Preliminary Task Evaluation

Our short film demonstrates continuity editing with consecutive shots that flow smoothly between one another with cuts to make it easier for the audience to follow- an example of this would be the match-on-action shot, seen when the Mummy walks through the door. Other types of shot that full under continuity editing are the shot reverse shot and 180 degree rule, which we also used in this preliminary task.

Here the shot reverse shot we used is illustrated, which took place when the characters were exchanging dialogue- this is when the shot reverse shot is most commonly used. For this section we chose to use over the shoulder shots as they clearly show character's emotions and make things clear for the viewers. In these particular shots the shocked, disgusted expression on the cowboy's face is obvious, being an important part in the plot which has been made easy to follow.

Our short film follows the 180 degree rule throughout, used to avoid confusing the audience. An example of this being used can be seen here-

Here it is clear that the mummy is on the left side of the frame and that the cowboy is on the right- this is the rule we had to stick to whilst filming our piece. By following the 180 degree rule, the viewers stay orientated and do not get confused by the positioning of the characters. The 180 degree rule means the audience's viewpoint is fixed along an angle, which we abided by throughout the film.

The match-on-action shot we used is demonstrated when the mummy walks through the door to enter the room. This involved taking two shots from different sides- one when the mummy opens the door and is about to enter and the other when they enter on the other side. Filming this shot took quite a bit of thought as we had to think about which hand was being used to open the door, if the mummy was still holding onto the handle when entering and how they entered. The match-on-action shot is used to smoothly show the action of a character through more than one shot which has been matched up, being an example of continuity editing.

I feel our group worked together effectively as we used two cameras- we used this to our advantage by saving time and filming separate things on each camera, making sure what we were filming wouldn't interfere with each other. There were times, however, when some of us didn't have much to do and found it difficult to give in our own opinions on what was happening due to the time limit we had given ourselves.

If we had a chance to film our preliminary task again, something I think we'd change is the setting in which we filmed. The lighting in the room we filmed was awkward, which we came to notice when editing- there were points at which the lighting was too bright and it overexposed particular things in the frame, making them difficult to see.

Planning is something we dealt with well when preparing for filming- we wrote the script and made a detailed storyboard early on so that we had clearly laid out what we were going to do. Despite this, however, we did not plan who we were going to have as the characters as early as we should have, meaning that we had to pick random people who were willing to help. This meant that more time was used as we had to explain to them what we wanted them to do.

The editing software we used was iMovie and despite having used various video editing software before, I learnt more about things such as transitions and sound effects, which we used within our piece.

We used transitions in our piece at the beginning and the end- a dissolve in at the beginning and a fade out at the end. These were used to make the start and finish clear but smooth, also making it obvious to the viewers when the piece has started and finished.

Overall I have learnt more about how to use cameras and equipment such as tripods and dollys, which we used when filming.