Preliminary Task Video Evaluation

I think there's many areas of our preliminary task that were successful. One part I think was especially effective was our use of continuity, where each shot worked well with the next so the whole piece flowed well. Our continuity was good because we planned our shots in detail using a shot list and a storyboard, which we used as a checklist when filming to make sure we put all the right shots in. Our brief asked us to use "Shot Reverse Shot", a continuity shot technique, which we made sure to use when the characters are having a dialogue. We also re-filmed a shot if it wouldn't flow well with the last, as we knew the continuity had to be good. From spending so much time making sure the continuity was effective I think it makes a video better as the audience is not going to be distracted by continuity error and can invest all their attention into the brief story we gave them, meaning they'll enjoy it more.
Another part I felt made the whole piece more professional and enjoyable was the editing of the video in general which we had to use our Imovie skills for, so we had to research how to do some things that we wanted but did not know how to do. We edited our diegetic sound of the dialogue to make the villain seem more intimidating with a lower pitched voice. We a variety of different editing techniques we have studied such as a "Fade to White" Transition, to indicate the Cat being shot, which was coupled with a non-diegetic sound effect of the gun shot, overall connoting to the audience that the cat had been shot. We also used a black and white visual effect which with subtitles, looked like CCTV footage of Leona walking down a corridor. This was used to connote to the audience the genre we were trying to make a video (action/thriller) and also indicate what the story of the "rest of the film" is, if we were to make it. Overall I think our use of editing was effective as it made a video more suitable for our chosen demographic audience and I think overall it fitted well with the rest of the video so it was a success.

However there were also some areas we could have improved and that would've made it look more professional. One area that we found tricky was getting the Mise-en-scene perfect. We had to stay on the school site which limited which locations we could use, so if we had been able to go off site we may have been able to find a more effective setting that connoted the genre better. Also if we had had more time I would have liked to have gotten better props that made the video more realistic. we had to use a camera tripod as a gun and draw on the villain's mustache, for example, which didn't look as good as if we had a realistic gun prop and a fake mustache. I think if we had gotten better props the audiences enjoyment of the video would be bettered. One other thing I think we could have improved is that we had to rush some shots due to time constraints. we had two days to film and on the first we used a school camera which didn't record large parts of our video for some reason, so on the second day we had to film the whole video in an hour using our own camera which meant some shots which we wanted to re do we couldn't, and I believe if we had redone them the video would've been more successful.

Next time we film something I would like to make sure we plan everything in a lot of detail, making sure we organize all the mise-en-scene like props and location, before filming, and leaving a lot of time to film so that we can shoot shots many times if need be.

This shot is a high angle long shot of the protagonist walking down a corridor and winking at the camera. It has been edited to black and white with a subtitled time on it, which is denotes that its CCTV footage, which is supposed to connoted to the audience that the protagonist shouldn't be there, signifying that the genre is an action/thriller through how shes sneaking into somewhere she shouldn't be. The Use of a high angle and a long shot is to mimic what a CCTV camera would film, but the long shot also shows us her costume which is supposed to be similar to what a spy would wear, and also the prop of her bag which we do not know whats in it. It is also framed so that at first you cant see the whole character, adding to the air of mystery around her.