Evaluation Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in the progression to a full product?

I believe that there has been a large improvement between our opening sequence and the preliminary task in consideration of both camera and editing.

This was our brief in the preliminary task:
Continuity task 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 exchanged a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

With this in mind, we were able to create the following sequence:

We were able to successfully follow this brief by including all of the necessary components; including the match on action and the shot/reverse shot. However, there were still issues with our sequence, such as the jump cut at the end.

The way in which we approached our film opening sequence differed greatly than our preliminary task. However, what was required was quite similar:

There were also other factors that had to be taken into consideration for the film opening sequence, such as representation and our soundscape.

However, our preliminary task did help us establish an understanding of continuity techniques:

Match on action:

An action will be split between two shots in order to create a 'bridge' between them. This is done to create continuity between the shots and make the clip seem less constructed and more real.

We used a match on action in our long shots when the dealer turns over the fourth card in the poker game.

Shot/reverse shot
A technique used to create continuity from a conversation. A shot of one person's dialogue is followed be a shot of the other.
We were able to demonstrate this technique during the conversations in both our preliminary task and our film opening sequence:

Preliminary Task

Film Opening

Graphic match
A shot of an object or shape is followed by another shot of a similar shape.
This was a technique which we did not use in our preliminary task, but believed it would work well in our final sequence. We demonstrated a graphic match with the shots of the ring and the poker chip.

Lastly, the amount of technology available to us during the production of our opening sequence was huge compared to our preliminary task. We started with just a camera and an editing suite, but by the time we were working on our final cut we had also used the camera jib, studio lighting, Adobe After Effects and more. Therefore I would say the progression from the preliminary task to a full media product has been great for my learning.