Preliminary task - Evaluation

The storyline to our preliminary exercise focused on an exchange of items between two characters so both characters are placated. Maddison is eager to gain possession of a crown to serve to her master while Corey is keen to recieve a sandwich he so dearly craves in return of his efforts to provide her with the crown and therefore she is not punished by her master.

I believe our storyline could have been more stringent and better related to the thriller genre as there are some aspects of our exercise that are rather comical and the action taking place is not clearly traditional to the thriller genre. An example of this is when the character talks to the sandwich, an inanimate object which is a comical element in the scene and gives the sequence an overall comical vibe.

Moreover, I believe our group complied to the technical aspects of the assessment criteria, effectively demonstrating our understanding of continuity editing. We were able to include all of the listed editing techniques focusing on making them as efficient as possible as well as being able to execute them to a high standard.

Match on Action

We used the Match on Action editing technique within our exercise from 44 - 47 seconds where Corey walks through the door. The camera was positioned within the room while he walks out of the door placed directly opposite. I believe we executed match on action to a high standard in the sense that we made it clear that Corey was walking through the same door he previously walked out of in the last shot based on the setting on screen. Furthermore the editing of this particular sequence was effective as it matched how he opened the door and what he was carrying with him as well as his clothing being the same as the last shot. Despite this, I believe our editing could have been of a better standard in which the door is in the same position to where the last shot left off as the door is near enough closed as he walks through contrary to it being opened to greater extent when he first opened the door.

Eye Line Match

We utilised the Eye Line Match editing technique within our preliminary exercise from 48 - 51 seconds. Maddie is looking away off camera to her left to imply that her attention is fixed on a character off screen. It then becomes evident to the audience when we see Leigh placing the throne on her head in the next shot that that is what Maddie is looking at. We performed the Eye line match effectively as even though the shots of the two characters were done separately and in different locations, it still seemed as if one was looking at the other and therefore the audience believe this while watching our exercise. I believe the execution of this shot was technically accurate although the camera could have been closer on Leigh placing the crown on her head so the audience get a stronger feel of her emotions at that point in time. In addition, the camera could have been in front of Leigh instead of at the side to execute the Eye Line Match to a heightened extent as the audience would be capable of relating further to the action on screen.

Shot Reverse Shot

The Shot Reverse Shot editing technique consisted of the majority of our exercise with the main bulk of it being a conversation between the two main characters. There are some aspects of our shot reverse shot that are of an extremely high quality and others where there could be improvements. I believe the speed of our editing was effective as each sequence of our shot reverse shot was quick and efficient and there was no left over baggage time in the editing which made the conversation appear naturalistic and not too structured so the audience believe the characters are having a genuine conversation. Furthermore, the editing was performed effectively where all the action from the previous shot matched that of the next one to small detail for example, while the camera was behind Maddie at 12 seconds she looks down towards the crown on the table and then at 13 seconds the camera as changed to facing her and she places her hands on the crown as she picks it up demonstrating our understanding of continuity editing and using match on action. We could have improved our shot reverse shot by placing the camera in exactly the same position on either side of the shot so that every shot was equal however I believe this may have been hard to execute and would be time consuming so it only proves as a minor improvement we could make.

180 Degree Rule

We done well not to break the 180 degree rule within our preliminary exercise. This could have easily been done when shooting our shot reverse shot sequence if we were to place the camera at one side of the conversation and then move it round to the other in a consecutive fashion as it would have looked as if the two characters had changed position while the conversation progressed. This would make our exercise look unprofessional and of a poorer quality and therefore I believe our group done well not to break this rule while recording our short preliminary film.

Sound

We could have implemented non diegetic sound to compliment the diegetic sound within our film as this would demonstrate our understanding of editing and clarity within film. We could have used suspenseful music to play over the main conversation which would relate our exercise further to the thriller genre and make the action more effective for our audience when watching. This is something to consider when we make our final thriller to improve the quality of our work.

Overall

Overall I believe our preliminary exercise was conducted effectively to demonstrate our understanding of continuity editing. We met all the listed editing techniques on the assessment criteria to a high standard although the execution of these techniques could have been slightly better. Despite this, I believe our work has prepared us for our final thriller production and we can implement any further improvements taken from our preliminary exercise.