Evaluation of Continuity exercise.

Continuity Video Exercise

As the last practical part of my induction, we were tasked with making a continuity film. This meant that there could be no continuity errors and we could practice each part of using the camera on manual mode. I say we, as I was put into a group of three, with Matt, Jack and Luca. These were people I had not worked with before, to simulate how the real media industry works, when you must work with people you have not met before.

To begin the process, we were given a brief. The exchange of something. We had a little argument on this as Matt wanted to do a box in a box in a box, a sort of play on words as our teacher encouraged us to think outside of the box. I however wanted to think metaphorically, with the idiom of "having something handed to you" can be a euphemism for getting beaten up. Eventually we came to a compromise, someone would get a box, and in that box would be a fist which would shoot out and punch them! This idea was both creative and would be fun to film. We knew we could include alot of the camera techniques, but it would also be difficult.

When we began filming, it was clear we would have a couple issues, many of the team wanted to be on their phones. I think it was because that it was last thing on a Friday, not the best time to be doing a challenging practical exercise.Choosing locotion of film was also strange and trying, we spent around 15 minutes trying to choose which place in the college would be best to film a birthday party. The cantine, our original choice had too many people. The weather was too overcast to go outside. No one would have a birthday party in a corridor. Eventually we decided to go to the hive, when we stumbled upon a table in the reception. IT had colourful papers and balloons, it was almost perfect. Unfortunately there was a lot of people, and there wasn't much we could do in terms of lighting since our movie hardly required a change of scene as well as there being some random figures in the film.

The filming itself went rather well, and I am of the mind that we don't have any major continuity errors. The shot taken where we had to get a 'fist' inside the box was done by angling the camera to capture what  we needed and leave what we didn't out of the shot. This didn't go to well however, and we managed to get Lucas head in the film, but this was fixed by a slight bit of editing. Some of the shots are also blurry but this isn't too prominent and may just be a trick of the light or perhaps even something fixed by experience with the camera. The latter will certainly fix the final piece, in the higher shot we needed to move the camera upwards and the tripod was unable to perform this with out being unsteady and so I just had to hold the camera and raise my arms upwards. This naturally resulted in a rather unsteady rise, but is a skill that will come with practice rather than with a simple fix. Some of the acting is also perhaps a little awkward but that had to do with confidence rather than any camera faults.  We are also lacking a contra zoom shot, but that is because the one taken was of poor quality and hardly necessary for the final draft. I shall make plans to include one in the next project.

Editing was done on Adobe, using the macs which none of us had really used before. To me therefore it is surprising that it went so well, I don't see any major errors where the editing is concerned. There is the issue that the title both before and after is 'Birthday Surprise' rather than 'Punch in the Box' but this was decided upon by the other members of the group as they didn't want to reveal the plot before the audience watched the movie. To improve this next time, I should probably try coming up with a vaguer title, one that does not link to the plot so heavily but is still creative. The credits time is also slightly irregular - some last longer than others -  but for the fact they are there and many of the other groups didn't have them makes up in my eyes for this fact. This irregularity was caused by the lack of time spent on the credits, we rushed them towards the end of the project and can be fixed by taking a little more care. The music, I believe, is well chosen and thoughtful and does appear to fit the themes of the piece, creating humour and gaiety where needed.

Overall my thoughts on this piece are that it was fun to make and a brilliant induction to the course. I now have a greater understanding of what to expect for the next project and do indeed look forward to it. While this piece has it's errors, they are easily fixed with a little patience and a lot more experience which I hope to gain over the course. I am indeed very proud of 'Punch In The Box'.

Megan Mathieson.