Final: Preliminary Evaluation of Continuity Editing Sequence

Evaluation of the Preliminary Exercise

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

I worked in a group of four (including myself) with Sam Durdy, Jack Laurence and Chris Pangalos for planning and filming of the preliminary video.

We shared tasks equally between the four of us and we had equal input into all of the planning and when working as a pair with Chris we shared editing equally and managed an end result that we were both pleased with

How did you plan your sequence?

We delegated the tasks equally between ourselves, we all worked together on the concept for the short clip and came to the decision that we would use action as our genre. We then worked together crafting the shot list and then the script, finally we had to create our storyboard which would help to give us an idea of what our sequence should look like, it also allowed us to identify the different set ups we could use and how to utilize the space we had so as not to break the 180* rule.

What technology did you use to complete the task?

In order to plan, we simply used lined pages provided and came up with our idea, script, shotlist and storyboard.

To film, we had been given access to Mini-DV Cannon Legeria camcorders, this resulted in our clip being filmed at a resolution of 720p.

In order to edit, we used Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5. This software allowed us to sequence our clips and to cut them in order to make the clip seem continuous. This software allowed us to export our clip in High Definition to youtube.

We also were given tripods in order to stabilize our shots and eliminate unneeded camera movement and judders, it also aided us in panning and reducing background noise.

Finally, we were given Paglights incase we needed to lighten up our setting or focus lighting in a different way than which the setting offered. We didn’t use them for our clip.

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

Whilst planning, we had to take into consideration the range of props that we had access to so that we could make the best out of what we had. We decided that we would need two suits for the two main characters, a table, a brief case and a gun (fake of course).



During shooting, we had to take into account that there were other groups around the media block also carrying out the same preliminary task and we had to take care not to disturb them and to silence their noises and make sure they didn't appear during the fimling of our clips as othewise, our film clip may have contained more continuity errors.

As we had a time limit of one hour to shoot our clip, we had to make sure that our group was ready for any possible changes that we had to make on the day due to unforeseen circumstances. We made sure that our group also was ready to film straight away and  we kept our story board and shot list to hand.
 We also were told on the day that we could not use our original shoot location, this meant a change of setting and a couple of extra minutes to draw out a plan of the block and the room allocated to us in order to re plan our set ups and to make small changes to our shot list.

During the filming of our clip, we realised that our original plan of having the lights in the room off would not work as the camera created very fuzzy images in low light conditions due to it's limited ISO settings. This meant we had to turn the lights which made our group fear that the clip would lose tension

We had to also take into account that we were filming in a school and it wouldn't be possible to empty out the room that we were filming in as it would be far too much hassle for everyone and could pose a possible danger risk to others using the block at the same time.

Whilst editing, we had to keep refering to the theory that we had learnt in class and we urgently tried to avoid jump cuts and iffy continuity sequences. We also had to consider that because we filmed the sequence using different set ups, volume differed through out the clip and that because our speech sequences had background noise, we'd have to incorporate this throughout the clip, or it would lead to a disorientating audio sequence for viewers.

How successful was your sequence?

I felt our sequence was quite successful because it was continuous and obeyed many film makers conventions and rules.

I felt that the continuity editing was quite successful as the transitions from shot to shot seemed to be quite seamless and 

I felt that this was successful

There weren’t any jumpcuts as we were able to identify them during editing and eradicate them.

What have you learnt from completing the task and how will this knowledge be significant during the rest of your foundation course?

During this task, I’ve learnt about continuity rules, conventions of film makers, how to effectively edit a clip to be continuous. We learnt how to use mastershots effectively in our clip and how to make the audience aware of the space in which we were filming.

I think I’ll be able to take my skils that I’ve learnt for continuity editing into my foundations coursework and further improve upon them whilst editing later. Also the media theory that we have learnt will come in handy for when we film again.