On Friday, last week, we completed our preliminary exercise:
A continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, before exchanging several lines of dialogue. Demonstrate a match-on-action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
What is the 180-degree rule in context of this task?
The 180-degree rule is a guideline used on-screen, which shows to the audience the positions of two characters from one perspective. It requires using an imaginary, straight line connecting the two characters, which cannot be crossed. The camera must be kept on only one side of the line in order to keep the spatial relationship between two characters consistent, to avoid the viewer becoming disoriented. The image below shows an example of the 180-degree rule
What is match-on-action shot?
A match-on-action shot is a cut in which one shot changes to another, however continuing the action from the first shot to the second. For example, the first shot may capture a close up of a person opening a door, and then the shot changes to a long shot, however still depict them opening the door, therefore the action (door opening) is continued on from the first shot to the second. This creates a seamless, continuous effect, making it professional and smooth running.
Here is an example of the match-on-action shot in practice
What is shot/reverse shot?
A shot/reverse shot is a technique used in film, in which two or more characters positioned opposite from one another are often engaging in conversation. The camera shows one character looking at another, who is off screen, and switches between the two. It flicks between showing each character interacting with the other off screen character. This gives the impression the characters are looking at each other because they are opposite each other and are focused on the same fixed point (where the other character would be positioned). It creates a continuous effect, therefore making it smooth running, and allows the audience to realise the characters are interacting, without showing both of them in the shot.
Here is an example of the shot/reverse shot technique being practiced in film:
How did the task go?
Overall, I felt that we performed the task successfully. We were placed in a randomly generated group, so I was working with people I wasn't entirely familiar with. This didn't impact the task as much as I initially thought it would because we all felt comfortable putting forward our ideas to one another, therefore everybody contributed. We each naturally assumed and took on roles, and my role was to direct but everybody assisted each person with their role. A minor hitch was that we only had one hour of planning, however, we used it effectively and planned almost everything we needed to.
Casting
The casting of the roles was difficult, as we had to find two actors (one male and one female) who were both willing and had a free period at the time of filming. We cast the male role fairly promptly, however, we had to find a female role outside of the planning lesson, because so many available females weren't willing to become a part of the production vice versa.
Plot
The original plot of calling off a wedding the day of the wedding had to be discarded, due to lack of appropriate location and costume, so we opted for a break-up plot fairly close to their wedding. I devised the overall plot and then as a group we made minor tweaks, ensuring it was realistic and engaging. I also came up with each angle and shot beforehand so the storyboarder had no difficulty when drawing and creating ideas. The difficulty regarding the plot was that it was very unrelatable, therefore it was difficult to direct it to make it seem realistic as it was based on a situation little people our age had found themselves in. On the contrary, it was an easy-to-imagine scenario and the originality makes it more interesting for the viewer as it is unique.
Location
The project was set within one of the character's office, so being based in a professional environment (school) made it easy to find a suitable location. Our location was convenient, as it was positioned very close to our classroom, meaning transporting equipment back and forth was little hassle. The room was good too, because it was quiet, meaning there would be no background noise and the dialogue would be picked up best. The disadvantage regarding the location was the size of the room chosen and the lighting. The room was so small, making it difficult to move the equipment around, make sure the crew was out of shot and move the camera into spots to achieve a good enough angle. We had to reposition the furniture in the room before filming to be able to fit the tripod and camera into the corner for particular shots, this made space between the door and the seating quite limited, which made the office appear even smaller on camera. There was only one source of natural light in the room (a skylight) as well, so it was badly lit making it necessary to turn on the lights. This was a problem because artificial lighting creates an orange, fake glow whereas natural lighting is preferable as its more attractive and creates a more relaxed environment. On the other hand, the plot was a heated conversation, therefore it was not relaxing and this effect wasn't necessary. Artificial lighting may make the film appear grainy too, however, the images came out fine.
Filming
It didn't take long to set up the equipment and become familiar and adjusted to using them, as I'd used all three (tripod, camera and SD card) before in my free time. Aligning and filming the shots outside of the room was easy because there was plenty of space to move freely and place the camera away from the actor to obtain the desired shot. It was straight-forward and plain sailing to film the shots with no dialogue, as the male character's face was not in shot and didn't show him laughing. On the other hand, filming the dialogue was difficult as he kept smiling, laughing and looking into the lens of the camera. We worked around this by mainly filming over his shoulder, and having his face in shot as little as possible, as well as asking him to control himself as well as he could. Filming inside the room was difficult because of the lack of space. This meant the camera had to be awfully close to the actors, making it hard to get an appropriate shot. Regarding the 180-degree rule, we established where the line we could not cross was (next to the actors) and made sure we did not cross it with the camera. Filming was also made difficult, as the camera went dead so we had to plug it in and keep it connected to the wall, meaning we had less movement with it.
Editing
Editing was a new experience for the entire group, as none of us had used the software (Adobe Premiere Pro) prior to this. We soon became adjusted to the software, and it seemed straightforward. However, we encountered problems with it, as the PC was having difficulty running it smoothly and therefore refused to playback the video, making it impossible to edit. We tried rebooting the program, which did not solve the issue. We then restarted the PC, which only temporarily solved it, as the problem occurred again. In the end, we were cautious with how many programs we had open, and made sure most of them were closed besides Adobe Premiere Pro.
If you had the chance to do it again, what would you change/do better?
If I were to redo the task, I would opt for a larger, better lit location, as the size of the room made it hard to manoeuvre, as well as obtain the best angles possible. Moreover, I would use a microphone, to ensure the audio was as high quality as possible, as the audio came out quite muffled. I would also follow the 180-degree rule more precisely, as it is filmed over different shoulders of one character at a certain point, which gives the impression of breaking the guideline, even though the line was not crossed. I would be more careful with the angles to make sure they were as appealing as possible and I would correct the mistake made in the video, where the character goes to sit down the lighting and angle is different in contrast to the next shot of him. This mistake occured because every footage we originally recorded of him sitting down wasn't appropriate, and had to rerecord it later on.
Here is the finished result:
Overall, I'm fairly satisfied with the outcome of the task, and found it enjoyable to film and edit with my team.
Thanks for reading
-Wendy
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