Evaluation

Brief

Our short clip involved a teacher questioning a pupil for not completing homework. There was a short piece of dialogue between the teacher and the student. We have covered the brief by using the shots specified and shots of the characters specified on the blog. Match on action was used effectively because the transitions were smooth. An example is when the teacher walks to the door (long shot) and the next shot is a close up of him swiping the card. It tells the audience that it is the same time and the card obviously is the reason the door unlocked. Also, it indicates to the audience that he is the teacher as he has a pass to open the door. In addition, shot reverse shot was used when the characters were discussing the 'homework issue'. It adds realism to the scene because we would expect a conversation to be fluent and the audience are able to see quick reactions which is natural.

Planning process 

As a group we decided to split the work so ideas could be constructed quickly and the communication in this task was key. I had done the storyboard and my colleges did the shot list and transcript. We decided to use a draft storyboard to sketch ideas down and picture whether the transitions were fluent. If not, we would try to replace the shot or the type of shot we initially chose. For example, we were going to have a long shot of the teacher walk to the door and swipe his card. But I realised a way we could start covering the brief is by using match on action so the teacher would walk to the door and the next shot is a close up of him swiping his card to open the door. We would discuss whether some of the shots would make sense to a viewer who wouldn't know much about the story line. It was essential to look at it from their perspective because we would be able to criticise our work and edit changes that needed to be made. Also, we were going to make the recording seem as if it was hand held. So the camera would have been swaying slightly to show the casualness of the scene. This would have been a good addition because it show suggest although it is a serious clip (detention, education), we can try to make it relevant to our audience as they probably would have been in a similar situation - decided not to use it.

Strengths and weaknesses

The framing was okay because the audience were able to see the character that is on focus in the shot. The audience were able to understand the shots we used and realised a student was in detention and was neither of the characters were pleased. However, when the shot changed the positioning of the character's were different from the previous one. This is obvious to the audience and it takes the naturalism away from the shots. Therefore, the effect is reduced from the scene because it makes the continuity slow down and instead of making the audience feel like they are part of the story they would probably feel as if they are part of the editing of the clip. The dialogue was very clear and easy for the audience to understand. I believe this was mainly because the script had easy language to follow and for most they would be able to familiarise themselves with this situation. However, because of the editing, the shots didn't flow and this made the scene look artificial. The focus of the camera was poor and this made some of the shots look unprofessional and would take the audience away from the story. We were able to cover all the shots but the shot reverse shot didn't flow which is the main reason why the conversation also wasn't fluent.