The Preliminary Exercise

We were set a task, the Preliminary Exercise, a continuity task including filming and editing a short sequence: "a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue." And, we had to show that we knew the 180-degree line rule, a shot/reverse shot, and match on action - the continuity through the story. Continuity meant that if there was a chair on one side of the room that was very noticeable on-screen, it had to remain in the same position for the whole production. If it had moved we would have had to show the audience how it had moved.

We had a plot - a man had returned to his boss after killing someone, but the script did not make sense to the audience:

A: "Am I late?"
B: "No. Are you clean?"
A: "Yeah, he was easy."
B: "Good, now we can begin."

(You will need a set of headphones or speakers to listen to the sound. Otherwise, you are only experiencing half of the whole thing!)

If we had male actors, it probably would have gone okay, but because we had female actresses our production seemed to be out of context. The feedback we received was interesting because we learnt that other people interpret storylines in a different way. So to make them understand what you're trying to say, you have to explain your point clearly through the use of camera shots and angles, and editing. One key thing I have learnt from this exercise is what looks good on paper and on the storyboard looks a lot different on a big screen, projected to a wider audience than just Josh and myself.

We were told to KISS our work - Keep It Simple Stupid. This basically means we had to keep the plot and camera angles simple, and not to complicate things.

Also, handles was a big factor that did not go well in our first production. It was the first shot, of Person A walking down a corridor to a door, and opening it and walking through. I added enough handles but didn't make sure that the camera was recording, so when editing we found that we only had the bit where she is right beside the door and opens it. The beginning was therefore too sudden and the audience didn't have a chance to try to understand the storyline before the dialogue. Next time, I shall make sure that I leave at least a ten-second handle before each shot, since we've got 60 minutes of tape available.

Another factor that I failed to understand whilst filming was the microphone actually recording sound. It was half-way through, when playing-back our work, that we realised that I hadn't recorded any sound, so the dialogue (one of the most important aspects of the production) was missing. This meant we had to film everything again. Next time, I shall remember to check that the equipment is working properly before we start recording our footage.

Titles, or credits, is an area within the editing process which I really need to look at. Making them is fine, but I need to learn how to make the words fly and shoot across the screen, the basic title-transitions, using the provided editing software at the Editing Suite in College, "Adobe Premiere Pro". I know how to do screen animations and how to use transitions in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, so I now need to take those skills and use and develop them to a high standard in the editing of a moving sequence.