QUESTION 7Olivia Desanges

WHAT IS CONTINUITY AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Continuity is the maintenance of continuous action over time, and is important as it would then make sense to the audience and with no continuity then there would be confusion and make the film look unprofessional

WHAT IS THE 180 DEGREE RULE?

It is the guideline which regards the relationship between the characters and the camera. It is an 'invisible line' which the camera does not cross

OUR PRELIM USING THE 180 DEGREE RULE

We filmed the character using a low angle shot and then the camera remained on this side of the line/character when the character is walking out. In our opening sequence, again, we used the 180 degree rule with a different shot to make it more unique and interesting

OUR OPENING SEQUENCE USING THE180 DEGREE RULE

In these scenes, the camera does not cross 'the invisible line', it stays on the left side of the character for the shots

The camera is on the left of the characters face, and in the next shot, remains on this side of the line - which is beneath/opposite the characters face and hands

WHAT IS MATCH ON ACTION?

This is where the editing cuts from one shot of a character to another shot of the character which then matches the first shot's action

HOW WE USED MATCH-ON-ACTION IN OUR PRELIM

We showed the character from behind walking down the corridor and then cut from the character opening the door to being inside the room and filming the character walking into the room.

This is quite a typical match on action scene, and so I feel we progressed in our opening sequence

HOW WE USED MATCH ON ACTION IN OUR OPENING SEQUENCE This shows the character walking down the stairs, and the

next shot of the character walking to the bottom of the stairs and stopping, but the first shot being from the characters point of view and the next shot, the camera being in front of the character

This is different to our preliminary task, as we have shot the prelim with long shots and medium long shot, whereas in out opening sequence we used more angles and shot types, and I feel I improved as this is a slightly different way of showing match on action

WHAT IS SHOT REVERSE SHOT?

This is when one character is shown looking at one character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character

SHOT REVERSE SHOT FROM OUR PRELIM

In our prelim we showed shot reverse shot by having a low angle shot of one of the characters ‘talking down’ at the other, and then the second character and then back to the other character.

Again, this is quite a simple/typical way of showing shot reverse shot, and is a conversation so is normal, whereas our opening sequence is able to use shot reverse shot to create some meaning and mystery.

SHOT REVERSE SHOT IN OUR OPENING SEQUENCE Here, we used shot reverse shot in a photo shoot rather than a

conversation, which is again different to our preliminary task, and I feel I improved in this area as it is not too typical - shot of a character, then the photographer and then back to the first character yet is seen in a different way

Due to different things happening, such as the shot being a medium long shot, then a medium shot of the photographer and then a big close up of the characters face, it allows the shot reverse shot to add to the mystery and psychology behind our film

HOW HAVE I DEVELOPED WITHIN CINEMATOGRAPHY, SHOTS, ANGLES ETC I have developed as I now use certain shot types to

show empowerment over other characters - such as using the camera from the bottom of the stairs angled up to show that character having more power, and how she is the main character

I also feel I have developed as in our opening, I used a worms eye view shot which I haven't used before, and I was able to include the different shots and angles to show as much of the location or props, such as when we put the camera in front of the table and did a high angle shot to include all the props, which had could all

I feel that with our opening, I used different type of shots to be able to create meaning and used them to show the mystery of our film

IMAGES OF HOW I HAVE IMPROVED

Using a worms eye view to show a different perspective of the object, and also linking this to our titles – so emphasising this

Using a high angle shot to show the audience what else is in the frame – the other props and it’s looking down at the character so cannot see what is being written but then this creates mystery

Our low angle shot showed this character being the dominant one, yet in our opening sequence we used the high and low angle shots and worms eye shot to show props creating meaning

HOW I IMPROVED WITHIN EDITING Within the editing, in our prelim, no editing was

used other than cutting between speech, however no colour editing or other transitions or music was used. So I feel I improved by using certain editing techniques and which helped towards creating mystery and tension. We changed the colouring of certain frames and the way one frame led to another, such as the end frame finishing with a flash to lead on to the titles, so with the colours we chose, it meant suspense and mystery created – adding to our sub genre of our opening.

Also, in our prelim, where we were cutting from one frame to another, it was very jumpy and was not a clean transaction between scenes – in a few, some start and ends of sentences were cut off due to editing a clip too short

IMAGES ON HOW I HAVE IMPROVED

I have improved by making the scene black and white which allowed more meaning to be created, whereas in our prelim it was very simple with not much editing on at all. I have also improved with the black and white titles being similar to the black and white colouring we used for the one scene.

HOW HAVE I IMPROVED WITHIN THE MISE-EN-SCENE I feel I have improved by making sure that the lighting we

used, and the props all have something to do with our film – in our prelim, we were located in the textiles classroom with the textiles machinery and boards, which wasn’t as apparent to our actual film, whereas the other locations we used for our film, and what the locations included were apparent. For example, we used a basement which had Christmas decorations in the corner which showed the audience how the room wasn’t used much etc. There were more props in our film such as what is used for developing photos, which were important for creating the character and showing the audience who that character is.

Also, lighting was effective as we made the scenes darker, more black and white than normal in our film to portray the mystery of our thriller, whereas in our prelim we didn’t change the lighting, we kept it the same, so we didn’t think too much about the mise-en-scene, yet in our film we thought much more about it.

IMAGES ON HOW I IMPROVED

So the lighting was important to make it more dreary and more mysterious for our film, whereas all lighting in the prelim is the same – the props and location in our opening show more thought, and the location had props which were important for the character’s role.

HOW HAVE I DEVELOPED WITH TITLES In the titles I have been able to use different fonts and size

to create a meaning – such as using the typewriter to make it slightly slower and more dramatic.

I have used colours as well to portray certain feelings – such as using white lettering on a black background which makes it seem like more of a darker thriller, more mysterious etc.

The transitions into the title I have also developed on too – we used a flash from the photographers camera to go into the titles so it links well, is meaningful and fits the theme well

Our titling linked well with some of the scenes which were black and white and which were darker. So I feel I developed by linking the titles well with other parts of the film, and to the film as a whole, such as when we filmed the character cutting up the negative photos.

IMAGES ON HOW I IMPROVED

I developed, as similar to the film SE7EN, it is white writing on dark, and black scenes and it links well to the film – SE7EN links to the seven sins the character uses to kill people, and negatives links to the photographer, and the scene where we filmed the negative cuttings. So, I developed by thinking more about what the film title represents and what the look and colouring of the title represents.

CONCLUSION I feel I have improved over the process as I have thought

much more carefully on what makes a thriller a thriller, and how this adds to our own chosen sun-genre – how do we make our thriller a mystery thriller. I have thought and compared our film to real films and thought about what we don’t have that real films do – for example, music – there are normally times of silence in real opening films to add to tension and create that suspense right from the start; there’s normally little if no dialogue and more shot types to emphasise the thriller genre. For example, in Se7en, there were a range of shot types used to show everything going on, however no dialogue was involved, only music which created emotion. So I feel I have improved by using features of real film in our film to fulfil the genre.

I have also learnt about the different features of film and how they have a huge impact on the film itself. The emotion created by sound, the ways the colouring and titles portray a certain type of genre, how jump-cuts can also create a certain type of emotion, and how shot types and different angles show a character in a certain type of way – dominant, a victim, powerful, the main character etc.

CONCLUSION

I have also learnt how facial features help portray certain characteristics of, such as our character keeping a straight face to show little emotion and not knowing about what’s going to happen etc, so by thinking in detail about the small things it allows the build up of character and it adds to the film fitting the genre well, and I have learnt about this in detail over the process.