Alison Watkins-Half term homework assignment

Use of the camera
In our film assessment we held the camera steady at all times, even when we done a tracking shot of the actor pushing herself up the wall, the camera was steady and didnt jolt.
I believe we framed the shots appropriately because we used long shots to show when the actor was moving, and we used close ups/extreme close ups of the actors face when showing emotion.
We used a variety of shot types including; close ups, extreme close ups, long shots, POV, high angle and low angle.
Whilst filming we made sure we used composition techniques to make the film look more professional such as the rule of thirds. We also tried to make sure that we followed the 180 and 30 degree rules to ensure the frames flow. We were able to do the 180 degree rule correctly without struggling, however we found the 30 degree rule difficult as we were unsure if we had left enough room from one shot to the other.

Use of editing
Our film shows that we applied the rules of continuity as we used to 180 degree rule correctly and did not cross the line which results in the veiwer understanding and not getting confused at where the actor is. We tried to follow the 30 degree rule inbetween two shots, however I think we could have left a little more room just to be certain that the shots doesn't look like they've jumped.
We did not do editing transitions between shots as we did not have enough time and we thought they flowed well together without having transitions.

Selection of content
I believe our film shows that we used appropriate constumes, props and make-up to suit our genre because possession is quite a confusing and frightening genre. The actor was dressed in all black which is dark and mysterious, and we did thick eyeliner around her eyes to make her look scary. We also back-combed her hair to make her look like shes had a rough time. The main make-up was the symbols/drawings on the actors arms which would be confusing and scary to find so we thought that fit well into the genre.
I believe we chose the perfect person to shoot in our film as she was willing to try and do anything to help us make our film look to the best quality we could, and she was a brilliant actress and wasn't affriad to experiment with her acting skills.

Self-assessment
What i did to help complete the film was helping with the planning of timing, shot types, how many seconds in each shot and compositions and continuity rules, also in my own time i created a story board at home of the film and added notes to explain what was happening to help us shoot our film, we was one person down on shooting the film so we had to work harder on working together on trying to get the shot type correct, and i helped with the editing of the film.
I think to help improve our finished film, we could have used more editing effects to make it look more effective and suited for its genre, also theres one shot which is a POV shot of the actor looking at her arms, and one improvement we could have made on that was to not get the top of her head in the frame accidently.
When it comes to my final coursework film, what i would do differently is be more experimental with the constumes chosen and go that little bit further to make it look really impressive and realistic, i would also use more editing effects to really put the film together and make it look professional.

Video skills practical assessment sheet

30-40 assessment video

This is our final piece. We did good on the composition for example, we tried to make sure we always got the rule of thirds correct. However, since we were copying someone else's film, we couldn't always follow this rule as they didn't use it in some shots. We think we used the lead room very well such as when the actress was going from sitting to standing, we left enough room above her head for her to move into. The first shot we done, we used the rule of thirds correctly with her eyes on the golden means. One thing that we made a mistake doing, is getting the actors head in the POV shot by accident. 

Katie Smyth- Reccee sheet

Alison- Recce Sheet

Chariss- Recee Sheet

Make-up test shots, before and after

katie smyth - the faith room

This is a good location to shoot our film (the white room) as it is a white room. We will move the curtain and not shoot the window in it.

Composition Exercise

One strength of this film is that we understood the 180 degree rule well, which looks effective. Having a clear storyboard helped us well to shoot the right clips and to know what shot we had to do. A weakness that we had was on one shot we had to hold the tripod at an angle to look over the side, which resulted in the camera shaking slightly, which doesn't look as professional.  

Chariss- All Saints Church

This was an idea for the part where the three actress' were chanting, but we then decided to cut this bit out. Also the only problem with this location, is that we would have to use the sun/moon light, so this may effect our filming. However i think this location would of been a good location to use.

Chariss- All Saint Church

Alison's photograph for assessment film

I decided to have this location as a idea for our film because at night it's very dim lighting which fits in with the film that we have to copy, and also it's an abandoned old tennis court in the middle of some fields which gives a scary feel. I know this location well because it is at my old secondary school so i know it is open to the public 24/7. 

Continuity Exercise

We think our continuity exercise went well, apart from our small mistake where we did not follow the 30 degree rule. We had learnt about the 30 degree rule, but while filming we forgot to take this rule on board, as when Alison is approaching Chariss, there is a jump shot. We have learnt from our mistakes and will now pay more attention to follow this rule. Overall we worked as a team and enjoyed our task.

4th october 2011

Today we learnt how to avoid continuity mistakes. The camera should stay within the 180 degree line, and should not change the camera angle less than 30 degrees. Also another technique we learnt was how to was the reverse shot and master shot and also we learnt how to match the eyeline to ensure that the direction of characters gazes stays the same.