Evaluation: 7. Looking back at the prelim

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down on a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchange a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. 

Final task brief: To produce a 2 minute opening sequence for a fiction film

When completing our preliminary task it taught me the importance of a few key areas of the planning process. I learnt about the usefulness of a storyboard because following it exactly helped to create continuity throughout the sequence. When completing the final task however we learnt it was not always possible to stick to a storyboard since there were so many shots that can’t be filmed or extra shots that we decide to add in on the day. For example the final fight scene in our film was storyboarded completely differently to how it turned out on the day because we had to do whatever we could to try and keep the continuity of the fight.

During the preliminary task we had to constantly consider continuity and we took a lot of time ensuring it was perfect. However during the final shoot this came naturally due to everything we had learnt.

The most important thing I’ve learnt during this project is the usefulness of a plan b in case something goes wrong. During our main shoot weather issues stopped us from filming outside again so we decided to use our test shoot footage for particular parts. I have learnt that you can never trust everything to work out if some things are beyond your control.

The importance of continuity has gradually been hammered into my mind since the preliminary task. I now know that the actors have to do exactly the same thing in every shot or continuity will be a mess. Although hard to achieve during an action film with fast passed running and fights I felt that we pulled this off really well.

Throughout this project I have worked with Tom A and Hugh. It was very handy having a group with similar tastes in film and we worked really well together throughout the project. I really enjoyed working with them and the final product reflects how well we worked as a team.