AS Level Media:Continuity TaskByDeclan Flannery

Brief

We had to create a video with coursework behind it, It is titled the continuity task because it is helping us learn about continuity in media. We had specific rules which were:• Match on action shot• Keep to the 180 degree rule• Have a door opening and closing• Shot reverse shot• At least 30 seconds of dialogue between two characters

180 degree rule

A rule stating that a camera should be placed somewhere inside 180 degrees on a particular side of the invisible line of a shot containing two people filmed in sequence. If the camera crosses the line, confusion results for the film viewers, because it can make it look like the people are switching places as one watches the film.

Screen Shots of 180 Degree Rule

As you can see in both shots, they follow the 180 degree rule even thought they change shot not if

the camera was placed behind the man who is central in both shots that would break the rule and

not follow it at all.

Match on action

Match on action is a technique of filming used in many sorts of films. It consists of connecting two shots together in which a character finishes off an action in the second shot that was started in the first one, for example a clip of a character walking through a door in which he opens the door being filmed from behind then the clip cuts to him walking through from the other one.

Screen Shots of Match on Action

In the first shot you can see from this side the shot zoomed in on the actors hand opening the door, then in the next shot it is the actor

walking through the door but on the opposite side of the door and him entering the room.

Shot Reverse Shot

This is a shot that views the action from the opposite side of the previous shot, as during a conversation between two actors, giving the effect of looking from one actor to the other.

Screen Shots of Shot Reverse Shot

In the first shot it is a over the shoulder shot of the women talking then it reveres to the woman's shoulder of a shot where the man is talking and then finally back to the woman for her to speak again.

Idea Overview

• The Three Wise MenThis is our idea overview in our continuity film it would be one of the three wise men finding out that the Baby Jesus was going to be born and therefore him finding the second wise man and then calling the third to inform him, This would be a modern rendition on their story using suits and a modern setting for effect.

Storyboard

This is the starting scene where I am waiting for a phone call; we used a medium to close shot which was shot at the side for effect.

This is the close-up shot of God calling me and this is me also using our prop which is the phone.

This is a medium to long shot of the actor running to inform the other wise man of the information we used this with credits as a sort of lengthy opening shots.

Here is another shot of the actor running but inside setting and a different angle this one from behind to let the audience dictate distance.

Storyboard

This is the first shot of the actor opening the door from this side.

Then the following shot is on the reverse side but continuing the shot of the actor opening and shutting the door.

This is one of the first over the shoulder shots we used for the main conversation.

It was then reversed to allow the other character to talk and continue their dialogue

Storyboard

This is the final shot of a close up of the handshake between the two characters and a title over the top of the scene to signal the end of the movie.

How each rule was used

180 degree rule – We used this by simply following it by staying one side it proved difficult not with the running scenes but with the dialogue but we managed to make it work.

Match on action – We used this by opening the door and closing t but on opposite shots and we did this successfully.

Shot reverse shot – We used this by having over the shoulder shots for the conversation between the two actors and reversed the shots each time to focus on the specific actor that was talking.

Dialogue

James Fitch: I’ve been expecting you.Declan Flannery: Good, so God called, Have you got the FrankincenseJF: YeahDF: Shall I get Keith on the phone?JF: Get Keith on the phone.DF: Yeah, you alright Keith? You need to get down here it’s happening, God called both of us, Baby Jesus going to be born a few hours from now in Bethlehem, alright get down here now and bring the myrrh, see you later.JF: I better pack my bags and we better be going.

Location Photographs

We used these stairs for the beginning shots because it gave us a good idea for the 180 degree rule and enabled us to have a few good shots to start the running scenes.

This was definitely our best running scene shot with the wide angle on the camera to enable the actor to run from one end to the other. It worked really well and we were lucky to have no disruptions in the background.

Location Photographs Continued

This was definitely our best running scene shot with the wide angle on the camera to enable the actor to run from one end to the other. It worked really well and we were lucky to have no disruptions in the background.

This is the reverse shot of before the actor runs through this door and as the shot continues he runs past the camera. This worked well because we could add action and some noises which just intensified the running scene backed up by the music.

Actors & Props

Actors:• Declan Flannery – First Wise Man (Melchior)• James Fitch – Second Wise Man (Gaspar)

Props:• IPhone

Filming log

Attempt 1: For this we just tried to get an idea of what areas of the school we could use for filming and at this point we didn’t have finalised idea for our video, we were improvising a lot of dialogue used and camera shots were extremely basic. But I believe we needed this for experience and it worked out in the long run as the feedback we received for this first piece of filming was constructive and helped a lot.Attempt 2: For this try of filming we had finally got an idea of the areas we had for filming and it gave us the idea of having a running scene for the intro which I thought the credits could run over which we have included in our final video. When we took this filming back the response we got was much better and we were able to have our final idea of the three wise men which was a big boost.

Filming Log Continued

Attempt 3: Now that we had space finalised and our idea thought of, This was one of our most successful filming sessions we were able to get majority of the running filmed that we kept for the final piece with help of editing, we then got a lot of the dialogue thought of through improvisation from the actors: Me and James. The criticism we got for this filming was from our teacher and even thought a lot of flaws were found it enabled us to improve a lot and that’s what we did.Attempt 4: We worked on the improvements we had received from our teacher and a lot of shots were fixed for the intro such as close ups and we worked on match on action and shot reverse shot, These shots weren't used for our final but they helped us to understand the shot more. When we got comments about this filming it was from the whole class because I had edited this and problems were still evident but it gave use more work and filming to do to try and perfect this film.

Film Log Final

Attempt 5: This was our last round of filming and the introduction and running was perfected with editing so we had to re-film all of the dialogue and match on action and shot reverse shot we did this by filming the dialogue multiple times from both shoulders of the actors and then I edited them separately so they flowed together. We had received a lot of criticism about our match on action for the door opening but we re-filmed from both sides and perfected that as well with editing. Finally we had to film me acting talking on the phone to the third wise man ‘Keith’ which we used a close up for to see the phone and the actor and it worked finally. So this was then edited and we had our final video.

Editing

We used Windows Movie Maker for our editing it is basic but enabled us to do each task successfully, their were a few technical problems. But we were able to edit correctly all the scenes we wanted to and then we could add extra music that was bought from ITunes and then we could merge it into the scene, We were able to edit all timings correctly after re-filming a lot of scenes that we were realised couldn’t be edited to look good enough we finally got our finalised video. We were able to include really good credits that layered over the top of the video which I believe worked really well for our opening scene.