Continuity Sequence Evaluation

We were set the task of creating a short sequence to show our understanding of the continuity editing system as well as mise-en-scene, and camera angle, distance and movement.

My group was Craig and Josh and me. We decided to create a sequence about the exchange of a package which contains an item that is held a secret until the very end of the short, and it's revealed to be a toy doll, which is meant to come across as kinda goofy and funny

The Mise-en-scene means the scenery and location, the mise-en-scene for our short sequence was the grave yard. I think that this set the right feel and atmosphere that we wanted, we were going for an eerie feel and the graveyard definitely brought that feeling across, this made the reveal of the doll at the end even more goofy which is better.

Through out the filming of this short sequence there was no artificial lighting used, it was all sunlight and natural lighting, this made it kinda difficult when we had to film again a couple days later, fortunately it was just a little sunnier so we just reduced the saturation which made it look like the same day.

Throughout the filming of our sequence, we use a range of high and low angle shots. This can create the illusion of certain characters being either more or less powerful than they actually are. Through out the entire sequence, the camera never went any higher than anyone head. this is because both characters are meant to be portrayed as intimidating or sketchy. the reason a lower camera angle give the illusion of someone being intimidating or sketchy I because they are looking down on you.

We also used a variety of shot distances, using different shot distances can add a lot of emotion, whether that is tension, suspense, fear, anything really. In the screen cap taken at 0:29 seconds in, we used a wide angle shot, this is to show the two characters walking together, it then cuts to a closer shot as they get closer and exchange the package. in the second screen cap, taken at 0:42 seconds, we used a close up on one of the characters eyes, this is to add suspense, because we don't know whats in the bag, all we have to go off of is the reaction of the actor.

Throughout the entire short sequence, this is the only transaction that we used that wasn't a cut, here we used a dissolve. the reason we used a dissolve here instead of a cut is because we wanted to show that there was a change in time. when watching the sequence through, you can tell this and it's all thanks to the video transaction.

As our whole sequence was shot at the graveyard, we only really needed one establishing shot, to let the viewers know where this is meant to be shot. This establishing shot was only on tscreen for 2 seconds, which doesn't actually sound like a lot of time, but when you're watching it anything longer than three seconds is really just unnecessary and boring.

The first screen cap, taken at 0:14 seconds, is of an eyeline match. One of the characters is waiting for the package to arrive, so he looks at his watch. When filming our eyeline match shots, we filmed the whole process from both angles so that we could edit it where we need to, instead of just trying to guess where we would cut it when filming.

The second screen cap, taken at 0:18 seconds, is of a POV shot. After checking his watch he looks about to see if he can see the other character and as his head is whipping round, it switched to a POV. To film this POV, we had to just do a fast pan from left to right and then back again, this was prett difficult to do because of how steady we had to keep the camera.