Preliminary task evaluation

Preliminary video - 'The Stuff' evaluation 


Video:
The final edit of my group's preliminary video has been posted previously and can also be seen below. 



Strengths, Weaknesses and overall evaluation: Our preliminary video titled 'The Stuff' is of a sufficient quality that meets the brief we were given as it includes action match, a shot-reverse-shot scene with dialogue and is of the thriller genre. The establishing shot with production company titles echoes the conventional thriller film and is somewhat effective, however, my personal favorite title is the film's main title layered over a shot of the protagonist walking through a door.

 This shot incorporates unique camera angles and shots whilst the incidental music creates increases tension which is conventional of thriller films. Though planning was sufficient our decided location and mise-en-scene was disturbed as we could not remove studio lights that were in shot, and any of the green screen curtains seen in the background of our video this is seen in the still below. 

This along with shoddy costumes has allowed the group to understand that mise-en-scene is a key aspect that should be looked into more depth when filming the real thriller opening.

Following on from this as a group we decided to utilise the preferred acting style of Oli and Ed;comedy. In order to do this, we decided to take on the sub-genre of comedy which is a very rare combination to choose with thriller films. This was a difficult task and eliminated some conventions of thriller films, because of this I would not be willing to fuse the two genres together for my actual thriller opening.

 One positive element of the genre fusion is the many shot types that were suitable for the clip, the still below illustrates one of the effective close-ups found in the edit.
When using a two-shot this effectively illustrated the characters involved in the scene ,however, lighting did let the shot down so if I were to produce this again I would ensure lighting is to a high standard and confirm this with the group. 

The use of incidental music and black and white video filter during the fight scene is unique and creates anxiety for the audience when watching the video. The action match was well edited and encapsulates the narrative well.Various straight cuts and cutaways were used to show the weaponry in the scene, I think the fast-paced editing of these increases the tension of the shots well and grabs the attention of the audience. 

The incidental music chosen over both sets of titles and the fight scene portrays the action well and enhances the entire video, one way that the video would improve is if sound effects were also utilised in the scene breaking up the dialogue and music. When producing our own videos this is something we will consider to ensure our end product is of a higher quality.

Overall, the camera angles and editing is of a good standard in our preliminary task, mise-en-scene could definitely have been thought out more thoroughly but as a group and an individual, I believe we all have learned from this. The division of group work gave me something to think about regarding the production process of my real video. 

The narrative of the preliminary feels somewhat rushed but the video as a whole is of an average standard, I feel as all negative aspects of the video have provided me with the information I need to ensure my actual video is of a much higher quality. 

I am happy with the video overall as it successfully demonstrates some conventions of thriller films in a unique way. The planning process was moderately successful and played a huge part in ensuring the video was produced to the highest standard. Every member of the group utilised their key skills fairly which resulted in a good filming process providing us with good shots that were edited together well. 

The decision to use premier pro and mainly straight cuts with little video effects allowed my team's vision of a simple thriller with comedic undertones to come through. My group all had a good work ethic and motivation which along with a high standard of communication skills made the production a lot easier. We all split the tasks up well to get experience, of each aspect of production and planning which contributed to the final effort. 

The film does communicate the comedic aspect well but as the deadline came nearer the editing process was rushed which is evident in the final edit. The roles were split well during planning but could have been more balanced during filming and editing to ensure the video had everyone's stamp on it. 

This has made me more aware that I should split tasks more evenly during the production of my own thriller opening. One way the video could we improved is the lack of serious filming seen in various shots where protagonists look into the lens before the scene begins. As the previous scenes were focused on building verisimilitude I would try to remove these shots from the edit to keep editing and narrative consistently tense. 

Preliminary Task - Final edit

Preliminary Task -'The Stuff'- Final Edit

Prelim- Planning,filming and editing

Premliminary Thriller - 'The Stuff'

The brief :

Produce a continuity clip involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges 4 lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse ,shot and the 180-degree rule.

Planning:

In order to commence the planning of my group's thriller clip, we decided to brainstorm initial ideas that we all had which could then be developed into a clear narrative. The members of my group were Ed, Oli, and Hannah who utilised their knowledge of thriller openings to generate narrative ideas for the video. After deliberation of basic narrative, my group decided to use a mind-map format to confirm roles,location and camera shot types.

 We then developed our planning by producing a script to devise character roles and dialogue. To sum up the process of our first planning session, we had finalised ambiguous narrative that explores the exchange of an unknown object between the main characters played by Oli and Ed. The characters are not clearly depicted as protagonists or antagonists as this creates a sense of ambiguity thus grabbing the audience attention from the opening. 

The ambiguity is also created through the running title of 'The Stuff' which myself and the group decided would be an interesting take on the conventional thriller opening. Below are pictures of ,my group's planning documents. We drew up a storyboard as a group to illustrate each scene found in our film, the storyboard includes shot types and audio as it was then clear to everyone what they had to do during filming and editing. 

Though the plot includes many ambiguous aspects it becomes obvious of the characters and their position during the scene, after every detail of the narrative, filming and editing plan was completed we decided to commence filming.

Filming:

After producing some props needed for the scene we decided to move around our filming location (the studio) into our decided layout. After deciding on lighting and filming our establishing shot of Oli walking through the door of the 'office' we began to consult our planning documents to ensure the filming process could run smoothly. 

Hannah and I were in charge of camera and dressing the set, I filmed the majority of the scenes as this made sure our camera angles were varied but took on a continuity format. We did encounter various problems when using the set and attempted to fix these at the early stages of filming. 

It took around an hour to complete the filming of all scenes which led us to the editing process. Below are some images of the filming process. 

Editing:

During the editing process we decided to split into two groups which would ensure time was managed well, Ed and Oli were enlisted to find suitable audio for the shots that did not include dialogue. Hannah and I immediately focused on editing the footage including transitions and titles. 

Even though I feel everyone played a sufficient part in the filming and planning of the preliminary video editing felt somewhat detached. Though having Oli and Ed finding audio was good for time management I believe we could have shared editing input more, we ran drafts past them but it would have been more helpful for everyone if they could have taken part in core edits. 

This is useful to know for the filming of my video that I will complete in the near future. The final edit was finished in good time and uploaded to youtube on the final allotted editing lesson. Below is an image of myself during the editing process.