Filming and Editing the Preliminary Exercise

The filming ran as anticipated, Actors, Actresses attended along with rooms and props being made available to us. However there was a small communication error, which prevented a member to the team being contacted. This was due to a mobile number being entered incorrectly. As a result the individual was unable to participate with the filming of the preliminary exercise, but the decision was made to continue as planned, due to the fact that equipment and rooms were booked. We had extras who would be acting within the production, turn up at college in their free time to help us out, we could not turn round and tell them to leave.
The production worked well because everyone stuck with their allocated roles, i played the role of director and tried my best to organise the shoot with the best of my ability, so that it ran smooth and everyone was aware of their positions. Holly Bash was in control of camera work, which was performed well as we can see through results in the editing. Angles are well met, following rules and terminology, such as the rule of thirds and 180° rule. The group is aware that examiners are judging the camera work, not the acting. So therefore deliberate attention has been made to follow scrip and focus on the story board.
We are aware that mistakes have been made, however as Lee has told us, the preliminary exercise is a learning curve which we intend to use as a correction for the the real exercise, worth more than 85%.
Following research in to producing the film, we studied scenes from Causality;



focusing on our continuity project. Reminder: “Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue". This was a scene from Causality, where by a man enters a room, crosses it, sits down and exchanges dialogue. The clip has a direct link to our project, and i feel that it was relevant research to aid the production of the preliminary exercise.
However with the production we did encounter some faults which had to be manoeuvred around, our story board was matched thoroughly, but when shooting we found that different actions were more appropriate for setting the scene and following the continuity rule. For example we changed between shot 11 (Mid-shot) and shot 12 (Close Up) for a pan between, Doctor and Gentleman, so that the social positioning can be acknowledged. Thinking in terms of Hierarchy, the gentleman is apposed the dominant character within the clip, The doctor asks the questions and the gentleman answers, he is knowledgeable and is found for answers. The patient is set back in the screen and lower than eye-line, meaning his power is not on par, and he has a reduced social status. By following practice for part A of the exam, all aspects have been taken in to account, for example there was a high focus on Mise-en-Scene Props We really tried to make it so that the environment was clear and what we were trying to represent was legitimate. Lab coats, straight jacket, heart beat monitor were main props in setting the mise-en-scene.
We did have quite a large flaw in the editing, as the brief said we were meant to cut the clip in to individual frames, whereby we could name them and allocate selected frames to meet the story board. Our clip was not cut up in to individual sections, but the whole shoot. In order to edit we had to cut and paste the whole clip and then shorten it to fit the continuity aspect. We as a group are aware of the problem and are going to amend it in the real exercise. Non-copyrighted music was acquired from the College library, the group selected albums which we felt would fit our criteria in fitting the clip, then listened to them, took notes and recorded which tracks we liked and felt fit for the edit. The sounds were then added to the clip where needed, starting and fading out for setting change, from corridor to observation room.