In our preliminary task there are a lot things that I would change such as the background noise, the printer as well as somebody laughing in the background deterred your attention from the types of shots being displayed. The changes in-between the shots aren't smooth either and so we should have clipped them in editing so the change went a lot more smoothly. The camera was also shaky on more than one occasion and now I realise how beneficial the tripod would have been during filming. The shot of Shanie standing outside I thought was too long and so took up a lot of the 30 second slot. Our preliminary task wasn't well planned but at the time we were happy with our final product as we had fit the criteria required.
In editing as it was our first time editing a video I do believe that we put insignificant transitions into it which made it look amateur.
As we presented our preliminary task to our class we got feedback form them and so this helped us a lot in progressing, when the task was being shown to the class they had to take notes on:
-Camera Angles
-Mise-En-Scene
-Shot Reverse Shot
-Match on Action
-Editing.
-180 Degree Rule.
The feedback we got although very useful was also very mixed with some positive comments but also some negative comments, all of their comments were taken on board however and we are going to ensure that our opening two minutes will not have these mistakes in.
Camera Angle Feedback
The comments we got back for the camera angles were good comments as our classmates said that we kept quite a steady camera throughout filming and that the shot of Shanie in the beginning was very good. The reason they had said it was a good shot was because of the originality and the creativity of the shot as it wasn't a simple head on shot, the shot was taken in a room but the view was through a small window on the door.The other shots we did was a low angle shot which turned into an extreme close up on the first scene when Shanie's walking towards the camera.We also did another extreme close up which were of Shanie's hands to try and emphasize how anxious she was, by having Shanie exhale deeply through the window we portrayed that same feeling of anxiety. The way Shanie opened the door was slowly and hesitant which portrayed yet again anxiety.
Mise-En-Scene
The Mise-En-Scene wasn't mentioned during the feedback at all and so that automatically made me feel as if it wasn't great, at the time the room we used was fine but then looking back we could have used a different location as well as a different scenario.
Match on ActionThe feedback we got for our match on action shots were very good, our classmates had said that the match on action shots were effective and that they worked with the scenario and their placement within the task. The only negative comment was what Shanie and I had noticed but failed to fix which was that there was a slight pause from when Shanie was pushing down the door handle and opening the door. As we had noticed the millisecond pause we personally thought it was where the computer made the clip glitch but upon watching it again we did realise that it was the timing.
180 Degree Rule
We didn't get much feedback on this particular topic from the class, the limited feedback we did get back however was that we didn't break the 180 Degree Rule and so it worked perfectly as we kept within the guidelines.
EditingWe edited most of the clips as they were either too long, too dark or we just wanted to add an effect to try and enhance the emotion behind the scene. The clip with James getting up and leaving the room we had to lighten as we couldn't see his face, we also had to cut that scene as it was too long and took away the ethos of the clip. The comments we got back for the transitions we added were negative comments at the class felt as if they weren't effective and they ruined the flow of the scenes, by adding in the transitions we also cut off a shot reverse shot clip which is annoying as we didn't quite fulfil everything required even though we had. The scene which people found the best with the effect we added was in fact the last scene, after James walks out of the room and Shanie puts her head in her hands, we added a 'Ghosting' effect which really did work and was personally my favourite scene. We did learn from the feedback that less is more when it comes to editing as it can look sloppy and amateur, exactly what we're trying to avoid.
My Evaluation of the Preliminary TaskAfter hearing all the comments from our class I thoroughly agreed with all their points as they were accurate and they included things that we can improve on which is just what we needed. The advice that members of the class did give us was insightful and really did help us think about all of the important camera shots and types as well as editing. I agree that the transitions did ruin scenes looking back at the task, the entire task would have looked better without any. The lapse between Shanie opening the door and then walking through it was only a small lapse but as soon as we saw it we should have reacted straight away instead of blaming the equipment. We are still fairly happy with our final video as we had difficulties when filming and editing although we were the last group to finish we didn't think our was the worst. However if I could do this task again I would as I would use a different scenario, location and only edit where appropriate.
