Prelim Task!

Today I posted my prelim Media Studies task, shot in September 2012, online in order to receive feedback from my peers and teenage target audience. On beginning my AS year I, working in a small group, was given the brief to create a short film featuring a conversation. The main aim was to demonstrate the typical Hollywood style of continuity editing. It is important that I look back at how successful our efforts were in order to determine where my group went wrong. Also, I must identify what was executed well and, therefore, should be emulated in my final piece. 

My simple prelim short film featured one character opening a door and crossing a room before engaging in speech with a second character. Our chosen conversation was a job interview because we felt this could be portrayed effectively through a two shot.

The shooting of our short film was mostly successful. Following the brief throughout we included a two shot, over the shoulder shots and close ups as well as adding POV’s. By filming from a variety of angles we left ourselves with many options for editing. This also meant that we could cut from shot to shot frequently making the film more interesting for an audience. However, in postproduction, we had almost too many shots to chose from. Multiple angles had to be rejected for the final film.

Another problem we encountered while filming was finding enough space to shoot the two shot. The room we had chosen as a setting was very small. In order to achieve the correct framing we had to set-up the tripod extremely close to the opposite wall allowing less freedom.

 The editing of our job interview sequence was incredibly successful. We were sure to time the cutting of shots perfectly in order to achieve continuity with actions and speech. The fade to black transition was inserted at the beginning and end causing the film to flow. However, on looking back at some clips, we noticed how lighting and focus could have been improved. Sound also caused many problems. For example, many clips had to be muted due to outside noise and audio transitions were required for the sound to flow. 

Overall our short film production was quite successful. Although it is not the most creative film it did fulfil the brief and demonstrated continuity. However, the next time we direct a film for course work the sound and lighting could perhaps be improved by using a studio. The film would have also been a lot better if the actors had memorised their lines rather than holding scripts.

Tomorrow I will be sure to include any feedback or addvice I recieve in my blog post! Let's see if my target audience agree with my opinion...