The document discusses what was learned between filming a preliminary task and creating a final product. It describes three main continuity techniques - the 180 degree rule, match on action, and shot reverse shot. For the preliminary task, these techniques were not always followed as closely but improved upon for the final product. More footage was collected for the final product, allowing for better match on action shots during editing. Overall, mise-en-scene and continuity techniques were better handled in the final product compared to the preliminary task.

1. Evaluation Question 7
What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from the Preliminary
Task to full product?

2.  There are three main continuity techniques. Firstly, the 180 Degree Rule. This
is used to show the relationship between two characters on screen. If the
camera moves over the guideline, it breaks the continuity of the scene and
causes confusion to the audience. We were careful not to break the 180
Degree Rule when filming our preliminary task by ensuring we filmed the
conversation from the ‘same side’ of the line. When filming our final product,
we again ensured we didn’t break the 180 Degree Rule when filming the
conversation between the two government members to make it as easy to
understand as possible. I feel we improved between filming the preliminary
task and the final product as we filmed the conversation between the
government members in one take, whereas for our preliminary task, we kept
moving the camera from one over the shoulder shot to the other. The benefit
of filming it in one take is that the film has a better flow overall and it
prevents confusion amongst the audience.

3.  The second continuity technique is Match on Action. This is when, for example, you see a
character walk through a door from the outside of the room and then as they enter, the
camera angle changes to inside the room, and you see them enter from that view, which we
used in our preliminary task as the student enters the classroom. I feel we did this relatively
well in our preliminary task, however we improved dramatically by the time we created our
final product as we accumulated a lot more footage, which meant we had more options when
it came to the editing process. This meant we could be incredibly specific when creating
Match on Action for our opening. For example, when the main character pulls a towel off of
the hook, we were able to edit it almost perfectly so the transition between the two angles
was hardly noticeable. However for our preliminary task, we only took one shot for when the
student walks through the door from outside the room and from the inside of the room,
which made it more difficult to edit and make it appear to flow. There is a section in our final
product that we could improve as when a member of the government walks out of a room, he
is filmed from behind and once he’s walked through the door, the angle changes to a front
view, which wasn’t a very smooth transition.

4.  The final form of continuity is Shot, Reverse, Shot. This is mainly used for
conversations between characters and involves over the shoulder shots. We
used this in our preliminary task between the teacher and student talking.
When filming this, we began by filming all of the teacher’s lines first, over
the shoulder of the student and then we moved the camera and filmed all of
the student’s lines, over the shoulder of the teacher. We did this so that the
camera was in the same position throughout their conversation. However we
now know that it would have been better to film the lines as more of a
conversation, alternating between the two characters instead of filming all of
their lines in two separate pieces. To ensure that the camera stayed in the
same place, we could have used two camera’s and set one up with an over
the shoulder shot of the student looking at the teacher and vice-versa and
clicked record at the same to make it a more natural looking conversation
and improved the continuity of it.

5.  In conclusion I have learnt a lot between filming for our preliminary task and
creating our final product. For example, I have learnt how to improve mise-
en-scene. Our preliminary task was supposed to be set in a school, so it didn’t
matter if school related things were on the walls or not. For our final product
we had to film in school as well, however this had to appear to look like
government offices so we had to make sure we removed anything school
related from the walls and make sure they were out of the shot. I have also
learnt the importance of continuity techniques, in particularly the Match on
Action shots, and that it is better to too much footage than not enough. It is
easier to edit Match on Action shots using more footage as you have more
options and are then able to pick the bits that fit/flow best and can crop then
down as much as you need to.