Analysis of Preliminary Exercise

This was our first real exercise in the media course, it was to test our current knowledge and help us to improve our camera skills.

The shooting didn't go too badly and the shots used were mediocre. We tried to use as many shots and styles as possible in the time given to us, and we did almost that. Although we could have used more shots, we managed to get in an over the shoulder shot, long shot, wide shot and panning view.

The actual camera work was well done in my opinion, me and Nick both did equal amounts of work with the camera and I think that we managed to keep it steady and focused correctly throughout the short film.

The editing in general was okay, I did the majority of the editing and things like keeping the sound flowing together between shots was smooth enough to become unnoticable. One problem that we had was that the dialog was pretty quiet, this was solved by upping the volume in the edit. Next time we would ensure that our actors actually spoke less quietly so that the quality isn't reduced in the edit.

Although we followed the 180-Degree-Line rule, we failed mostly on the Rule-of-Thirds, as you can see in most of the shots the faces aren't lined up as well as they should be and there is too much blank space in the shots. Next time we'll try to improve this by lining up each shot before shooting it to ensure that the Rule-of-Thirds is followed.

Overall I think that the short film went well, the shooting was steady and the edits were smooth, but our main problem that we need to improve on next time is making sure that the rules are followed. One other problem is that towards the end, Chloe looks at the camera, which is something that we'll need to ensure our actors don't do next time.