My preliminary exercise was to produce a short opening of a character opening a door who sits on a chair opposite to another character who then have a conversation. Furthermore, enable to do this brief we had to involve three main shots/edits for our opening to be successful, which were match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. I worked with Gagan and Navneet who both were committed to the brief, as well as working in a group sharing amazing ideas. We planned ideas which were interesting and brought 'Murder' as our exercise which I think was excellent, hence we followed the brief and was suitable for our first piece of media coursework.
Gagan, Navneet and I, did lots of planning such as our roles, what the narrative could be about?, characters involved, setting and many more. As a group we managed to share out the work efficiently it also gave us gain new skills from one another.The narrative to 'Murder' is about a teenage girl who is played by Gagan, and her best friend who is played by me (Anita). The setting of the short opening is in a school canteen were Gagan walks down the stairs and enters the canteen to talk to me (this is when we used the match on action shot and the continuous editing). She walks over to me in shock and is very scared this scene would create enigma code to cause tension and make the audience focus on Gagan's facial and body expression using long and medium shots. Gagan and I then share conversation (180 degree rule) but do not reveal what is happening leaving the audience with a cliff-hanger.
The title is established at the ending with a fade out transition for effect also started the opening with a fade in transition. Furthermore we recorded many shots and scenes possible so we have a variety of ideas to choose from when we could edit which was useful although camera shots/movement wasn't mentioned in the brief we decided these techniques were important for effect and for the audiences entertainment. Navneet played the role of the camera, capturing our scenes which we did about three times for each scene. Navneet did a great job as it was her first time and learnt new skills from me and Gagan. Before filming our exercise Navneet created a storyboard about the narrative which was very useful as it gave us a clear understanding of our idea. Moreover I completed a shots list of all the possible shots involved in our opening, this was also useful as it helped us make sure we included all the important shots such as close ups and more.
The weaknesses about our short opening was mainly the audio which became a huge problem to some of the other groups, this was because the setting of our scene which was the canteen was very noisy as care takers were cleaning up which made the Dialogue very hard to hear throughout the whole opening. Also one of our shots of the door closing behind Gagan after she walks into the canteen, was quite long, this was spotted when the class shared their opinions about our work, therefore to make it better we could cut some of the scene to make it shorter and look better. Moreover about the audio we could next time work at a quieter setting or timing to make our coursework better.
The strengths of our short opening was mine ans Gagan's acting which I think we did impressively as we don't do drama, this would make the audience connect with our emotions. We created enigma code and attracted the audience attention as we don't tell them what has happened, the use of camera shot made was very effective as the audience are amused and would have many questions. We used close ups, medium shots and couple of long long shots and finally a tracking shot, we also managed to use the match on action and continuous edit which was presented very clearly and suited the narrative. Watching our exercise and comparing to other groups, I think we have all done well for our first brief and enables us to learn from our mistakes, also learn new ideas and skills.
Overall I think my group have worked exceptionally hard as we have followed the brief and communicated very hard to get it completed within one week. This exercise has given me an idea of how hard and time efficiency would be, hence you would need a good group to share out the planning and ideas. Furthermore doing this exercise makes me more confident as an individual, also as a group we can learn from the mistakes and learn better skills for our next Mest 2 coursework.
The strengths of our short opening was mine ans Gagan's acting which I think we did impressively as we don't do drama, this would make the audience connect with our emotions. We created enigma code and attracted the audience attention as we don't tell them what has happened, the use of camera shot made was very effective as the audience are amused and would have many questions. We used close ups, medium shots and couple of long long shots and finally a tracking shot, we also managed to use the match on action and continuous edit which was presented very clearly and suited the narrative. Watching our exercise and comparing to other groups, I think we have all done well for our first brief and enables us to learn from our mistakes, also learn new ideas and skills.
Overall I think my group have worked exceptionally hard as we have followed the brief and communicated very hard to get it completed within one week. This exercise has given me an idea of how hard and time efficiency would be, hence you would need a good group to share out the planning and ideas. Furthermore doing this exercise makes me more confident as an individual, also as a group we can learn from the mistakes and learn better skills for our next Mest 2 coursework.
Level 3: B/C
ReplyDeleteWWW: Consistent use of media language, honest assessment of strengths and weaknesses and clear engagement with the brief – well done.
EBI: One error – continuity editing not continuous. Also, in your actual evaluation for MEST2 I’d like to see more specific reference to the final product (pick out individual shots and transitions and analyse them in detail for example – like you do with the shot with Gagan entering the canteen).
LR: How did your pre-production work (script, storyboard, shot list) help contribute to the final product and what will you do differently for the real thing? What did you learn about film editing from the preliminary exercise?
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ReplyDeleteLR: The storyboard and script we produced was very useful, as it guided us through our production. As we planned our ideas and narrative it was much easier to produce our production and also remember to cover the important key points. We also created a shot list to include all the possible key shots in our production to create effect and smooth transitions such as the beginning of the production we used a fade in effect from a medium shot of Gagan walking to a long shot, also the shot of Gagan entering the canteen is very effective as we used a match on action shot to create continuity editing and make our production look realistic using smooth edits.
ReplyDeleteFor our real production I think, we should use more shots (Extreme close-up, close-up, tracking shots etc.) to focus on the main character more, also to create tension and making the audience relate to the character. Moreover as I mentioned in my evaluation I think the sound is a major effect to our production as it was very hard to hear our narrative, hence the loud noise in the background. This is another issue that my group would certainly take consideration on, as we want our group to be successful in our production to improve and learn from our mistakes.
Overall I have learnt a lot of techniques and ideas about film editing, I feel much comfortable producing another pre-production as I now know what to do from learning from the preliminary exercise which has made me more confident in working and sharing ideas in a group. Working in a committed group is very beneficial as I learnt new things from Navneet and Gagan which gave me a stronger knowledge about film editing.