Preliminary Exercise Evaluation

Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?
During the task, I was working in a group consisting of myself, Ignacio, Ela and Serena. Serena and I were actors, and played the boss and the cleaner respectively, with Ela on camera and Ignacio as director. However, we tried to help out with each other's roles whenever possible to create a high-quality production. I feel as though we divided roles between us quite well and we were all able to cope with the task effectively.

How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?
The plan for our sequence was to have a comedy sketch in which the boss of a company invites an employee into her office to praise them for their hard work. What the boss doesn't understand is that they have called in the cleaner by mistake and doesn't realise due to their talkative nature. As the genre we were trying to connote was comedy, we spent a lot of time working on the script and the characters. The character of the boss was made to be talkative and interruptive whereas the cleaner was obedient and a little bit shy. These character traits allowed us to build up to the punchline, making the sketch more humourous.
During the planning phase, we arranged meetings for us to decide these key features of our sequence. A couple of processes we used include brainstorming and shot listing, as well as brief rehearsals of each possible narrative. When we were taking our shots, there were a couple of key theories we were considering. We tried to incorporate the 180 degree angle and 30 degree angle theories in to every shot, as well as looking for a match on action. These theories were an important factor during the production of our sequence, and had a large impact on how the finished piece turned out.

What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?
The camera we used to record our software was a Canon LEGRIA HF G30 Camcorder, on a tripod and fitted with a directional microphone. This piece of equipment, as well as all of the attachments, was integral to our production as it allowed us to record our footage in a very high quality. The tripod meant that our shots were not shaky and unprofessional, whilst the microphone was used for clear and coherent sound. The editing software we used was Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5. Adobe Premiere Pro made it very easy to organise our shots and we were able to cut our shots with much accuracy. This was key, as it allowed for us to show off several matches on action, such as the knocking on, and opening of the door.

What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?
The most important things which affected our production were the continuity and narrative theories. Narrative theory specifically played an important role in our planning, as in the end, we were trying to tell a story. If the audience cannot understand the plot of a comedy sketch, it is unlikely that they will find it funny. Therefore, we tried to incorporate different techniques to build a more interesting and developed narrative. For example: we used binary opposites with the personalities of the two characters. The boss was interruptive and slightly vain, whereas the cleaner was obedient, nervous and was worried about speaking up about the boss's mistake. When we were shooting, continuity theory was at the front of our minds. We decided to act out whole sequences (filming the cleaner walking to the door and knocking instead of just the knocking) to make the scene more natural. We also used match on action to achieve this, as it makes the shots more fluid and realistic. The 180 degree and 30 degree rules also had a large impact on the shoot as ignoring them will break the continuity of the sequence.
Most of the theories weren't that necessary during the editing, as they only really applied to the shots themselves. However, the number of each shot we had impacted the editing phase quite heavily, as there were some instances where we were forced to use a shot as we had no other alternatives. The master shot was also useful in editing, as it acted as an anchor. We were able to bring the audience back to the master shot when the cleaner was sitting down and when he was leaving at the end of the sequence.

How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve or do differently?
Overall, I think we achieved our goal of creating a short sketch that follows the rules of continuity. We followed the brief, as our sequence depicts a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down opposite another character, with whom they have a conversation with. We were able to demonstrate a clear understanding of match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180° rule. We managed to complete our planning and practical objectives within the given time limit and personally, I believe we have created a high-quality piece of media. However, that does not mean that our sequence is without it's problems. During our shoot, we only took a few takes of each shot, some of which contained mistakes or other faults that made them unusable. This meant that when began editing, we were forced to use some shots with poor framing as we had no other alternative. If we had more time and more experience, we may have been able to fix this by cropping the shot, but we would not have been able to achieve this within the single hour we had. The other issue we had was that our final shot broke the 30 degree rule, as the set-up of the shot was too similar to the one before it. This is something we could have amended if we had taken a wider variety of shots during the shoot, but again, we likely could not have done this within an hour. These are the changes I would have made if I were to repeat the task. Despite these issues, I still believe our sequence was able to effectively convey a sound understanding of narrative and continuity theory.

What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework?
Personally, this task has helped to further my understanding of continuity rules and how to spot them. It becomes much easier to locate different ideas and theories in a film or video when you have tried to recreate and follow them yourself. Not only is this knowledge applicable to the film opening I will be producing in the future, but it is also useful in examining other pieces of media and the ways in which they follow these rules. The equipment I used for this task was familiar to me with the exception of the camera, as we have only used this type of camcorder once or twice before. Therefore it was useful to be able to use it in a more professional production as it allowed me to further cement my understanding of how to use the equipment. To conclude, I believe the most significant things that I have learnt during this activity were the execution of narrative and continuity theory.