Continuity Preliminary Evaluation

Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

• My group consisted of Alex.E, Alex.S, Olivia and myself.
• We each decided to take equal responsibility of the whole task during planning: creating a script, shot list, storyboard, shooting schedule and proposal one by one as a team, discussing our ideas and views as we went along.
• During filming, Alex.E and Olivia took on acting roles whilst myself and Alex.S filmed. I was however included in a few short shots, and so at this time and whenever Alex.E and Olivia were not in shots, they filmed. This enabled us to share out the role of filming as evenly as possible and gave them a chance to work behind the camera too, and for me to take on acting for a bit.
• As for editing, me and Olivia worked together to create one final product, and Alex.S and Alex.E worked on our footage too to create their own finished clip. I feel me and Olivia worked very efficently on this section of the task, taking turns on the mouse and helping each other out where need be to finish well within our time limit. 

The rest of my team hard at work.

How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?

• Our first task was to come up with an idea, so we brainstormed a few, then cut the ideas down to ones which we thought would be effective and practical, and finally took a vote on which was our favorite.
•  Next we began to create a script, followed by a shot list which translated onto our storyboard, and finally our shooting schedule and a proposal.
• We also decided as a group to visit our location and go through our sequence to see if everything would go to plan, and to check it would all make logical sense. This proved to be vital as we ended up changing our location due to space restrictions in the one we had originally plamnned.  
• We ensured to take into consideration Roland Barthes 5 codes and all of the film making conventions; especially when creating our script and shot list. Our clip's genre was comedy and so to portray this to the audience we created a humorous plot with funny dialogue.
• Whilst editing we tried our best to include and cut clips in order to follow and create the continuity conventions such as shot-reverse-shot, the 180 degree rule and matching actions.

What technology did you use to complete the task and how did you use it?

• For editing, we used Adobe Premier Pro. I had previously used this program for editing in my media GCSE studies however Olivia had not, so it was helpful for us both that i could teach her a few things and at the same time jog my memory on some of its features.
• Our clips had alraedy been captured before we started editing so all we needed to do was pick the best shots and crop them to size. We added in a title too and changed some of the volumes on our shots.
• For filming we used a Canon DV30 with a tripod. This enabled us to experiement with different angles and heights for our shots to create various effects. We altered the length of the tripods legs and adjusted the angle at which the camera was facing in order to do this.  

What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

• When planning, we had to take into consideration the amount of time we had available- we couldn’t create a script that was too long for example, or spend too long pondering over one aspect of the task.
• We also had to take into account the locations that were available to us, since we were filming during school time and had to stay on the premises.
• When shooting it was important that we remembered the technology at hand, and also to budget our time as it was very limited.
• And finally, during editing, time was also an issue but as it was only two us working together we found it much easier to manage.

Me and Olivia at our edit station.

How successful was your sequence? Identify what worked well, and in hindsight, what would you improve/ do differently?

• Overall I think our sequence was seccessful as we produced a clip which followed and demonstrated continuity coventions and rules within the allocated time- which was essentially what we needed to acheive.
• One thing that worked well for me was our group dynamics; we never encountered any major arguments or disagreements and almost always were on task. We listened to each others ideas and shared out all roles equally, playing even parts in the production of our sequence.
• Another thing that worked well was the timing of our piece, I feel the final product flows well and this is probably due to our tight cutting during editing.
• However, if I were to re-do this project, I would probably change the storyline of our sequence. We chose quite a simple idea and perhaps if we had gone with something more adventurous or from a different genre such as horror, we could have showed off more of our filming skills and techniques, such as tracks and pans and shaky shots by filming with hand instead of using a tripod.
• We also could have managed time slightly better when planning. Although doing each planning task as a team worked out, it could have been more efficient to asign people to certain tasks.

What have you learnt from completing the task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework?

• From this task I have learnt to always be aware of continuity when filming. I now know how to match shots and how important it is that sequences always flow and make sense to an audience.
• It helped to reinforce my abilities of using the media cameras and editing software, which will help again when we use them later on in the year.
• Also working in a team has been a big part of this project, and we will be working in a team later on in the year to complete our coursework. It has helped me to understand other peoples skills and know what they are good at. Communication is always key as is being able to divide up tasks and work together effectively.