Continuity Task 2 - S+S Evaluation

1) What was your role in the task and what did you actually do?

I was the director and was in charge of whether the shots were good enough and portrayed what we intended. I made sure that the script was properly said throughout filming and that the acting was believable. During shots, we would discuss what the best way was to portray the relationship between Cathy and Kush to the audience, and also what hand gestures conveyed their emotions.

2a) What factors did you have to take into account when planning?

We thought about our 80 minute time limit and how we couldn't over complicate our story. We tried not to be too over-ambitious and made sure that the shots we wanted to film were capable of being done in the time period given.

2b) What factors did you have to take into account when filming?

We made sure to film the full conversation between the two actors from 3 different angles: a LS, and from both the actor's perspectives. For filming as a point of view of the actor, we had to find a position for the camera that showed the shoulder of one and the entire face of the other opposite. We made sure to make the camera eye-line level and positioned it as close to the head of the actor as possible. For the LS, we made sure it wasn't a high angle but also made sure that when Simon waked in we could see his whole body.

2c) What factors did you have to take into account when editing?

We realised we couldn't add a soundtrack, so we had added the fades between the last few shots instead of making it a typical 'cowboy-stare-down' shot with the western music. I did part of the editing with Simon and helped make sure the shots were continuous and there were no breaks in the action.

3) How successful was your sequence? Did you fulfill the demands of the brief? Did you manage to demonstrate match-on-action, shot-reverse-shot, and 180-degree rule? Did you achieve continuity overall?

We did fulfil the demands of the brief; we included shot-reverse-shot when we filmed the conversation between Cathy and Kush. This also featured the 180-degree rule as we stayed infront of the actors and didn't film behind them; this would have caused confusion with the audience as thy wouldn't know who's on the left hand side and who's on the right. Match-on-action was seen when Simon walked in; the LS shows Simon walking off when he's finished speaking to Cathy and Kush, and then cuts to Cathy's point of view where Simon is still walking off (from the same place).

4) What have you learnt from completing this task? How might this learning impact on future video production work? (WWW/EBI?)
I have learnt that it is very difficult to have match-on-action and that even a slight difference of movement between one shot and the next, can disrupt the viewing experience for the audience. I have learnt that it's easiest to film the whole scene from different angles and then choosing the shots that i really want when editing. This allows me to have a selection of angles and it doesn't limit the choices of the final video. It would've been better if we had finalised the script earlier on, so that the actors could know the basics of the conversation, an we wouldn't have had to shoot as many takes.