My First practical task was to create a short film showing the use of match on action and then edit it in Final Cut Pro.
Here is the final result of the short film.
Who helped make this film?
When creating this film, the production team consisted of Me, Lucy Smith and Dan Vidmar. Together we all had equal input in creating this short film.
What went well?
When producing this short film, we came up with an idea by discussing with each other the possibilities and ideas for our film without overpowering each other or ignoring people's thoughts and opinions. Also when producing the film, the actors were willing to follow our clear instructions to producing the comedic performance we were going for when we created and wrote the short script for our film. The precision we used when creating the match on action shots gave us an easier job when editing and by being precise, we prevented any continuity errors. We did this by watching back the clips
and if there was a slight mistake with arm movements or something moved, we re-recorded it so there wasn't any obvious continuity.
What was good?
All of the clips matched up for example when the actress walks through the door, she didn't open the door twice or she skipped opening the door. I think the music fitted well with the film; by adding it at the begging and end suggests it is a sad story but really turns out to be a comedy. Also the overall filming process was good. As a production team, we didn't muck around, we knew what we were doing meaning we could get the actresses to position themselves in the exact place we wanted meaning again there was no room for major continuity.
Following the production rules
Continuity- This task needs to contain no continuity errors. When for example Tina opens the door at the beginning of the film, when we cut to the front shot she uses the same are to push the door open and the door is ajar the same distance when it cuts from the behind shot to the front shot. The continuity rule for me seems well thought about and followed meaning the film flows and no errors can be seen.
180 Degree Rule- When filming we never broke the 180 degree rule. At no point does the camera cross the 180 degree line meaning the viewer watching the film is never confused and mislead by any error. for example when we shot the conversation cutting between Tilly and Tina, we never crossed the 180 degree line meaning the viewer knew what was going on and where each other characters were positioned at the time.
Match On Action- The whole point of this task was to great good match on action shots meaning the camera cut from a different angle it followed on making it look like one whole sequence. I think we followed this rule well as all of the match on actions we used followed on making the film flow and look like all one sequence when in actual fact it was a number of cut shots edited together.
What didn't go as well?
When creating our match on action shots, we sometimes forgot what they did in the previous shot meaning the match on actions didn't match up. This then meant we had to re- shoot the shot. Also the noise in the background was a little off putting to the actresses causing them to lose focus and also the sound was then picked up on the camera mic meaning we had to re-shoot a number of clips.
What did I learn about making a film and working with a production team?
When creating this film I learnt that everything doesn't always go to plan but you just have to find away round the changes and get along with it. Also I learnt that even if you have a good production team, if you don't have actors that are willing and able to meet the requirements for the characters created, it can make the film look amateur and unrealistic (we luckily had good actresses). Also I leant that there is more to shooting a film than people think. Every little intricate detail has to be correct for something like a match on action to look right. If one slight detail is incorrect, continuity errors begin to appear, again making a film look amateur.
