Evaluation of short film

Evaluation

My brief was to film a short conversation between two people that lasted for a duration of no longer then two minutes.  The film had to include a demonstration of shot reverse shot, match on action and the rule of the 180-degree line.

A shot reverse shot is used during the two conversations. The camera is placed behind the opposite persons shoulder to who is speaking so that we can see who is speaking and who is listening. The camera then goes behind the other persons shoulder once they start speaking.  A match on action shot is used to help the film flow continuously by placing two shots together. The 180-degree line rule is keeping the camera to one side of the room and not crossing it. This is to stop the film from having low continuity so it flows smoothly and also doesn’t confuse the viewer.

To plan our film, we first started by creating a script and a storyboard. This is to assure we knew what was going to be said in the film and what shots needed to be filmed. We also found an appropriate location in the college building to film our piece and wrote down a shot list to follow through and help us when filming. Last we took a risk assessment of the room to minimize and potential hazards.

We filmed our piece using a video camera and tripod to keep the film steady. We started by filming a long shot of Jess walking down the corridor, grabbing onto the door handle and stepping inside the room. Our next shot was a close up of her then grabbing onto the door handle, opening the door and stepping inside. The next shot we took was a long shot of her walking into the room with the door closing and her sitting down. We had a problem with this shot as the door had to already be open when walking through it so Jess had to push the door to the wall, let it fall and then start walking into the room. Our next shot was a mid shot of both Jess and Demi having their conversation all the way through. We then went onto filming the shot reverse shots, one of Demi and one of Jess, of their conversation all the way through. We had to constantly change the tripod size all the way through filming as different shots required different heights as we didn’t want to make them high angle or low angle.

We then went on to editing the film using final cut express. We first found it difficult due to not being familiar with the software but soon got the hang of it. We cut the first film we did of Jess walking down the corridor so it would flow continually with the second shot of her grabbing onto the door handle. We cut that shot after she had opened the door but before she walked into the door. We then next included the shot of Jess walking in and sitting down. We had trouble cutting this as despite filming it with the door falling, the shots didn’t flow once put together. However, we fixed this with editing as we made it look like the door was falling behind her.  We then added the mid shot of them starting the conversation together and once Demi and Jess had both said their first lines we started including the shot reverse shots. We did this by editing the films so that when they said their own lines the shot reverse shot was on them speaking. We then went on to adding a title page and a fade in and out at the start of the film and the end. This makes the whole film flow even smoother and look more professional.

We were able to demonstrate the three different requirements through our films. We showed the rule of the 180-degree line as during the shot reverse shots we kept the camera on the same opposite shoulder. Also, on the mid shot of both Jess and Demi at the start of the conversation, the camera was kept behind the same shoulder that the camera was placed behind. The shot reverse shots were shown when the camera was placed behind Jess or Demi’s shoulder and the opposite person was talking.  This was to show their facial expression and show which of them was talking.  We showed that we did match on action as when we did filming, we did 3 steps forward and 2 step back. This was shown when we filmed Jess grabbing onto the door handle and then walking straight through the door, but when we edited it we shorted it down to her grabbing onto the handle and opening the door, but cut out her walking through it.

Match on action shot between 2 shots below

180 degree line rule and shot reverse shots below