Preliminary Task AnalysisJainisha Navinkumar

My group did 2 preliminary tasks all together, we did 2 because the first one did not follow most of the conventions for this task, we realised this whilst editing, my role in the first one was assistant director. In our second try, we made a more successful preliminary task, my role was acting and also directing. After our first one failed I realised the importance of shot-reverse-shot and the use of close-ups to make everything look more effective and clean, so in our second one we made sure to use shot-reverse-shots and close-ups.

Our group did carry out adequate pre-production, we made scripts and storyboards for both preliminary tasks, we did change a few things whilst actually filming because we thought that the changes were better than what was originally there. We also did a whole new script for our second try.

In our final preliminary task the camera work was quite effective, it wasn’t as effective as we had hoped but it’s a pretty good standard. At the beginning of the video camera was slightly out of focus but then got better a few seconds later. Our close-ups were clean and not out of focus, our angles were also good.

I think we executed the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot-reverse-shots very well. We had used shot-reverse-shots during the conversation, we used match on action at the beginning of the clip where the actor had used the swipe card the enter the room. We also followed the 180 degree rule since we did not go past the 180 degree line.

I think that the continuity editing is clear but it could have been better at the beginning to show the actor walking into the room and out.

There are many ways on how I would improve this preliminary task. Firstly i’d do more shot-reverse-shots to make the conversation scene look more effective and quick, since we only did a few the clip seems too long and also make sure that the camera is always in focus. Secondly I’d improve on the continuity editing to make the clip look more clean. Lastly I’d improve the match on actions, I don’t think there were enough match on actions in our clip so I would add more.

I need to acquire good editing skills, camera and directing skills before I can start my film opening, I already have a few skills of each element but not enough to really perfect my film opening.