Looking back at your preliminary task (the

continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full

product?

Preliminary task

Since filming my preliminary task I have been able to develop and learn new skills on camera work and editing whilst filming my opening. I had a few problems whilst creating the preliminary task eg. Shaky camera movement. I was able to improve my skill and not have these issues whilst filming my actual final product.

Editing

When I first began editing my preliminary task together I had quite a few issues. Firstly I had never edited any videos like this together before and I found it difficult to fit the videos together and have the right timing, I also found it difficult using the programme Adobe Premiere as I had never used or even heard of it before, I found it exceedingly hard to get used to as there was so many options and settings and I found it very difficult in the beginning. Creating my preliminary task was very helpful as luckily it improved my skills and allowed me to learn and develop them to help me make my final opening.

Camera work/shots

From making the preliminary task to my final product I really improved my camera skills. By then I had learnt multiple new shots and camera techniques which made the opening seem much more realistic. I used shots such as over the shoulder, close ups and medium shots. Whilst filming the preliminary task I didn’t have a tripod so almost every shot was extremely shaky, fortunately for the real opening I did so it all flowed very well and there was no very noticeable shaky camera work.

Continuity

In the preliminary task continuity was a problem, there were a few issues which made it an unrealistic video, the camera was incredibly shaky, things like the door handle shot was filmed too long and the door was opened too slowly, one of the characters looked directly at the camera etc. In my real opening I think I handled continuity quite well as I felt it flowed well and there was hardly any mistakes making it as realistic as I could.

180 degree rule & shot/reverse shot

Whilst filming R.I.P Stella I came to realise how important the 180 degree rule was. At certain points while filming we broke it by accident then when we came to watching over the videos we noticed and re-filmed them straight away, this was because when we looked through all the footage it looked weird and didn’t flow well as it should have. I realised the 180 degree rule is a key concept to filming as it really made our film seem as realistic as it could and allowed it to move along successfully. In our final opening we didn’t use any shot/reverse shot because there was no diegetic sound. We experimented whilst filming shooting some shot/reverse shot parts and I realised how well and realistic this shot makes a conversation look.