At the start of the year, we did a preliminary task to get used to using a camera and to experiment with different shots and angles. We also got to practice editing the clips, cutting them up and playing around with different sound effects using iMovie on the Mac computers. This task was extremely helpful in introducing us to the equipment and programmes available to us, and we feel that we have learnt a lot since then and have come a long way.
Shots
Although some of the shots we used in our preliminary task were within a wide range and all quite different e.g. the aerial shot, we do feel that we could have included better ones to fit the mood of the scene accurately and to represent the characters a lot more clearly. We have learnt from this task that the type of shot impacts the meaning.
For example, a POV shot can encourage the audience to identify with a character or emphasise with his/her situation. As shown in the POV shot below of Izzie running, we wanted the audience to see it from her shoes and sympathise with what she is experiencing and how panicked she is.
After showing our preliminary task to our peers, we gained feedback and they thought that the continuity was the best aspect, so we took what we had previously learnt from this progress and applied it to our opening sequence. It was very smooth and clean cut, and we wanted to achieve this in our opening but to an even higher degree.
Above shows the transition between two clips of a girl opening a door in our preliminary task, which came out extremely smooth and looked professional with no random jump cuts. Below, shows the smooth transition of Izzie turning around from two different angles, which we edited and cut down to make sure it didn't look out of time. We also learnt from our first task that it would be a good idea to film each scene from various angles so that we could look over them again once we had finished filming and pick the best shots, especially to edit jump cuts like these.
Another example of good continuity from our preliminary task is when Amanda is walking over to Serena and we view her from behind, then it smoothly cuts to her stopping and pulling her hood down. This is shown in the screen grabs below.
These shots influenced us to include a jump cut in our opening sequence when Amanda's character stands up to respond to Izzie. We believe that through editing we have made the continuity here very clear and it looked very successful. The screen grabs below demonstrate this.
Mise en Scene
For our preliminary task, we didn't have as much freedom with our mise en scene since it had to be filmed in school and it had to be done quite quickly. This restricted our use of location, costume, make-up and props, so we learnt from our task how much these things made an impact to our filming and decided to use them as much as possible where appropriate in our opening sequence.
In our preliminary task, we had to film in school, so the location wasn't the most fitting for our short storyline. However, for our opening sequence we could film wherever we wanted to, so we picked the woods in a park. We chose a woods in the park because it fitted into our storyline, added an eerie effect and it also made our film more relatable to our audience since the park is probably a place many teenagers frequently visit, so they could ask themselves what they would do if they were in the position of the victim and use their imagination a lot more.
For our preliminary task, the clothes our characters wore were basic since it was a usual school day and we couldn't be extreme with the costumes. However, we learnt that this makes an impact because it suggests to the audience the kind of characteristics that certain character hold and what their role in the film may be. So for our final product we dressed up our young girl in a blue dress, with white socks and black school shoes, a ribbon in her hair and we made her make up pale, to show that although she appears a sweet little girl from afar, as she gets closer and her make up becomes clearer she may not be the same as how her costume portrays her.
As previously mentioned, we were very restricted with our props, so we could only use paper to demonstrate the money being handed over. For our opening sequence we used a teddy bear to suggest the innocence of the girl as she holds it, however when Izzie hallucinates and sees the teddy covered in blood it could suggest her innocence being violated since she technically isn't alive. Also, the noose was an essential prop in our sequence as we named it 'The Hanging', which gave clues as to how the girl may have died. Without props, our opening sequence wouldn't be as successful because they can give information about the different characters.
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