Evaluation

Evaluation Activity 7 - 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?

• From creating our preliminary task, we have learnt a lot about the camera's and how to use them. We have learnt how to use different techniques, for example, match on action, shot, reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

When creating our preliminary task, we used match on action when Amie went to open the door to go inside the building. Using match on action appeared to be quite a successful technique, so we chose to use it again in our final production. The left image above is of our preliminary task, and the right is of our final product. When using match on action for our final product we chose to make it a closer up shot, so that the main focus was on the door knocker, not anything else in the background. Also by making it a close up, the area around looked darker and more frightening, and with the added lion figure on the knocker it supported our aim of the horror genre.

 








These two pictures above are examples of camera techniques we liked, so decided to repeat. The picture on the right is of our preliminary task, where we had Amie walking past the camera, and as it seemed to prove to be quite effective, we decided to do the same thing when it came to our final product. By having a shot like this, it makes our characters movements clear, and leaves the audience unknowing due to not seeing our character on the screen for a few seconds.

The image on the left is our preliminary task, and the image on the right is our final product. A shot we found effective in our preliminary task was the 'over the shoulder' shot. In our preliminary task, it proved to be an effective technique as it would make the audience able to see who was talking and their emotions, and also show who they are talking too. By having an over the shoulder shot, it also shows you the other characters perspective, and the audience get to see it in the same way. For our final product we decided to use a few over the shoulder shots, for example at the beginning (screen grab on the right) and when the bad guy is at the window etc. 

 


 The above shots are a shot, reverse shot. The image on the left is from our preliminary task, and the image on the ring from our final product. In our preliminary, we found that the 'shot, reverse shot' was effective at showing emotions so we chose to use it again in our final product. Also by having this shot, it shows the audience that the characters are clearly talking to each other, and also shows exactly where the character is looking.

 The above screen shot shows an editing technique we used for our film. The effect was 'fade in'. We chose to have the scene fading in as the change from the hand going down the window, to the villain walking away as it was too dramatic to just appear, and may not have looked as professional. By having the 'fade in' the scenes fit together better as the killer was already walking by the time the scene faded in.

 This is a similar effect we used, which was the 'fade to black' effect. We used the fade to black on three occasions. First of all after the newspapers, then after the hand scene, and finally after our villain had walked away. The fade to black editing technique was used as it made our audience believe they would not see the villain again, when really they would. It also helped to create suspense as our audience wanted to know what happened next, not just see a black screen, so by having it fade out, it made them more likely to carry on watching our film to see if the villain gets caught. 

• From our preliminary task to our final product, I have learnt how to make scenes fit together properly so that they are smooth, as in our preliminary, there were some pauses where it was clear our characters were waiting to be told to move, and also some areas where we should have cut the scenes more because the scenes are very slow. When making our final product we made sure to cut the scenes as much as possibly in order to show good continuity, and no pauses. We have also learnt how to make an 'over the shoulder shot' look more interesting as in one of our scenes there is some bush in it to give it more of a deserted feel, and in the other it is from the villain's perspective.