Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression to full product?"

When doing the preliminary task it was the first time that I had used a video camera and done editing. I didn't know that sometimes you need to take more than one shot so that you could use more than one cut to prevents long cuts and this keeps the film fast paced. I used a lot more cuts that were a lot shorter in the opening two minutes of Larceny so that it kept the film fast paced and therefore less boring.

Since making the preliminary task I have become a lot more efficient at editing and also I am able to edit camera cuts such as match on actions better so that the effect of the cut after editing is a lot more fluent which means that the film looks and flows better.

In the preliminary task we had to change the setting during the conversation between Jason and Tim as the classroom that we used previously was in use when we tried to film in there again. This meant that there was an obvious continuity error in our film that was very noticeable. This made me realise the importance of using the same location when filming and not just trying to get away with using a different place / setting.

Obviously I have learnt all of the things that I have mentioned in the previous question (Question 6) such as how to use a camera, how to edit effectively and how to use software such as Coral Editing Stupid and Stop Motion Pro.

Other things that I learnt about whilst making Larceny was how to use different camera angles such as cut ins, establishing shots, close ups and long shots. By knowing these shots it helped during making the film as I used a range of shots to make things more interesting and so that I could focus the audience on a certain thing.

The one hundred and eighty degree rule was another thing I learnt about, this is where in a scene, two characters keep to the same left/right relationship. Breaking the 180 degree rule can be done but it needs to be done on purpose to cause disorientation.

Match on action is something else that I learnt about, this is where you use two or more shots using a different shot type and edit it together to make one fluent action in a film. The reason for doing this is it keeps the cuts short and the film fast paced.