Preliminary task evaluation

AS preliminary task from Jemma Goulds on Vimeo.

I will be evaluating the preliminary task video ‘Always Late’ which I and my group made. I will discuss planning/ research and the production process. The preliminary task is a continuity activity which incorporates filming and editing. The criteria was to film a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down parallel to another character and having a short conversation. In addition the following editing techniques had to be included: match-on-action, shot-reverse shot and finally 180 degree rule.

Firstly, research was carried into previous AS preliminary tasks to clarify any misconceptions moreover, gain ideas that we could apply to our work, all of which were of great benefit to us. Many of the preliminary task activities completed by previous as students were all school based therefore we agreed it would practical to remain within the school vicinity to make it easily accessible for all group members.

Furthermore, we researched the various editing techniques to include match-
on-action, jump cuts and shot-reverse shots to name a few. Match-on-action consists of two shots. The first shows the beginning of the characters action and the second shot shows the ending stages.

Shot reverse shot is when a subject is communicating with another character outside of the frame and then the camera position changes to show the other character. To give the impression characters are talking to one another.

Again this was helpful as it gave us a better understanding of the requirements needed.

A story board was created to help us visualise our ideas and to help us identify any problems before the production process this was also used during production as a guide. Our initial idea was to have a student walking into the classroom late, being reprimanded by the teacher and leaving upset. Reason being we wanted to keep the idea fairly simple to avoid confusion moreover; it enabled us to incorporate all the criteria.

The location used for the video was the classroom as it fitted the narrative well.

I took the sole responsibility of editing the video using a programme called Adobe Premier I feel it went fairly well as I am rather familiar with the software. Many shots had to be removed due to background noise and because people who were not involved walked into the frame. To minimise the amount of ruined footage in the future we could make sure we use a quieter area and that a notice is displayed to avoid interruption. The above strategies will be applied in the production of my film opening.

Although there were a few obstacles to overcome I feel the project went quite well, in particular the planning and research as we saw all our ideas coming together.

Overall, I enjoyed this task and found it to be rather interesting however; it did prove challenging at times, especially the match-on-action as we did not know how to incorporate it without it appearing out of place. If given the opportunity to do this again I would ensure that the time given was used more efficiently by assigning each group member with a particular duty and communicating with one another. I am pleased with the outcome and would rate the video a seven out of ten nevertheless I will endeavour to improve and learn for future projects.