Preliminary Task Evaluation

For the preliminary task I worked in a group of 4; Natasja Wilcox, Elena Hopkins, Maisy Groves and I. We filmed the video on my camera, a Nikon D3300, and edited it on Natasja's Macbook Pro. The film starred Myself and Maisy Groves, with the filming done mainly by Natasja Wilcox, and the editing done by the owner of the laptop mainly, Natasja Wilcox. Elena Hopkins did all the pre-production tasks, in order for us to know what we were doing. The techniques which we used include Shot - Reverse - Shot, Match on action, and Various camera angles

In general I think that in general, the filming and the production of the Preliminary task went well. There were some hiccups and some mistakes throughout the film, though, chief of which was my problem with acting, as I was unable to stop looking at the camera as I am not an expert actor, indeed mainly filling a role over anything else. Indeed, my performance was probably the worst aspect of the film. A worthy praise would be Natasja Wilcox's filming, as her distinct style is definitely of note. However, she did go across the 180 degree line a couple of times during filming, creating some jarring moments when I switch sides of the frame between cuts. Elena helped the rest of the group out, after doing all the pre-production tasks which really guided us where to go and what to do. She also gave a detailed storyboard, meaning it was easy to follow. Maisy Groves was the other actress, and she has had much more experience in drama than I have, therefore her performance was definitely also of note.

The film ran for slightly longer than 30 seconds, up to 36. That was slightly over the required time of 30 seconds, however I believed we made good use of the extra time we used in order to fit some more lines in and fit a shot in which looked interesting. We made good use of the shot - reverse- shot method in order to show the conversation between my character and Maisy's, which worked well and made the conversation seem more fluid, make the sound and the camera work seem a lot more fluid than it could have. The fluidity is however ruined by the cross of the 180 degree line, which makes the cut obvious and jarring to the viewer.

The actual preliminary task video I believe was a good production. While some cuts were jarring and obvious, the piece undeniably flowed well, and the presentation with the camera angles told somewhat of a story by themselves. Some cuts were jarring for aforementioned reasons, however in general I am overall happy, however I do admit there is significant room for improvement. One part that does is definitely the sound, as this s a reason for the cuts being so jarring. Had we edited the sound or included a couple extra scenes where the dialogue runs over in order for the sound cuts to be less jarring, however the dialogue itself fills the role.

Overall the preliminary task, while the room for improvement is undeniably there, went well, as the techniques were all filled, the main problem being the presentation, as the techniques were definitely filled.