AS level Continuity Task

Bradley Hoines

The Task

The task is to create a two minute film that includes a character opening and going through a door with at least four lines of dialogue.

The 3 Rules

The three rules we have to abide by and include when filming is:

• 180 degree rule

• Reverse shot

• Match on action

180 degree Rule

The 180 degree rule applies to two or more characters conversing in dialogue. The way this rule comes into effect is when the director draws an imaginary line through the characters as shown in the picture below. Now from this imaginary line the cameras can only film one side of the line without crossing it to be abiding to the rule. The reason behind the rule is to avoid bad camera angles on the conversation as a shot of the back of someone's head is not fully utilising the full potential of capturing what is happening in the scene.

Here both characters both appear to slightly side on to the camera but we as the audience can see both there faces and even though they may not be conversing you can still see their facial expressions

Here is the 180 degree line to show that the camera has definitely not crossed it as you can clearly see each character.

Primeval

Reverse Shot

The reverse shot is applied when the shot is going between characters in dialogue. For example a character will look directly at the camera lens as if to look at the other character who is off screen. The use of the characters looking at the lens and flitting between shots in co-ordination with the dialogue give the impression that the characters are talking to each other whilst not being in the same frame.

Here is the character shot looking at the other characters in the scene

During the finished product the cut is so quick you miss the continuity error of wearing different camouflage because it helps build great tension in the shot.

Strikeback

Match On Action

A match on action shot is where one piece of action is filmed at more than

one angle. From here the footage is edited so that it shows the same piece of action but cuts between different angles. This give a sense of continuity through the scene as it shows what is going on from all angles and can help the audience understand more about what is happening in the scene.

Burn Notice

These three shots all show the same event but from different angles. In this case it helps the audience realise how big the explosion is in relation to the people. This is because in the bottom right and left shots the explosion looks fairly tame but when you zoom out to the top shot it shows that actually it is much larger than the audience would have originally perceived.

Idea overview

My groups original idea was to have a girl going to the toilet in the men's toilets without realising and when she opens the door she sees a startled male at quickly leaves in embarrassment. After filming our idea we decided against it as it was rather boring and had been done many times before. After a long debate my group and I settled on a scene that would include two individuals leaving a house but once they both get into a car to leave, one of them realises they forgot something and dashes back to the house to retrieve the item. Once back in the car the couple drives off.

Storyboards

I enter the shot and zoefollows suit

Zoe and I both leave the house through the front door

I walk down the drive as Zoe locks the house

I approach the car to get in

I get in the car as Zoe shortly follows

Zoe gets in the car

I run through items that Zoe needs to remember when she realises she has forgotten something

Zoe exits the car Once Zoe gets in the car I start the engine

The shot then cuts the car driving away

How each rule is used

180 Degree rule:We show the use of this rule by when I walk up the drive the camera is to the side of me and Zoe. This is so we can both be clearly seen by the audience.

Match on action:Here the same conversation was filmed from two different angles to provide two different angles on the conversation.

Reverse shot:In this shot the camera looks over my shoulder at Zoe who in turn looks back at me with a shot over her shoulder.

Dialogue

B= BradleyZ= Zoe

B-Come on Zoe, hurry up!Z-Coming (pause) Ah we’re gona to be late!B-Always waiting for you.Z-Ah just go.B-Zoe hurry up.Z-Yup. Coming now (pause) Coming, wait for me!B-Hurry up.Z-Hey wait up!B-Right, you got your wallet?Z-(pause) Yep its in my back pocket, got it.B-Your Keys?Z-Got itB-You got your phone?Z- Should have(pause) wait no, I’ll go back.B-Oh hurry up and get your phone!Z-Yep, lets go quick.

Location photographs

Here in this shot it the stairs, we had to turn the lights on all the way up the stairs for the picture to as clear as possible.

Here you can see the lights are turned on so during filming when Zoe and I left the house we had to turn the lights off before Shannon clicked record.

This is the location of where Zoe and I left but this shot was not used in the filming but shows the contrast of light from inside to outside.

This is the drive way leading out of the house towards the road however there was a car here when we filmed so it added to the scene to make it less empty.

Here with some background light it the drive from the actors point of view with the lay-by where the car was parked at the end of the drive.

Props/Costuming

Props:Props we used were the car as a form of

transport, We used a wreath to indicate it was Christmas time witch could give an indication on why we were rushing to get out the house i.e. Christmas shopping or seeing relatives.

Costumes:Both Zoe and I wore normal everyday clothes

which can indicate or give the impression that we were not going to a formal event or anywhere that had a particular dress code. Zoe also wore a hat and scarf which went hand in hand with the Christmassy wreath to really show what time of year it was .

Editing and software

When it came to the editing of the film, my group had major difficulties as the format the recordings were being made on were not compatible with most editing software including windows movie maker. This caused huge setbacks for my group as we still do not know why they were not compatible. We even tried converting software to change the format of the footage several times on different converters. Eventually we found that AVS editor worked with the format which was MP4. This makes our findings very surprising as MP4 is a very common format that is used in mobile phones and most other video recording pieces of hardware.