Edit Workshop Evaluation

Rule of thirds

We used the 180 degree rule in or short film from the beginning to the end. We had to keep Kieran on the right side and me on the left side at all times as if it changed halfway then the audience would be confused on what's happening so the 180 degree rule is there to keep the audience's orientation of the film on point and to make sure they don't get confused mid way of the film. This also helps out the continuity by making sure there isn't one as in all scenes the character is on the same side. Rule of thirds was probably the easiest one to cope with as all you have to do is make sure that the characters eye level isn't to high or too low. As well as that everything else in that scene has to be in the perfect place. We used match on action quite well in this short film. We had Kieran walk through a door but we filmed it from 2 angles. We had to edit it to make it flow which worked really well. Makes it look professional and visually more interesting as there are different camera shots in that one movement.

The challenges we had faced during production was definitely location. We had the same location but because of our limited time the location had different things in it at different times of the day. One day it would be empty and we would film but then the next it would be packed making it more difficult to filming it and ultimately making us re film it. But this all was hard as we had a only one time in the day to film but it would be a different time the next day so the lighting is different and mise-en-scene was different. We also had trouble filming the last shot as it was supposed to give the effect of us using a track but because we didn't have a track we had to use improvisation to see how we could do track without a track. Another problem faced is that we had to re film at least 3 times which was hard work because we had done a lot on the previous filming session but this can also be seen as a good thing as we got feedback from teachers and every new time we had to film again we had new ideas to make it look better. If i were to do this all again i would change the setting to somewhere that wouldn't keep changing a lot but other than that there is nothing else i would change.

Post production was a challenge for me as i had to edit the whole thing again in one day. We all got 3 lessons to edit and i did that but when it came to the third lesson my work had been lost so i had to start again making it very stressful for me as i had to do all that editing again in one lesson. Fortunately i succeeded in it with the loss of some quality in my work. As well as that even if the three days i had were there i would of wanted longer to add music and effects and wildcat soundtrack to make it as good as it could be.

Planning the establishing shot

close up being filmed

Close up of mouth

I think the strengths of our piece was the creativity as it was based of a true story and we had a variety of camera language such as a close up. The creativity is a key thing in films as it makes the film more interesting for the viewers. I also think the planning was done well as even though we had to re-film we knew exactly what shots were needed and in what position as well.

Match on action 1

As a weakness i think the editing was one as i didn't have enough time and due to this i don't think the cutting was precise enough which means the quality of my work wasn't up to the standard that it would've been at if i had more time. Some cutting was done good such as the match on action shot. I think this worked well in my short film to make it more interesting for the audience and it shows my knowledge of what continuity is and how to avoid it all the time.

Match on action 2

Overall i think the improvements that can be made on my work is the editing as some of it just didn't work and also even though the planning was good we have to make sure the everything is the same so i think we should've picked a better location that always has the same atmosphere as our location was always changing. Other than that i think everything else worked really well.

Continuity editing exercise

The scenario that we had to work on was a 45-60 second long piece of something very simple called 'The Encounter'. The basis of this short film was a person walks in and encounters someone else and then walks out. The story line could be anything we chose. The point of the exercise was to demonstrate our knowledge and understanding of match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

The key media language skills we were trying to demonstrate were the match on action shot, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. Match on action is mostly for continuity as it is two shots which are almost identical from different angles to flow properly as a film should. Shot reverse shot is when you have one character looking at the other and the camera switches between each character. 180 degree rule is  for the audiences orientation and to avoid confusion. Eg. If a character is on the left then he has to always be on the left so the audience knows; as if the next scene shows him on the right it confuses the audience in the placement. This also applies for props.

Shot reverse shot

Match on action

180 degree rule

The group i had to work with were friends of mine which made it easier to communicate and get along with. I had worked with Kieran Jeeawock and Jay Pabari. The fact that both people are interested in media a lot made it more fun to plan and film as we all contributed our ideas to make a very good short film. With this said the grouping was very successful and we didn't lack in any skill that we had to demonstrate. Kieran and I were the actors in the short film whilst Jay was the camera man. Although Jay was camera man i did assist him quite a bit to make angles look better and to make sure that all the shots were aligned for a better view of the actor.
The scenario we had planned and film was not that long of a process. We sat in class brainstorming scenarios and we all came up with a humorous story with suspense which was inspired by a true story. Kieran, who was the protagonist and playing the goofball, walks into the canteen with the intentions that he can be as forward as he likes with his student ID to get a discount. The waiter who was played by me was the stick in the film. He tells Kieran that there are no discounts in the canteen and that's where the suspense comes in as they have a stare off. This combination of humor and suspense had worked well as we had a balance of each. Also this idea of this story was chosen as it was easy to film as the locations are nearby and it was easy to include all the key camera angles and shots that we needed. Whilst filming, to make it more creative and interesting, we added a variety of camera angles. Eg. The last scene was a low angle of Kieran to make him look superior as he walks off. Also the fact that this was a true story makes it more interesting and made it more fun to film.

Low angle shot to make individual look superior

The grouping was also very successful in my view as all three of us are good friends and we get on properly. We also had many ideas on how to film it and what shots in include and where.

Our storyboard was quite simple and basic but it included all the shots we needed to do and in what order. After we had completed our storyboard we then realized that we had not included match on action so we just had to add one more scene which was easy enough and we included it in the filming process. We followed the storyboard scene for scene. We did not encounter many problems whilst filming except one which wasn't that major but it was a still a problem. The first day we were filming in the canteen it was empty and not much noise was made but then the next day the canteen was full of people. People even sitting in the spot we were filming in. This resulted to filming after school some scenes to make it more realistic and to work on the continuity factor for the audience. Also we had realized when editing that we had used two different locations that had different backgrounds. This made it look unprofessional so we had to re film again. Overall it was fun to film aside the problems and I learnt new things such as the match on action and the shot reverse shot. We faced the problems well and we overcame them properly making it not a big issue for us and the group was successful in doing the role they were chosen for and coming together to make this short film called 'The Encounter'. Below is my storyboard.

Final sheet of storyboard