Continuity Task 2 Evaluation

What was your role in the task and what did you actually do?: I was a main actor in my piece. I was also a script writer and producer alongside the rest of my group, as we all helped in writing the script, moving and dressing sets and getting props. The role of director was also split across the group with us all deciding collectively on how the shot should look and how the actors should deliver the lines. I also did half of the editing of my video alongside Ayo.

What factors did you have to take into account when planning, filming and editing?: The time it would take to film was a very important part of the planning phase, as we were given a fairly tight schedule in which we had to finish our filming. We wanted to make sure that each shot flowed into one another as this was primarily a continuity task and so that was at the heart of our planning, filming and editing. We also made sure to plan the task in such a way that the editing process would be fairly straightforward, so that no special effects or other advanced editing techniques would need to be done as this was not in our brief.

How successful was your sequence? Did you manage to demonstrate match-on action, shot-reverse shot and 180-degree rule? did you achieve continuity overall?: I would say we were successful in creating our sequence. We had many shot-reverse shots throughout the dialogue, the 180 rule was not broken at any point and we had a number of well timed match on action transitions. I would say we generally achieved continuity however there were a couple inconsistencies across shots. For example there was a dramatic shift in lighting across a few shots which happened despite us not adjusting the lighting. This was perhaps due to the lighting system itself or perhaps simply the angle at which we were filming. There was also an inconsistency in which my arms moved far too much across 2 shots. This was because we didn't plan and remember the exact positions of the actors when filming multiple shots of the same scene, resulting in this issue.

What have you learnt from completing this task? How might this impact future video work?: We have learnt the importance of making sure actors keep completely still across 2 shots, this will allow us to keep continuity across shots in future projects. I have also learnt that footage should be watched back and compared during the filming phase, this would have helped us pick up on lighting differences. The importance of a shot list has also been made clear to me through this project as previously shot lists have been mandatory and I never really appreciated how useful they really are. Had we made one our filming time would have been much more organised. We will also remember to use the clapperboard in all shots as in this task we only remembered to use it halfway through the filming process.

Analysis of film trailer

In this trailer the use of drums, traditional instruments and Hawaiian language in the music helps make clear that this film is very much a Hawaiian tradition based film. We only see 2 people all trailer, making it clear that they are our protagonists throughout the film, these are also the only named characters in the trailer. The ocean is also shown to play a key role in the story with most shots either having the sea visible or some kind of ocean motif ie a boat or paddle. This as well as the various action shots of characters sailing across the vast ocean as well as the ocean being shown to act like an actual character in the way it interacts with Moana makes it clear to us that the sea is one of the most important parts of the film. The trailer generally focuses on showing the landscapes and jokes of the film throughout the trailer making it clear to viewers that these are the main genres of the film.

Continuity task evaluation

1. Explain the story of your video: Our video was about a boy who attempts to do parkour but ends up failing a jump and falls over onto his back
2. How did you attempt to create 'narrative flow': By using the same character in the same scenery, whilst attempting to match positions of actors across shots so that a character didn't move too much or repeat their actions across shots
3. Did you achieve full continuity? If not why not: We didn't achieve full continuity as we incorrectly started and stopped filming across certain shots, in shot 3 we stopped filming too late and so the action was repeated in shot 4. In contrast we stopped shot 6 too early and so the actor moved too dramatically across the 2 shots
4. In hindsight, what would you do differently to improve the narrative flow of your video and tell your story more effectively?: We would have firstly had our opening shot include a little movement going into our next shot, with the second shot then starting during the action. We then would have made sure that shot 3 ended sooner so as to correctly flow into shot 4. We would have ended shot 4 slightly earlier as the actor runs past the same point in both shot 4 & 5. We would have lastly kept filming for longer in shot 5 to correctly match it with last shot.

Reflections on Practical: TV Drama Still

We were tasked with creating a variety of stills to reflect a certain TV drama subgenre. We thought about subgenres we would be able to simply recreate in our school grounds with the props we had; therefore discounting sub genres such as sci-fi. We then got to work on storyboarding our various shots; deciding on shot types, actors, locations and props.

My shot was a mid long shot of a criminal character half in and half out of a window, looking out whilst holding a pistol. I feel like i connoted the crime subgenre through use of the weapon, the urban setting and the casual, modern clothes worn by the character in shot.

I wanted to allow the audience to try and have to decode the still, by having her only half in the window I wanted to present the idea that she may be breaking into somewhere or running away from something. We also don't get a straight on angle which means we cannot see into the room, creating enigma, we wonder what is in the room and what kind of place she's going into with a gun. This would interest the audience and make us curious as to the character and the motives for the person in the shot, as well as also building on cultural assumption that someone with a gun in without a police uniform is typically a criminal.

Big Issue Coster Evaluation

I feel this poster went quite well, the use of the text and the cutout look both help create a more interesting fun design on the cover. I made sure to use the official logo and strap line in this poster to make sure the cover looked more real as well as the "inside" section containing relevant news headlines from the time.

I would have liked to maybe find another font for the main headline as although I like the light-hearted feel of the text I think I may have been able to find a more quality font if I had more time. The inside box also looks a little hard on the eyes, I maybe could have found a better way of adding the box whereby it blends in better with the rest of the cover.