Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in front of another character and telling/hearing a 'knock-knock joke'. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.
Continuity is the predominant style of film editing and
video editing in the post-production process of filmmaking of narrative films
and television programs. The purpose of continuity
editing
is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing process and to
establish a logical coherence between shots.
Cutting on action or matching
on
action
refers to film editing and video editing techniques where the editor cuts from
one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action.
Shot reverse shot (or shot/counter
shot) is a
film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often
off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first
character.
180-degree
rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between
a character and another character or object within a scene
Pre-production
Before we started filming we made a story board showing each and every camera angle and line of dialogue we would have in our film. Each of the members of our production group had a say of ideas and contributed to the planning. Our first thoughts were brainstormed onto an A3 piece of paper.
The first thing we spoke about was the different camera angles we needed to use (shot/reverse shot, establishing shot, etc.) Then we spoke about where we should film, who would be the actors/camera man, and what would be the dialogue.
When all of this was decided we drew all 20 clips into a story board and wrote next to them the location, the camera angle, shot number, the cast required for the clip and the dialogue.
When our storyboard was finished we went out to where we would be filming and took pictures so we could see if our locations would work and match up when shooting and editing. We then took the pictures we captured then linked them with our storyboard drawings and uploaded them to our blog.
We felt that at this point our planning was complete and we were ready to move on to the production.
Production
When we started filming we did not do it by shot number as this would waste time waiting for areas to become available. When we were filming we did a few of the scenes in different takes and different camera angles. This made editing a whole lot easier. The reason we did each shot a number of times was just in case there was an error in one that we did not notice. This saves us from having to go out and film the shot again.
Post-production
When editing first we picked all the necessary clips and imported them to iMovie. This program will allow us to piece the clips together to make a short film.
When I had all the clips imported i dragged them into the timeline in such an order they make sense. I then cut out the parts I didn't need such as the director shouting '3,2,1, action'.
When this was done I made some more edits such as using the speed editor to speed up the establishing shot as I found this clip was too slow. I also added some fitting transitions and some ending credits to name the four of us in the production company. The establishing shot had some wind in the background so I removed the audio from that clip and added in some of my own music. I chose to make the music fade out because this sounded better than it just stopping half way through the song.
Evaluation
The end product, in my opinion, is quite good. The film makes sense, the transitions I chose fit, and the clips work together. I had an idea it would be easier at the start but at that point I had no idea we would have to film the same scene with so many different angles. This made things more difficult and complicated but we still managed to overcome the problems and put together a finished product.
There was a couple of improvements we could have fixed. Like in the outside scene you could see all four of us in the reflection of the glass. Also you could see the camera mans shadow. As well in the editing part there was a part when the actors hand jumps to the door handle. I feel I could have fixed this to make it look more professional.
Maybe we could have included a larger range of camera angles as well. We used things like 'shot, reverse shot' and obeyed the '180 degree rule'. But in my opinion we should have used one or maybe 2 more different camera angles. Other things that went well
Post-production
When editing first we picked all the necessary clips and imported them to iMovie. This program will allow us to piece the clips together to make a short film. When I had all the clips imported i dragged them into the timeline in such an order they make sense. I then cut out the parts I didn't need such as the director shouting '3,2,1, action'.
When this was done I made some more edits such as using the speed editor to speed up the establishing shot as I found this clip was too slow. I also added some fitting transitions and some ending credits to name the four of us in the production company. The establishing shot had some wind in the background so I removed the audio from that clip and added in some of my own music. I chose to make the music fade out because this sounded better than it just stopping half way through the song.
Evaluation
The end product, in my opinion, is quite good. The film makes sense, the transitions I chose fit, and the clips work together. I had an idea it would be easier at the start but at that point I had no idea we would have to film the same scene with so many different angles. This made things more difficult and complicated but we still managed to overcome the problems and put together a finished product.
There was a couple of improvements we could have fixed. Like in the outside scene you could see all four of us in the reflection of the glass. Also you could see the camera mans shadow. As well in the editing part there was a part when the actors hand jumps to the door handle. I feel I could have fixed this to make it look more professional.
Maybe we could have included a larger range of camera angles as well. We used things like 'shot, reverse shot' and obeyed the '180 degree rule'. But in my opinion we should have used one or maybe 2 more different camera angles. Other things that went well
