Preliminary Excercise

PLANNING: PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

Continuity task: To film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room, sitting down in a chair opposite another character with whom she/he exchanges a few of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.


Preliminary Exercise
In the last couple of lessons I and 3 other people; Josie, Callum Gethin-Barkway and Alfie, created a short film in order to learn the basics of filming and editing. When filming we used the technique shot reverse shot as it was an essential part to the Preliminary exercise.
The plot was a man trying to smuggle fruit into Australia but the Australian security guard was not allowing it. We edited the film on iMovie, we tried adding a variety of different sound effects such as footsteps but unfortunately we were not able to make the effects fit into the scene.

We imported the footage from the memory card into iMovie and then placed them into the movie and trimmed each clipping order to remove any unwanted footage. Alfie removed all background noise as we didn't need any of the background noise as it was just people muttering. Alfie was also the camera man as well as the main editor in this exercise as everyone bar Alfie in the group didn't have any experience with filming and editing however Alfie did, So Alfie aided us to work out the basics and learn how to use a camera, tripod and iMovie.

The Art of the Title: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

As the title sequence begins there is narration superimposed into the film which tells the audience where the film is set; in Toronto, Canada. The first scene of the introduces us to the main characters and our protagonist, this scene has numerous shot-reverse-shot and two shot techniques used and close-ups of the characters to familiarise the audience with them, each character has their name, age and rating edited in using vfx the last virtual effect of the scene is the onomatopoeia of the doorbell ringing. The mise-en-scene informs the audience that these characters are quite messy as the countertops in the kitchen are cluttered and the table they’re sitting at is full of old, unwashed mugs.

 The second scene begins as the door swings open to reveal a secondary character in a close up, followed by quick, two shot, cuts between the characters ‘Scott Pilgrim’ and ‘Knives Chau’ until they’re abruptly interrupted by ‘Steven Stills’, making the scene a three shot. The next notable shot is of Scott and Steven, this shot is notable because all of the scenes before had been filmed on tripods however this scene is hand held to allow for a closer shot of the characters; ‘Scott’ and ‘Steven Stills’ before the camera moves backwards and the shot returns to a three shot with ‘Knives’ included.

The third scene is set in the living room of the house; the mise-en-scene presents the audience with a cluttered room with poor lighting, it is clear that this is where the band practises using their old, worn instruments which mimic how old and worn the entire house is. There are some shot-reverse-shots between ‘Knives’ and ‘Kim’ using close-ups of Kim and mid-shots of Knives to convey to the audience how focused Kim is.

The fourth scene is of the band finally playing their music, the camera pans into an extreme close up of Knives’ face ad there are quick edits between her and the band, following this the camera pans back from the band, the movie title is edited in above the band and the opening credits begin, the vfx used as the names of those involved are on screen there are images for the audience to associate with them. The final shot is a close up of Knives’ face awestruck at the band before it cuts to black.

The Art of the Title: Guardians of the Galaxy

As the title sequence of 'Guardians of the Galaxy' begins, there are many indicators that signal genre,  there is an immediate edit, text informing the audience that the following sequence took place 26 years after the prologue. This accompanies a wide shot of a mysterious planet from orbit before editing in the planet’s name and status as an ‘abandoned planet’. Next we have another wide shot, with numerous instances of virtual effects; for example, the atmosphere being entirely grey, blending in with the jagged rock structures and colossal waves crashing against them, this informs the audience that this planet was abandoned for a reason, and this engages the audience by giving them something to contemplate.

The next important shot is of the protagonist moving through the hostile terrain in a long shot, framed through a crack in a stone followed by a close up tracking shot of his mask, this mask doesn’t give the audience a lot of information as it is entirely emotionless, almost menacing with the bright red eyes piercing the ocean spray he strides through. Following this is a long shot of the protagonist using a device that projects what the previous inhabitants of this world were like. The following shot is an aerial tracking shot of the protagonist which pans back as he projects the ghost-like images of these inhabitants, the aerial shot slowly reveals more to the audience creating tension as he moves further into the ruins before him. Next the protagonist is shown next to a projection of a little girl playing with her dog, the juxtaposition between the innocent little girl and the protagonist only encourages the audience to consider him as menacing.

The next important shot is of the protagonist walking further into the ruins, considerably more relaxed before he removes his mask revealing a young, handsome man; this is completely different to the emotionless mask the audience has seen until now. Immediately after this the protagonist goes against the audience’s expectations by putting on a pair of headphones before the camera pans down to his hand holding a Sony Walkman, the Sony Walkman could be considered humorous to the audience as this man has incredible technology, he still uses a device from the 80’s.

The ensuing scene is of our once menacing protagonist dancing to ‘Come and Get Your Love’, striding around the hostile landscape with numerous tracking shots, one notable one begins with a shot of alien creatures, similar to rats, bounding towards the man before he kicks them away in time to the music. These scenes resolve any tension that the previous scenes had established, relieving the audience of any stress or anxiety and reassuring them that this is a comedic movie. As the music fades and the protagonist stops dancing the final shot of the title is a zoom in of a mysterious orb which is the main focus of the film.