The preliminary assessment task set involved being seperated into small groups and recreating roughly 30 seconds of footage recorded by previous AS media students. My group (including Samantha Whawell and Francesca Shilton) chose to reenact the psychological 1 film entitled ‘Reflection’. Previously we had chosen a 30 second time frame which involved two characters, but due to last minute circumstances, we had to alternate the 30 second time slot slightly so it featured just one character. The overall sequence involved the main character (Samantha) stumbling into the woods and walking through them shouting for help, a sense of isolation is also present.
In terms of the use of camera, our previous preparation in lessons taught us the basics of both setting up a camera and using it. As for holding a shot steady, I found certain difficulties as I had to film the entire sequence and there were certain elements that I found I had problems with. A reason for this was the fact that we were filming on very unsteady ground meaning that even with the use of a tripod, it was hard to keep the camera both straight and steady especially when moving. For example, from about 10 - 14 seconds in which the camera follows Samantha, there is quite a lot of unsteady movement in filming.
However, I do believe that the majority of the time, the shots were steady when filming as I was mostly able to keep the camera still. When looking at the framing, I believe the only major error involved in this was once again the 10 - 14 second timing as it features a lot of headroom which could be open space for more focus on Samantha. Although this is an error, I believe the rest of the footage uses appropriate framing as Samantha is alone in the woods in this sequence without the use of any props, this means that there wasnt a lot to focus the camera on, and the main framing had to focus on Samantha and her surrounding. In doing this a sense of loneliness is highlighted.
The reenactment uses a large variety of shot types, these included Close ups, Long shots, Mid close ups etc. In doing this, I believe it enabled the viewer to get a good perspective of the sequence due to the different shots showing elements such as background, reactions and emotions.
I believe that continuity editing was the biggest flaw to our assessment as a lot of the cuts do tend to jump slightly, although they arent strong negative aspects to the footage, they are noticeable to those looking at continuity. It is because of this that the main aspect I feel I need to work on for my final piece is producing a fluent film and practicing how to edit as best as possible.
An example of bad continuity editing is the cut from 4 - 5 seconds, I find the cut to be very jumpy and evidently obvious that it is has been made. The transitions from shot to shot seem to be appropriate as they all feature different types of shots which (as previously stated) enable the viewer to get a different perspective of the film.
In my opinion, I find that the finished work shows that we as a group were able to choose a good use of costume (no makeup/props needed) for our piece as Samantha dressed up in her pyjamas and this mirrored the original piece in which the main actor was in his dressing gown. The location chosen was the area I had suggested in our pre planning recee worksheet and this was suitable for our film as it was originally shot in open spaced woodland and this is evidently what the location has. Not only this, we found that my location was most suitable to conduct our filming in due to it being the most practical location for us to get to in terms of closeness to the college. I believe that Samantha was a good actor for our assessment due to her previous drama experience and this was clear in the sequence as it looked very natural and realistic.
My input for the preliminary assessment involved filling in preplanning sheets such as the recee homework which involved finding the appropriate location (Bramcote Park woods) and the costume homework which required information on what costumes would be used and why. As for the actual filming, I filmed the entire sequence myself whilst Samantha did all the acting. However we both edited it together. When it comes to filming my final coursework film I will ensure that I focus a lot more on getting a steady shot as I think I lack skills in that area. In terms of improvement for our preliminary assessment, it would be better if the continuity was worked on a lot more as that seems to be the main issue in our film. This looks at the editing process which means when editing in the future I should spend a lot more time trying to ensure that it is fluent throughout. Overall, I believe the preliminary assessment was a good piece of filming and was mostly accurate to the original piece, however I am now aware that I need to work on a lot in terms of both filming and editing before I work towards my final piece.
Sorraya Begdeli.
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