Evaluation of Continuity Edit Task

The task we were set was to put together an edit concerning a character working into a room and taking up a conversation with another character. It was test to see our abilities to maintain continuity in a scene. The first technique we had to incorporate was a match-on-action and this involved opening a door. In the film, Davinder strolls down the hall, opens the door and then we see the camera cut to the room inside as he the enters the room.

Also, in this shot when he walks, there is a switch in the positions of the 180 degree rule. At the beginning we see Davinder coming in from the right but as he walks past the camera we can see a transition in Davinder’s position from right to left, allowing for the Devil, Gokulan, to take up the left.

This is proof of the 180 degree rule, a rule we had been given in this task as to prevent audience disorientation. Devil on the right; Nicky on the left. Rule of thirds seen here too.

Production Problems!!!

Production brought up its own fair share of challenges. One being that the vision in my head was transferred to an OK degree when shooting with the camera. I’m aware that it won’t look like a million-dollar production but I can definitely do better filming because it was a bit average with dodgy composition of elements in the shot and bland imagery.

Post-Production Problems

During editing I realised that I should have filmed a few more shots, leaving me to use other parts to plug the gaps and speeding up the scene to cover up the cracks so they were less noticeable. Also, it was my first proper time on iMovie (I used Final Cut before) so I needed to get used to the ways of it and how to use the tools correctly. Next time, hopefully, with a solid understanding of iMovie, I will be able to jump straight in and cut and put together a film in no time.

Strengths of Work

My strengths of the project I believe were keeping with the promise to include the 180-degree rule, rule of thirds and shot-reverse-shot. I also think my sounds were good, too. I didn’t have cheesy SFX or soundtracks – and the credits song, Live Forever, was a perfect choice as it fitted on point with the meaning of the scene. Another strength, I think, was the storyboarding as it was a tight, not spectacular, construction of a scene. Whether it was put to screen just as well is debatable.

WeaknessesThe weaknesses were the editing; because it was a jumpy between slow pace and then fast, abrupt cuts. This was down to my failure to countdown when shooting a shot. I will learn from this. The script was shocking because we didn’t have one. We went straight from storyboarding to filming so were left with having to quickly make something up and so the constant repeating of, “I can’t do this”, quite funny.And the camerawork was iffy. Most of it was quite good. Shaky-cam was deliberate for that nervous effect (although shaky seems too much de rigueur in film today, so I might not do it again). But it was just the filming was slightly mundane at times and a few shots had too much room above the head.

You see.Too much headroom.

Improvements

For improvements, I will spice up the camerawork; have a script ready and also I will try to do different things. By different I mean a different style of filmmaking. What I did here was a basic mirror an event; next time I might be a bit more experimental and inventive with techniques, therefore I can establish a style in which I can stand out.