Editing practise with Imogen Welsford

In order to practice editing for our coursework, my self and Imogen in a pair were given clips of video and audio from a scene of film and were asked to reconstruct the scene ourselves in Adobe CS3 Premier Pro, a professional piece of editing software on the Mac's. We had to trim all of the clips, place them in the right order and in the right times, cut and place in the audio clips, create and place in titles. We did this as a team, working together to decide where and what to cut/trim and where they should all be placed. As a final cut I think that myself and Imogen did a great job when comparing the sequence to the original. I believe that all of our timing with the visuals and audio were all near perfect and that through our editing I believe that we successfully created a sense of anticipation and suspense which was apparent in the original edit. I think the one weakness that we had is that the titles were a little off, our font decision didn't match those of the original and i think that we inadvertently at points used different fonts. Apart from this i think that me and Imogen did a great job.

Our Edit....

Continuity Task: Evaluation

All in all I think that the process of planning, filming, editing and our final piece went very well. I think that our group ethic and individual roles definitely helped tom make this task enjoyable as well  as a great way to improve our skills in film making. The final film i believe is very strong and follows all of the rules that was placed upon it (See previous post). To start, i think that our opening sequence that we filmed in the cafe was very strong. I believe that we used a variety of camera angles along with a shot reverse shot. The pace of the editing was consistent and we are very happy with that part of the sequence. During the sequence where i am walking i think we could have improved on slightly. I think that all of the shots were strong and that they all worked well in terms of setting a scene and working along side with our non-diegetic music but i think that the shot in where there is tracking is not as strong as it could have been. I think that their was a bit to much camera wobble and that the shot was a little do different and didn't help with setting tone within the sequence. At the end of this walking sequence there is a shot of me entering a door, where in fact i enter through one door and exit through a different door leading into a different location, which i thought was quite clever. The dialogue sequence followed and this is I believe is where the most variety is with in the short film. We used long, medium and close ups, zooms, low and high angles. I think that all of these elements added up to make a strong final sequence to our film. I think that if were to change this last sequence I think we should include the use of over the shoulder shots during the dialogue to give a bit more variety and just in general give it a more polished finish.

Myself and my group are very happy with our effort and hope that the skills and processes used to create this will carry over and help us with the making of our final film.

Continuity Task: Finished Edit

This is mine, Charlee's, Imogen's and Bethany's finished continuity task.

I will evaluate in a following post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoAHBSTtd4E

Continuity Task: Filming

Last Wednesday we filmed out continuity task. As we needed our friend Giles as an actor and his timetable was a bit different to ours we were forced to film the last scene first. This was ok as we had the time to film the rest of the scenes that day. Our first location was the corridor downstairs in the Chikara centre so we set up our camera on a tripod to film a long shot with an eye line match of myself entering the room. This was followed be us filming the dialogue sequence of our film, using SRS's with an eye line match and also a few other camera angles thrown in such as an low angle shot looking up at Giles at one point. Once this had been done we filmed the shot of myself storming out of the room using a low angle long shot.

Once this had been completed we started to film the beginning and middle section of our film. Our location for the begging of our scene was the Cafe 2000 where i would be alone and i would receive a text that wasn't meant for me. We started with a  long shot of myself at a table, establishing my location, then cutting to medium shots of me. When receiving the text, we filmed my phone actually receiving a text which we would then add in sound effects whilst editing. we then filmed a quick SRS between myself and the text on the phone. This then cuts to a medium shot of myself standing up and then cutting to a low angle shot of my feet leaving the room, showing i am changing location. From this point on we filmed myself from a variety of angles walking down the Java corridors until i reach the LRC doors. 

This ended the filming process and we were all very happy with how it had gone. I believe personally that how choices of locations and sots to use were interesting and varied, which will hopefully all add up to make a good short sequence as part of our practice in filming and editing. 

Continuity Task: Storyboard

In our coursework group, Myself, Imogen Welsford, Charlee Murphy-Frost and Bethany Ainsworth-Coles, we came up with our idea for our Continuity Task mini film. 

We would have a man receive a message he wasn't supposed to by his partner, revealing that they had be cheating on the protagonist. He would then walk to the place that he knew they would be and confront them. This includes an extended walking scene which is where we will showcase the different camera angles and movements we know and are able to use. When the protagonist eventually arrive's he see's the man and woman kissing and becomes upset. This is the point where the dialogue would start. We will be using SRS eyeline matching shots during the dialogue with a few different camera angles and placements. After this exchange the protagonist will leave and the film will end.

This is the storyboard that myself and Imogen created whilst Charlee and Bethany worked on locations and dialogue.

 

Continuity Task: Introduction and Planning

We have taken a short break from the planning of our short film so that we can complete a 'Continuity Task'. The task has been set as wuick practice of making film and following the rules of planning and filming. We have been set the task to create a minute long piece of film that showcases the following skills:

- Not breaking the 180 degree rule
- Using different types of shots and angles
- Using non diegetic and diegetic audio
- Using a Shot Reverse Shot
- Using dialogue between 2 or more characters
- Keeping a sense of Continuity throughout the film

Our first task is to come up with a quick concept and to create a storyboard which we will complete this week.