An Introduction: Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

Before filming the two minute thriller introduction we were set a continuity editing task. The preliminary task requires an understanding of continuity, a key component in moving image production which makes the whole video look natural and flow without any jumps within the scene. The brief for the task, involving filming and editing, should encompass a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of line of dialogue. Match on action, shot-reverse shot and the 180-degree rule should all be applied to this task.

The task pushed us to work as a collaborative unit, focus on the different camera techniques which could then be applied to the main coursework and get used to transferring ideas from our mind into something visual (from the fictional world to real life, valuable for the main task).

Match on Action

Match on action (or cutting on action) is an editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This creates the impression of a sense of continuity – the action carrying through creates a “visual bridge” which draws the viewer’s attention away from slight cutting or continuity issues. This is not a graphic match or match cut, it portrays a continuous sense of the same action rather than matching two separate things.

As you can see from the YouTube clip from above analysing the use of match on action in an extract from 'Friends' and below some more visual examples are shown;

180 Degree Rule

Visual description of the 180 degree rule

The 180° rule is a filming guideline that participants in a scene should have the same left-right relationship to each other, with filming only taking place within the 180° angle in which this is maintained in a conversation, for example. This allows the audience to have a greater sense of location in the scene in terms of what may be off-screen in some shots, for example in shot reverse shots.

Examples;

180 degree rule in 'My Gal Friday'. Keeping to this rule allows for a flowing film and prevents confusion on the whereabouts of characters.

Shot-reverse-shot 

Shot reverse shot is a continuity editing technique used in conversations or simply characters looking at each other or objects. A shot showing what the character is supposedly looking at (either a point of view or over the shoulder shot) is followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it, or of the other character looking back at them, for example. Shot reverse shot often ties in with the 180° rule to retain continuity by not distorting the audience’s sense of location of the characters in the shots.

Example;

Storyboarding for our Preliminary Task

Drawing inspiration from Shane Meadows' "Dead Man's Shoes" we wanted to go down a route which would provide some sense of drama and some violence to entice the supposed audience but also a twist at the end. Luke appears to be the antagonist with his violent nature and a growing rage throughout the short film. However to the audience's surprise, foreshadowed by her constant reaching for her pocket, Maria goes on to kill Luke as she did to their father just as the suspense had reached it's climax. Similarly to the revenge driven film 'Dead Man's Shoes', where it becomes apparent that Anthony (Toby Kebbell) was murdered by the gang, the role of victim has been subverted, with  the antagonists, protagonists and superiority had been subverted in the film and we aimed to achieve this at the end of our short film. We also took into account stereotypes by breaking that of men being superior both in wealth and in power. This has itself been subverted. In the short film Luke is a poor farmer who has come to meet his sister to question her authority. Evident in the script, Maria makes frequent links to her wealth from the way she is dressed and looks to her place of work. 

The Setup

Our finished set up. The two camera to the left and right of this screen would not only capture a match on action later on when the film came to it's climax but also shot-reverse-shots of Luke and Maria's conversation. 

One strength of having the cameras laid out in this fashion is that the footage seemed smooth and professional. Whilst sticking to the 180 degree rule we managed to use our camera skills and know how to make the most of the 3 cameras provided to us. We managed to get a 2 shot of Luke and Maria's conversation and when it came to heated arguments we were able to create a shot-reverse-shot technique allowing the audience to see the responses made by the actors (Evan Fieldhouse and Izzi Harrison). In addition Candice Feddis has had some history in media projetcs. She was a GCSE Media students and told the group she felt confident enough to dolly zoom.The dolly zoom effect depends on the direction of camera movement. If the camera moves closer, the background seems to grow and become dominant. If the camera moves further away, the foreground subject is emphasized and becomes dominant. 

SEE THE BOTTOM OF THE POST FOR SOME OF THE ISSUES.

Candice Feddis setting up the camera which would capture the two-shot of Luke and Maria. 

The Script

We all worked on the following script with Luke being played by myself, Evan Fieldhouse, and Maria played by Izzi Harrison filmed by Katie Finch and Candice Feddis and then a joint effort for the editing...

The Summers’ Winter

Haven’t seen each other in years, an event tore them apart. Maria is well-to-do, dressed nicely and wearing makeup. She is quiet and reserved. Luke is wearing a white shirt rolled to his elbows and simple slacks. He is aggressive and increases in violent behaviour.

