Evaluation of Prelim Material

Before the preliminary task, the only experience I held within filming and editing was from the practice piece that me and my group had done. So I knew very little other than the basics of how to record footage. In terms of editing I had learnt the practice piece how to organize the shots into the order we desired and how to cut the footage that we did not want out.

In terms of planning, we did not actually do any. Therefore we had not done any storyboards or scriptwriting. We very quickly discovered that planning is absolutely key because it makes the whole process a lot quicker and easier. We has to think of everything on a spot, the way we wanted to shot things, the angles we wanted to get, the dialogue between the two characters. It was very difficult to quickly come up with all these ideas. The biggest problem was having no script. It was really hard for Sam and Ollie to think of the dialogue on the spot and to actually remember the lines that they had said. On the first take, they completed the first conversation perfectly fine. However, once it came to the stage of repeating the conversation with exactly the same dialogue it proved a problem. We very quickly realised that we needed a script in order to get the conversation spot on both times. So we wrote down the lines of Ollie and Sam's characters, they both had a script each. They quickly learnt their lines and we began take 2 of the conversation. We overcame this simple but significant problem quickly and definitely learnt that we needed to plan ahead rather than leaving everything till the day we actually shot the scene.

Whilst actually filming the preliminary material, I came to grips with all the different camera shots that can actually be used. During the preliminary material we had to ensure that in the sequence the 180 degree rule was correctly used. I realised the best way to get around this was to film one of the characters whilst they were partaking in dialogue with another character. Then replicate the conversation, however, have the other character in the shot. In order to successfully follow the rule of sticking to one side of the imaginary 180 degree line.

Next came the editing, which was much trickier than the filming. We had to include a couple of editing techniques, such as:
Shot/Reverse shot editing - which is cutting between shots of the two different characters in dialogue.
Action Match editing - this is when an action takes place throughout two different shots. It is important to cut the shots smoothly to hide the cut from the audience.
We successfully included both. We included the shot/reverse shot in a conversation between Sam and Ollie's characters. Also the action match editing was included throughout. It was featured frequently in a scene of Ollie walking through a door into a room. It was quite time consuming at first, as we had to get the hang of cutting the shots in exactly the right place to make the sequence flow smoothly.

We didn't play around with sound at all in the preliminary. We felt it wasn't particularly necessary in the context of the material. The most we did to it was cutting the dialogue between Sam and Ollie up into the separate lines of the individual characters and moved them to fit with the correct shots. We had to make sure what was on screen was in sync with the diegetic sound, so that it would look smooth and realistic. We didn't include any non-diegetic sound because we wanted the main focus of the audience to be the actions of Ollie's character and the dialogue that him and Sam's character shared.

The finishing look of the preliminary material is up to a polished standard. The main strength to it was the way in which all of the shots were edited smoothly into each other. We also successfully included all the elements that were required. However, it is clear that good actors must be used in films. Whilst Ollie was very serious during the film and he sounds relatively annoyed, his facial expressions didn't match his tone of voice. He just had a straight face and there was no display of anger or annoyance.

When we get round to our actual production, we will guarantee that we do as much planning as possible. It will make it a lot easier and quicker in the long run, rather than just jumping or rushing straight into filming and editing. We will go into it having a rough idea of how we want the sequence to look and what we want to take place in the opening sequence. We will also make sure we carefully select actors that are convincing, so that it doesn't look cheesy and to make sure it is believable and griping for the audience. In terms of what we will do the same, we will remember how to edit all the shots appropriately and included a various selection of shots to showcase our skills.