Preliminary Sequence and Evaluation

Preliminary Sequence

What do you think went well?

It think our preliminary sequence had good continuity except for a few things. I think our editing is quite tightly done and we've made sure that where our mise-en-scene didn't convey the plot/storyline, the dialogue did. Our lighting was clear enough to see our characters, but also there's a contrast of lighting between Katie and Lucy, where Lucy's figure is lit very well, Katie's is slightly dimmer. This could be considered symbolism for right/wrong or good/bad.

What were your Criticisms?

There were a few continuity errors for instance Lucy's hair is down in the first shot and then up in the next few scenes, and Katie is wearing a red and grey hoodie in the first shot but a blue jumper in the next. The rain is also a big error in terms of continuity but it's also uncontrollable. There is one shot that is made glaringly obvious that it's too long. The camera follows Katie's walking for about nine seconds and its too long to watch one character do one thing with nothing else happening in the frame.

Do you agree with the criticisms?

I do agree with most of the criticisms especially the one about Katie's tracking shot. It was very long and the audience didn't need to see the whole of Katie's walk to meet Lucy, we could have just filmed her start walking and switched to Lucy to skip most of her walking. Although the walking was longer and we got rid of a section of it before submitting this version. I think the rain was a continuity error but I disagree that it was a huge problem because it looks like it started as Katie walks closer towards Lucy. This could be considered pathetic fallacy and give the audience a sense of foreboding. 

How well do you think your group organised this project?

I think we could have improved our organisation. Our time-keeping was fine considering our short time frame, but we did start filming without half of our script and half of our storyboard but finished them both before the end. If we were slightly more organised then we might have remembered to keep the same clothes for filming to avoid continuity errors. With our variety of shots there was no way we could have finished it in one session, but if we had finished the script and storyboard then we would have known exactly what our shots would look like instead of spending time improvising.

How would you improve it?
If we could improve it, I would definitely shorten the shot of Katie walking towards Lucy to about 4 seconds at most. I would have kept all the actors in the clothes that they started filming in and also I would have a longer time frame so that I could re film with the same clothes and on a day when it isn't raining. The frame where you can see Lucy standing still and Katie walking into it so they face each other is a few frames long and that could have used tighter editing as well.