Evaluation of Preliminary Task

What did you learn about the camera and editing software during the preliminary task?

During filming our preliminary task, we learnt how to use some of the much-important features of the camera. In our group, two of the students are A2 students and have already produced a music video so therefore were able to help the others in our group to use the cameras quite quickly.
Due to the two A2 students, we was able to record and edit in a short space of time due to the experience gained from the production of their music videos.
We also learnt how to fix the camera at different angles to create a greater effect on the footage overall. We extended the legs of the tripod to help us to film from a high angle shot of Mohammed running up the stairs and also a low angle shot close up of his feet. When filming, we built on our knowledge to position the camera in different places in order to create different views and help with our continuity editing. The advantage of taking so many different types of shots of the same scene is that we were able to choose and pick the best angles and it gives our preliminary task a professional cut.
Secondly, we learnt and developed our editing skills on Final Cut Pro 7. Some of us had not used the editing software before and was a completely new experience but due to the help of others in our group we was able to work together and put our video together. Before we could start editing our filming, we had to convert our footage using MPEG Stream clip which was a task easily completed.
We used an editing keyboard to quickly edit our footage, from the keyboard we learnt how to ‘mark in’ and ‘mark out’ which allowed us to cut out the footage not needed from the start and the end.
We also learnt how to add effects which makes our video fit together easier., using effects also creates different types of atmosphere and it also makes the audience/viewers think about why the effect was used, what was its purpose which we want, we want a spontaneous edge to our preliminary task.
A the end of the video, we used the fade effect, this simply faded out the end scene which adds more of a professional view.

In the filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved?

In our project, what worked well is that our video had a good standard of continuity. We edited to make sure all the scenes more or less matched the previous ones, we had a lot of footage, which was another thing that gave us an advantage, we could choose from different type of scenes, from different angles therefore our continuity was standard and would do nothing to change it in this particular task. Having a standard continuity indicates this task was done at a professional pace. Another point was we had a fade out which works out well because it’s a sign of closure, to close the scene and let the audience and viewers know that it was the end of the scene. The last point that worked well in our video was when Mohammed was running upstairs (rushing), we recorded plenty footage for this particular scene. In the video, we have a combination of, high angle shot, medium, close-up and extreme close up shots. We had covered most angles, which was great, as we had completed our task in a great standard.
However, our dialogue in the preliminary task was to a great standard, it was only a 35-second clip, which is very short. The actual dialogue was short as it was only a couple of words from two different characters. The reason for this would be the group planning, we didn’t plan to as much detail as what could’ve performed.
Another area in where we could’ve improved on is the sound. The use of non-diagetic was nil, we could’ve used this to create some sort of theme to let the viewers know what kind of genre the video is. Also non-diagetic sounds also create some sort of anxiety, some sort of rhythm that goes with the video clip. Also we could’ve improved on the diagetic sounds, the two main characters should have maybe spoken more louder or closer to the camera, this would be because maybe the older generation may have hearing problems and with the improvement, they will be more likely to hear the footage.



Give a detailed, specific example of how you have used a shot/reverse shot combination in your film.

In our short video, we have used a shot/reverse shot combination to show the dialogue between Mo and Antonio. This shot shows the two characters interacting with each other when Mo enters the room and confronts Antonio about his phone, an insert of the Blackberry, and then a low angle shot of Mo then cutting back to Antonio.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you have achieved match cuts during the editing process.

During our editing process, we used match cuts to make the editing look smooth and continuous. We achieved this by filming more footage than we needed to, which enabled us to edit the shots together easily. An example of this in our video is when Mo is running up the stairs. There are several cuts that fit together of Mo at different places on the stairs. Because these shots match, it prevents the viewer from being distracted. 


How did you achieve continuity in this task? Or if your transitions weren't entirely smooth, what have you learnt from this?

We achieved continuity in our short video by carefully editing our filming together. In order to achieve this, we had to plan ahead and film the same sequence several times from a different prospective. By doing this, during editing on Final Cut Pro 7, we were able to easily fit our filming together as we had too much footage. It was better for us to film too much than not enough, because otherwise we would have realised during editing, that the sequence didn't match and would have had to go out and re-film certain aspects of our video.