Evaluating the Preliminary task

The task we were given, was to create a short scene in which we used match on action and reverse shot while still maintaining the 180-degree rule. In this task, we were told that Character 1 would walk through a door and have a conversation with Character 2. Before we filmed this scene, we had to prepare our storyline by storyboarding the events.

During the filming, I was an actor and played character 2, my role was to be consistant throughout my scene so that we made no continuity errors. Charlotte, as the camera person, used a panning shot at the beginning when Sophie walked towards the door as this would show the process of her getting to the determined spot. She also used a medium shot as this was appropriate considering what the viewer needed to see.




To show match on action, Charlotte only filmed Sophie walking past the door but did not show the process of her opening the door. The audience is expected to understand the fact that she has walked through the door. We made sure to maintain the 180 degree rule as the frame was shot from the same side. A medium long shot was used here so that we could see the character clearer from a further perspective.

When character 1 spoke to character 2 we used shot reverse shot to follow the conversation between the two from each character's point of view. Again, Charlotte only filmed from one side and conserved the 180 degree rule. We also made sure during the acting, that we made no continuity errors with the phone, for example, in this frame so that it didn't change position suddenly.

A medium long shot as well as over the shoulder shot was used in the shot reverse shot frames so that there was a clear exchange of speech between the two characters. The characters were positioned in the centre of the frame so that they are the main subject of the scene. This also helps to draw the attention to them instead of the action in the background.

I was happy with final results because I think that as a group we created and developed a realistic scene with exchange of dialogue in which we had a smooth use of match on action and shot reverse shot. However, we had a slight continuity error with the phone as we forgot to shoot Sophie putting it back into her pocket, which made the editing process more difficult. I think the camera was the perfect distance from the subject as it was close enough for the audience to see the expressions on the characters' faces, but not too close so that it was overly dramatic. Overall, I think we worked well as a group because we all put ideas forward and we all helped to contribute with the making of this scene. We also took on each other's criticisms and listened to different opinions to create our finished product as such.
I now feel confident with the use of the camera as well as Imovie on the Mac computers. Throughout the filming of this scene and previous works, I have learnt to create different shots and use different angles with the camera, as well as how to set it up on the tripod. Also, I learnt how to use Imovie and edit films by cutting, adding transitions, music, titles etc.