The group's preliminary film task went well overall, though they broke the 180-degree rule during filming of conversations. They were well organized, completed filming within two lessons, and had an actor who was also a group member. During editing, it took some time to get used to the software but they finished in about 3/4 lessons. For the next task, they would re-film those scenes and consider filming outside of school to have more location options. The film met most of the brief but did not follow the 180-degree rule. Technical elements like titles, sound, camera work, costumes, and editing were done appropriately for the target teenage audience and genre.
1. Evaluating our preliminary task
What went well?
I found that our preliminary task went well, mainly because as a group we were well organised, we
may have had a few people come and go with a bit of confusion, but it was still well planned. We
managed to do our filming in a two lesson period and got everything we needed, this put us a head
of other people who were still planning at this point. Also we had an advantage that one of our
actors was also a group member.
We took a while to get into the swing of things for the editing, but once we got the hang of it, we
finished it in about 3/4 lessons.
What would we do differently next time?
Unfortunately, when filming we broke the 180-degree rule. Next time we would re-film this part of
footage to correct it, but we didn’t this time because we didn’t realise till we had editing most of it.
Also I would think about where we set it a bit more. We wanted to have a darker room to set the
scene more but as we chose to film during school time we are limited on places we can film. Next
time I think our better option would be to do it outside of school.
To what extent did we meet the brief?
‘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 exchanges a couple of lines of
dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.’
We met the brief well, we had a character opening a door, walking into a room, sitting down
opposite another character and they exchanged dialogue. However we did not use the 180-degree
rule that we were asked to. We didn’t purposely look over this but we know where we happened to
go wrong.
Technical skills
Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task
Our target audience for this task was young adults. I feel our material met what we wanted it to, it
contains swearing which wold not be appropriate for a younger age than 16. Also the characters
are also 16/17 which makes it more appealing to or age range and more relatable. The relationship
between both characters gives a very obvious vibe of violence and danger, giving the impression to
viewers something off screen between them have happened, which wold be more difficult for a
younger age to pick up.
Using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions
We decided to open our film with a plain black background, and put our title “Inquisition” on top of
this and to fade in onto the screen. We decided to have it fade in because if it just appeared with no
sound effect o transition it may look like it isn’t supposed to be there. Along with this we decided to
have the names of both actors crawl across the bottom of the screen, this isclassic of most
2. filmsshowing who is playingmain characters. We end with rolling credits, showing names of people
involved with the making of the film, on screen and off screen. This is typical to movies.
Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set
We use a humming sound through out our piece, this gives our audience an uncomfortable feeling
and the effect of the tension rising. It also gives our film great suspense when there is silence. We
also used a sound for when the door is opened, this also creates tension and emphasis’ someone
entering a room. We edited our film with just normal cuts and not adding any transitions, we found
that our piece still worked nicely with no transitions like dissolves.
Shooting material appropriate to the task set, including controlled use of the camera, attention to
framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene
We wanted to include many angels in our piece, we liked the idea of there being CCTV in every
corner of the room as well as POV angels from our characters and over the shoulder shots. Our high
angels were just the two cameras on tripods, this made them steady, we also had a low angel shot
when our woman character walked into the room, this gives her instantly a higher status. We used
an extreme close up of our male characters face to create tension for our viewers and the
characters. We did shoot lots of different angels however we made a mistake and forgot to follow
the 180 degree rule during the conversations shot reverse shot. I’m pretty sure we wont forget to do
this next time!
Using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of
shot transitions and other effects
Our choice of costumes we chosen carefully, we chose black for the male to made him seem
negative and give a feel he’s the ‘bad guy’ and we put the woman in black and white with red lipstick
to represent power and danger. In also makes her seem formal and with a higher status.
Overall im pretty happy with our preliminary task. I think it all work out well and came together
nicely. We used a good amount of different angels and these all were chosen to give the right effect.
One this we will take from doing this is to pay attention more to the 180 degree rule and to think
more about where we would film it although we were limited as to where we could film because we
were in school, I think next time we will do it outside of school.