Preliminary Evaluation

Preliminary Evaluation

1) For my preliminary task me and my group were asked to make a short video of someone opening a door, walking across the room, sitting down and speaking to another person sitting in the room. We used Cameron as the person walking into the room and Ollie as the other person he speaks to. Although our video is only 1 minute long, it still took  a while to film as we had to get a lot of shots and make sure all of them flowed when editing.Our video started off with Cameron walking down the corridor, opening the door into the room and shaking Ollies hand. This alone took 9 shots in the 12 seconds it happened in. We made sure there were a wide variety of shots by using different types like  panning, tracking, close up, mid and others. We also had dialogue put in to add interest and also to use shot reverse shot when they speak, this was one of the shots required.

2) I think the final result of our film went really well. We used a large variety of shots and managed to make them all flow perfectly with no jumpy scenes. Editing however did prove a challenge as none of our group had actually used imovie before and weren't familiar  with the mac’s controls. However with some help from the teacher and other students we quickly learnt how to edit, making each shot flow and our final video a success.

3) Looking back over our video I'd say the shots we used looked amazing and worked really well once they were all put together. We used a wide range of shots allowing us to have a lot of options when we were editing as to which ones looked best and went well with others. We thought well about our composition sticking well to the rule of thirds, especially when Cameron and Ollie spoke to each other and shot reverse shot was used. We used typical lighting for this whole video using nothing but the lights in the room and corridor. This worked well as the light wasn't too harsh and looked like normal light which is what we wanted.

In this scene we used a slight over the shoulder, mid shot. We have done this to show both Cameron and Ollie are having a conversation. You can see Cameron is slightly to the left and not in the middle, we’ve filmed it like this to used the rule of thirds.  

As you can see we did this multiple times, switching sides to use shot reverse shot and to show they’re still talking to each other.

4)To begin with we found it very hard to edit as none of had have had experience with  imovie or even knew how to work a mac. So when it came to editing we struggled and had to get help from the teacher and other classmates. However it was quick to get a grasp of once we got used to it. From doing this task and editing using imovie I have learn how to crop the video in order to get rid of  Ollie smiling in a useful clip that we needed.  Instead of letting the clip go to waste, my friend Georgia taught me how to crop the scene allowing me to get a more close up version of the same clip.

5)We took into account that we had to use certain types of shots like match on action, shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule and kept the video flowing. When editing we make sure that the next shot linked to the previous one, making sure Cameron or Ollie didn't magically jump from one spot to another. We used shot reverse shot really well when the two were having a conversation.

6)The variety of shots we filmed was a great success and after a while of getting used to the editing software, it became easy to use. How the shots went well with each other was a great success too, it all flowed well.

If we could reshoot however I would definitely add more dialogue to make it more interesting and longer so we could used even more camera shots. I would also apply the rule of 180 degrees better by making sure the two people maintain the same left or right relationship to each other.

7)I have learnt how to actually work the mac and imovie.  I have seen how to change the effect to make it black and white or something different, this can help me in my thriller if I i want to make it set in a later period or if I just want the film to look more gothic.

I have also learnt how to add transitions in between clips. This can help with the type of sub genre our thriller is and help to emphasise it. If it was a supernatural- thriller then I'd use more fading out transitions to go with that genre. The feedback from other students and the teacher has also helped us in what to improve so our thriller is better.