite shoulders of the two to keeep to the 180 degree rule.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you acheived match cuts during the editing process.

One example of when we used match cuts in our preliminary task was when the student opens the
door and walks into the classroom. We have a shot of the character walking upto the room, this is followed by a close up of a hand reaching out for the door. We then have a medium shot from inside the room. When editing we looked for the point between the shots so they matched up. We used the "mark in mark out" technique to take snipets of footage from each take. We then used the blade technique to trim footage then we placed the footage together. All of this was done on Final Cut Pro 7. The match cuts helped with continuity of the piece.

How did you achieve continuity in this task? Or if the transitions weren't entirely smooth, what have you learnt from this?

To achieve continuity in our preliminary task we used standard conventions when filming such as obeying the 180 degree rule and using match cuts. By using these conventions it made the piece feel more realistic so the piece had some continuity. We used match cuts for the character walking through the door and speaking to the teacher, where we had a shot sequence where we had a medium shot of the character walking towards the door followed by a close up on the characters hand as he begins to open the door, we lastly have a shot from inside the room of the character coming through the door. All of these shots run together so this shows the continuity we had in our preliminary task.