Prelim evaluation

Prelim evaluation
In the prelim task, Rebecca and I got given a task of shooting a two minute sequence film and in this we were assigned two cast; Yasmin and Edward and also to use film terminology and independent filming for example continuity, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. We started off by story boarding our simple idea of a boyfriend who upsets the girlfriend and eventually break up. Rebecca and decided to organise a time for us to meet up over the weekend to finish our storyboard whilst exchanging each others mobile phone numbers this helped due to when Saturday came we face no problems with meeting because we had great communication skills.


On Monday we were given a shooting schedule which would help us to include continuity which was equally very important to the filming so that when it came to editing the film would flow, also we had a continuity sheet which enabled us to keep our good and bad shots organised. After contemplating about whether the shooting schedule would be helpful we decide to keep each shot in order as we automatically organised our storyboard without noticing. Rebecca and I decided to situate our location recce within the corridor and the stairs, as we explained our story to Yasmin and Edward we also gave them a script which was straight forward, we could have improved this by adding directions and frame positioning this would have saved a lot of time between Rebecca and I and our cast and also given them more time for rehearsal so this would have saved even more time due to where we had to corporate time between two groups as Yasmin and Edward filmed before us which ran into our time which we wasn’t prepared for and felt rushed.As a group overall we worked well together because each individual was dedicated, one of our weaknesses was that we needed more rehersal time, this would have saved alot of time and instead of concertrating on the script and shots we could have made the shooting schedule alot more detailed.

For the shooting of the prelim task we used a XH A1 camera to shoot our prelim task which we were taught how to use in previous lessons this included adjusting the tripod to the right height, then secure the camera onto the tripod and also adjust the spirit level this made the camera accurate and straight.then inserted the battery and tape then eventually switched the camera on.the prelim task has developed my production skills in many ways an example of this would be we had to be aware of our cast positioning and still include continuity additionally we kept the same props i also relised as an individual that oraganisational skills were just as important and technical skills which i hope to use a equal balance of each in my next film task, the prelim task also included independent filming being able to express our creativity within our work which was practical, for example we used a pan in one shot when yasmin walks through the door and edward follows behind, this was hard due to using a stair case and keeping both charathers within the frame, we over came this problem by using levels and using zoom to capture the close up shots this also helped capture the characters facial expressions which was very important when using shot reverse shot.

i think our short film appeals to people who watch soap operas and as for age would appeal to any viewer that is aware or interested of conflict within relationships. An example of this would be when edward sits down on the stairs with his hands on his head this creates tension for the audience and gives the feeling of failure which draws our scene to a close, this could be compared to eastenders such as it will never end and towards the end something always interesting happens which is called a cliff hanger.the short film would come under the romantic genre as it involves a couple.

Editing
In class we were shown how to use the new editing programme, Firstly we started off by plugging our camera into the computer using a usb cable the inserting the tape we used to film our prelim task. Then we plugged in the lacie drive which is basically a large memory card, the next step was to load the editing programme and go to file then scrool down to capture, this is where we was able to record each scene so that we would no longer need to plug in the camera which makes it easier for future editing also made editing easier due to being able to add headings to each scene which organised our work. After recording the next step was to playback all the scenes and see which ones included continuity and also included the shots we initially involed.

The problems we faced with editing?
rebecca and i found the editing programme straight forward and easy to use althrough we struggled to invole continuity but still include naturalism we overcame this by shortening our scenes this mage the shots not look so practiced and obvious that the cast were being directed. Another problem we faced was that everytime we had edited a scene and drag onto the time line one scene would over write another, We also overcame this by spacing each scene out and pressing the shift button on our keyboard. Due to this being rebecca and my first time editing i think we did a good job and manage to complete our independent film with success with a few minor delays.



as for engaging our audience our intial thoughts was to think what would we like to watch which is short and simple but still interesting so we refered to an everyday life dilemma which would hopefully relate to alot of our viewers.