What We Learnt Today!

In todays lesson we learnt what we was going to do over the next few weeks. This was to produce a new fiction film of our choosen genre and produce the titles and opening scene. we then went on to talk about thrillers this is what we will be looking at over the next two weeks. we learnt about the conventions of a thriller genre these are,

• Dark/Nightmare


• Make you jump


• Unexpected


• Suspense


• Shock


• Police


• Split personality


• Tension


• Ask questions etc.

when learning about a thriller many people got confused about the difference between a Thriller and a Horror as they thought they bothed linked in but they dont. A Thriller is moovie the auydience has to be really involved in, answering many questions they have to work out what is going on, instead of the film just following easily. A Horror shows more crime and murders which are shwon very clearly but also very exaggerated. Horrors are much more scary.

After we had this discussion and made sure we all knew the difference between the two genres we went on to watch Memento (Nolan, 200, US), we had to write down the conevntions we saw while watching this.

WWW & EBI

www: For this continuity task I think our group worked well together and came up with a good storyboard after changing it a few times. Half way through our filming a member of our group was absent so we had to film again, even with such a short amount of time we managed to do it, it came out better then we expected. We all participated in this task evenly whether it was to film, edit or make sure everything was included such as the continuity techniques and what we needed to include in this short sequance. I think overall our filmed sequance came out good and shows a good understanding of what continuity is.

ebi: Although i feel our task went well and showed a good understanding of what we needed to do i also feel there are some parts that could have been improved and made better, for example in the middle of our sequance we could have put another clip in to make it flow that extra bit more. we could have also made it a bit more exciting then just having the basics we needed to include. It would have been better if we had stuck to our original plan but we changed it as we thought it wasn't as successful by doing this means we had less time to film and edit it so we had to workk very quickly to make sure it got completed.

Preliminary Task

Reflections on editing

When it came to editing the work we had filmed we went back through what we had to include and talked about how we was going to do this as a group. Once we imported all our footage we made sure we had all the shots we needed before we strated to cut and edit them. we then cut all the clips so they all flowed easily and naturally. Before doing this we made sure we had included all the continuity editing techniques before we went any further. I think that as a group we done this very well and made sure we followed the rules, we done this by alwasy checking over what we had done and talking about it together, we also maintained continuity as we worked together to get the shots right and in the correct place in terms of how we was positioned at the ned of each shot ready for the next one.

Reflections on filming

Before we even started filming we had to make sure our setting we chose was free for filming in this case we had a bit of difficulty as the setting we originally picked was inavailble so we had to re think of another suitable place to film that fitted in with our storyboard. We decided to film in a school as our dialogue fitted in with it as it was about a teacher and a student having a converstaion about homework. For our props we used natural teaching stuff such as school books, we done this so it sets the atmopsphere even more as to where it was and what was going on. When it came to the filming, trying to use continuity editing was quite difficult as we had to make sure it was perfect and nothing was out of place, we had to make sure we stayed in the position so the next shot fitted in when we cut it. When doing this we had to re film shots a number of times to get it just right and to make sure it looked like a continuity edited sequance, it took a lot of practise but i think it worked well in the end, we made sure we followed the rules of continuity editing by keep going back to our storyboard and seeing what else we need to do and include in terms of the techniques and whats needs to be included during this sequance.

Reflection on planning

To start of with each individual had to do a storyboard on thier own ideas, we then got put into groups of three and each person shared there ideas with the rest of us. we then had to re think a new idea but including an idea from each of our group members storyboard. It took us a while to think of an idea we all agreed on and thought would work, we had to make sure all the aspects of continuity editing was included for example match on action, eyeline match, 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot. When including this into our planning we found it quite easy as there was many shots where each technique could be used.

Preliminary Task

For our Preliminary task we had to produce a short filmed and edited sequance correctly using continuity editing and showing our uinderstanding of it. This short sequance had to include:
Openign a door
Crossing a room
Sitting down in a chair (opposite eachother)
Enagaging in some dialogue

Continuity Editing

Continuity editing is used to make the edits between shots as unobtrusiv (unseen) as possible, this is why we do not notice the editing in programme as it seems natural the shots flow from one to another.
the basic techniques of continuity editing are:
Mastershot (establishing shot) - this sets up the patial relationship between characters. it shows you where each of them are in the room or location and the audience can use this information when watching rest of scene.
180 degree rule - An imaginary line is drawn between them, the camera must stay on the same side of imaginary line, but it can move anywhere within 180 degrees. we use this so viewers do not get confuised and the shots flow easily.
Match on action -this is where a character carries out an action, the first shot of it may be from one shot type/angle and the second from another. The editer can then cut on this action to hide the cut and make the edit seamless.
Shot reverse shot - usually used to show conversation, the camera will switch between mcu/cu of characters as they speak to eachother, showing response and reaction.
eyeline match - this is a cut between a character looking off screen to the item that they are looking at.