My Evaluation - Jess D'Alvarez

During the course of this task I learnt quite a bit about how to use the camera including how to set the white balance. However I learnt a lot about how to use the editing software. For this task we used iMovie and before this task I had never properly used iMovie, therefore I didn't know how to use it. Having completed this task I now know how to upload footage onto the mac computers and I have learnt how to cut a piece of footage down in order to get the bit of footage that you want to use. I also learnt how to add effects to a piece of footage, including adding titles and text.
When choosing the location for the filming of our short film we had an image in mind of a bare room with just a table and two chairs, which represented an undercover secret location. We searched for our location and ended up using an old maths hut which we thought was perfect, however, the fact that the maths hut had windows, turned out to be a problem for us because we were planning to shoot on different days and the light coming from outside, through the windows affected our filming and we knew that we would never get exactly the same light if we were to film on different days. When faced with this problem we considered different options including the decision of closing the blinds to shut out the natural light and considering the use of artificial light. Having considered our options, at first, we chose to use a redhead to see if we could overcome our problem, however this did not do us any favours therefore, we chose to close the blinds in order to shut out the natural light and from then onwards we didn't have to worry about the natural light affecting the continuity of our piece.

Whilst in a free, Mat and I discussed what the topic of our conversation piece could be. Having thought of a few ideas we then remembered a nickname that Mat used to call me when in secondary school which was 'Chief Inspector D'Alvarez' and we thought that it would be interesting to base our conversation on something involving the police. Having thought of this, we jotted some ideas down about what the conversation between the police officers could involve. Having done this, during our next lesson, we pitched our idea to the other two members of our group who agreed that it was a good idea. After a group discussion we expanded on our idea and began to draw up our storyboard. We thought it important that we did not spend too much time on thinking of a topic to base our conversation on and thought it best that we kept it simple because we wanted to focus on our camerawork and knew that we were not going to be marked on the topic of our conversation.

As a group we worked on the storyboard together, therefore I had input in this part of the planning, however we had to designate the drawing of the storyboard to one person and that was Mat (the best drawer). I was acting in the sequence and as a group we designated the cameraman position to Mat, however I did participate in parts of the camerawork because Mat was constantly flipping the small LCD screen round to show us the shot and to ask us if we thought it was a good shot and if not, what needed to be improved.

We demonstrated match on action by filming Ed (the agent) walking through a door. We filmed him walking up to the door and opening the door and made sure that a number of things were exact, for example: we ensured that his right foot was placed through the door first, we also ensured that his right hand was touching the rail outside and we ensured that he used his left hand to open the door. Had we not made sure that these minor things were correct, we would've broken continuity. We then filmed him walking through the door, but from the inside. Whilst in the editing suite we cut the two shots and put them together, to make it look like a continual shot. We demonstrated shot reverse shot by switching from a shot of myself (chief inspector), to a shot of Ed (the agent) whilst having a conversation, however we also demonstrated other shots such as over the shoulder and 2 shot because we thought that this would make our short clip seem more interesting. As a group we made sure that we stuck to the 180 degree rule by ensuring that we did not cross the invisible line, ensuring that characters did not suddenly shift abruptly, which could confuse viewers.

As a group we found a few errors in our clips that broke continuity. For example, in the background of a shot we had filmed, we noticed that there were chairs visible in the background and in another shot there was a poster, on the wall, visible in the background. We came across these mistakes whilst editing and we knew that having these objects in the background would break continuity because they were not in the previous shot and it would also make the audience wonder whether they were there for a purpose, which they were not, therefore they would distract our audience from what they should really be focusing on. We did not have time to correct these mistakes however we now know, for our main task, that we should always make sure that we clear the location we are filming at of unnecessary objects. As explained, lighting was also a problem for us, therefore we will need to think very carefully about lighting for our main task and will need to consider, early on, how we can get the same lighting again (if shooting on different days) and this may be done by using lights or we will need to work quickly in order to shoot everything that is needed to be shot on the same day to ensure that our lighting is the same and that it doesn't break continuity.

Jess D'Alvarez