[Camera stays still, Luke walks down the corridor, away from the camera. Camera shows him talking to himself.]

Luke: (Whispers) come on, come on, come on.

[Clenches fist. Close up of Luke’s face, full of anger and fear.]

Luke: You’re such a coward (breathes out heavily)

[He opens the door. Door hits the wall and he sees Maria, hunched over her papers working. When she sees him she does a double take.]

Maria: You shouldn’t be here.

[POV camera tilts up to show angry Luke breathing heavily]

[There is a long silence. Shot-reverse-shot with Luke mid / close up, Maria low angle of her putting her work aside.]

[Maria reaches slowly for her pocket. Suspense. Applies lipstick – fake out. Camera focuses on pocket for a moment.]

[Luke aggressively pulls chair towards Maria]

Maria: I haven’t seen you since—

Luke: —You killed him.

Maria: That’s nothing to do with me.

Luke: That’s nothing to do with you?! (incredulous) It was your thieving that forced him down the coal mines.

Maria: Did I cause the blast? Was it me that trapped them down there? You should’ve told me, I might’ve felt guilty.

[Luke slams fists on table, grits teeth, jaw clenched. Maria remains completely unfazed.]

[Maria reaches in pocket, pulls out a mirror, rubs lips together. Focus push to Luke who’s even angrier]

Luke: You’ve always been heartless but this is a new low, even for you. [looks her up and down in disgust] You can’t even look at me.

Maria: Why would I want to?

Luke: You kill our father, run away with Peter Jones, and abandon the family to live in poverty… and you can’t even show some basic respect.

Maria: Respect? You’re the one judging me for wanting to live… to survive! (pause) Look at you! (sweeps arms around room) Look at what I’ve built for myself and look at you – a twenty year old farmhand with no money to your name and no future to speak of. Father would be rolling in his grave.

Luke: (practically shaking with anger, rage even) You’ll pay for this! (stands up, tosses his chair away) I’ll make you pay!

[comes towards Maria]

[gunshot rings out. Dolly zoom shows Maria holding a gun.]

[Luke falls down, camera switches to a false POV of Luke led on ground, looking up at Maria.]

[Audience hears rustling and Maria walks by, holding her bag. She stops next to him.]

Maria: We’re done here.

[Same POV shot shows her walk off frame – fade to black]

Editing

Once we had finished filming the Summer's Winter we then moved onto the Apple Mac's and uploaded and edited the footage we had collected. We aimed to make a seamless edit whilst sustaining a level of drama.

The whole team working on the editing process and providing ideas to improve the film.

The Summer's Winter Video (accessible via YouTube as well)

What did we learn from the preliminary task?

From film get preliminary task me and my team established key convention applicable to our main task. Focusing on the 180 degree rule would prove invaluable to us to create a thriller film introduction which is based around visuals rather than dialogue. In addition mise en scene, especially clothing and setting, are extremely important to add to the flowing movements on the screen and I feel that if we didn't focus on the continuity aspect with the match on action and the continuity then jagged visuals would go under the radar and differ the audience's attention away from the plot. For example in our main task the antagonist (played by Ben Nixon) has the bottom of his trousers underneath his foot. This was not planned but for the benefit of continuity we used this "accident" and looking back on what we had filmed this abnormality is representative of the antagonists abnormal nature.

Issues faced during filming

We filmed the preliminary task over two filming sessions and as we had to share the equipment with another group from our small class. This initially caused some issues as the amount of time we had to set up the cameras and act was severely damaged and we had to go over time to complete the task. In addition the first filming session was completed 2 weeks prior to the final filming session. Of course within that time the weather would change, two of the actors had a haircut in that period and we had to try and retrace our positions as we ended the first filming session with Luke sat on the chair at the desk and then we started the next session in the an estimated same position. To make matters worse the cameras were low on battery and often shut down and to meet the required need for match on action we had used three cameras. To resolve this we had to locate an extendable cable, further eating into the time we had available, and limiting the positions we could put the 2 side cameras in, affecting the quality of our preliminary task. However despite all of these issues we managed to film and edit our preliminary task and it is available on YouTube (at https://youtu.be/s-vYPsHUMko) and on this blog. 

Some of these issues can be seen in the blooper sequence....