Continuity Task Storyboard

For our continuity task, our group came up with the idea of a cleaner conducting a robbery inside the school. We thought that on his approach to the room we would be able to show off our camera skills and shoot the robber from different angles. 

The only problem about a robbery is that it would be done with no other people around, meaning no dialogue would take place. So to make sure that we could include dialogue, we decided to place a teacher in one of the rooms and as she leaves she says goodnight to the 'innocent' cleaner. 

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Continuity Task Filming Locations

For our continuity task, we decided to have a quick look around the school for an appropriate filming location. The criteria for our location was that it had to wide enough for our long shot and feature multiple doors in one corridor. 

This is the location that we have decided to use - it is wide enough for us to fit a whole person in and features multiple doors which is perfect for what we need. 

This location will not be used due to the fact that the rooms are not in the correct order and the room is very large and open which will make it hard for us not to break the 180 degree rule. 

This location had all of the right elements to it apart from the fact that it was very narrow, meaning that we would not be able to film from the side, limiting the amount of shots we would be able to use. 

Continuity Task Outline

In our coursework groups, we have been set small task of creating a short sequence that can show off our camera skills and abilities. The mini project will need to show a variety of different camera, editing, mise-en-scene and sound skills.

The rules for this task were:
• You must not break the 180 Degree Rule
• You must include a shot-reverse-shot
• You must include a variety of appropriate camera angles
• You must edit so that continuity is apparent and the meaning is clear
• You must include more than one location
• You must include some interaction between characters
• You must include some non-diegetic sound

This means that our group will have to come up with a short story that will enable us to include all of these rules into our work.

Storyboarding Task

In groups we were set the task to create a chase scene to the title 'Terror in the Night'. We had to include a variety of shots and had to write the type of shot and any diegetic and non-diegetic sound that would be in the shot.

I think that this storyboard hits most of the criteria needed to make a strong, successful storyboard. We have spoke about the music that will be needed and the facial expressions of the characters. To improve this storyboard, we need to add in character movement arrows and camera movement arrows. This will make it even clearer for the cameraman to understand - if someone were to go out and turn this into a real chase sequence.

Premier Pro Editing Task

Today we started looking into how to physically make a title sequence. We were set the task of recreating a previous media groups title sequence - so we would have to piece together all the individual elements i.e. placing the original footage in the correct order and cutting them down to match the original. Placing the titles in the correct place and then applying the correct effects to them. Applying and cutting the music and sound effects to the sequence.
I myself, have used Adobe Premier Pro many times before, so I had an advanced understanding compared to some of the other people in the class. For the task, we were in pairs, and my partner had never used Premier before, which meant that I offloaded the bulk of the work to her, ensuring that she gained a solid understanding of Premier and the tools inside it.
I started by showing my partner how to drag and drop the clips onto the timeline and then cut them down once we had decided on whether or not it matched the original. The next step, which was not shown in the demonstration, was how to unlink the audio from a clip. The reason I showed my partner this was because in the original sequence, there was no diegetic sound in the clips - just the soundtrack.
Next, we added the titles over the top of the footage. This was relatively easy, until it came to finding the same effects that they used. They had applied some sort of blur and wipe to the text. Whether or not I am being stupid and don't know the name of the effect, or they had applied two different effects. In our piece we used a simple gaussian blur and set the blur to 100% then set a keyframe a few seconds after and placed the blur to 0% which gave it that fast out and in focus effect.
Lastly we added the music and sound effects which was all about timing which we applied with no major problems.

From this task, I have familiarised myself with Premier and the basics and worked in more detail on precision editing. I feel as though I have helped my partner as well with her understanding of Premier - which is an extra bonus as she is in my coursework group, and we all need to partake in the editing process of our final sequence.

Trial for the Suicide Tape

My group decided that it would be a good idea to test out how long it would take for our suicide tape section. This would allow for us to have an understanding of how much of the 2 minutes the tape will take up - leaving us a rough figure of how much time we will have to work with for the rest of the opening.

In these tester films, we are purely looking for the time and the size of the cards - we are not looking at the mise-en-scene of the shot.



This is our first trial and straight away, I feel as though the cards are too small and they are being moved along too quickly. I don't think that people would be able to see the cards and be able to read them in the time given.




For our second attempt, we decided to change the lighting of the scene, just to make it aesthetically look slightly similar to how we envisage the final shot. Again, after trying the small cards, it has become 100% clear that we need to make the cards bigger and maybe even prolong them by putting less writing on each card.




In this test, we have made the cards a lot bigger and spaced the writing out more. Immediately, just by looking at the length of the videos, you can see that this one is a lot longer than the others.
From this video we can definitely confirm that we will be using large cards and having less writing on each - this makes the whole sequence seem more eerie and adds an element of suspense and sadness to the piece.

As a group we came up with multiple ideas that we could include in our opening. We have explored the different possibilities for each of the key elements of our idea.