Evaluation: Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full product?

Progression from Preliminary Task to Full Product

The preliminary task introduced me to continuity editing and developed my understanding of match on action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule. The preliminary task involved Melissa walking down the college corridor and opening the classroom door, crossing the room to sit down in the chair opposite from me and then exchanging four lines of dialogue. Match on action was demonstrated with the opening of the door as Melissa's hand had to be in the same position on the handle in the close up as it was in the long shot in order to avoid any continuity errors.

Match on Action helped to stop the change of angle from looking disjointed or out of place.

Shot-reverse-shots added to the pace of the conversation and allowed for character reactions while the 180 degree rule (see below) ensured that our preliminary task was easy to visually follow and there was no confusion from the audience. 

180 Degree Rule helped us film our conversation to avoid any confusion for the viewer. 

Over The Shoulder Shot from Preliminery Task.

All of these skills have been transferred to my finale project as well as new skills that have been acquired throughout my media course. For example, we decided that we wanted to use a focus pull in one of our scenes as a way to show the disorientation and confusion of the main character. At the point of our preliminary exercise, I had little experience with this method but after practising on how to perform the effect on our HC-V270 Panasonic Video camera, we all became much more confident with focus pull.

Example of Focus Pull (Part 1)

Example of Focus Pull (Part 2)

Furthermore, we also began exploring how to apply the effects of video editing software Premiere Pro to our final project, experimenting with dissolves and fades to help show the passage of time ensuring that our audience is still interested in the film and that we aren't boring them. At first, I wasn't confident with using the software but as time went on my ability improved so that I could edit my film successfully.

Practice of Dissolve.

Premiere Pro allowed for any alterations to sound, lighting, continuity and effects, improving the overall quality of our film, all in all giving us the necessary tools needed to convey the correct tone to our audience. It's compatibility with Youtube made it easy to export the film and learn from our potential audience through rough cuts and attached questionnaires giving us valuable information on what could be done to improve the film and our technique in the future. We would alter the use of long shots in our film in the foreseeable future, as it's lack of close ups was noticed and their additon would have increased the versimilitude of the film.

An example of the long shot that could have included more close ups to improve the quality of our film.

Picture of us working on our film.