Evaluation questions:

Q7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The 180 degree rule

There were some big differences between our preliminary task and our main project. These were mainly through the differences in dialogue, the actual plots, the lighting and colour, the genre etc. Although these are some of the key elements in filming, there were a couple of similarities between our two tasks. I learned alot from the continuity exercise in the fact that we actually used many of the strategies and techniques in order to make a continuity exercise work properly in our main film opening. This was not just through the use in camera but in fact, is all to do when you finish the task, it is the editing stage that is the main similarity between these two projects.

In order for a continuity to work in any film, the cuts between scenes, dialogue, scenery etc. has to be smooth and accurate so that the audience know what is going on. I learnt that if there are too many jump cuts in any particular scene, it doesn't matter what genre the film is but too many of them looks cheap, rubbish and can upset and confuse the audience and storyline/plot. If this happens then another problem maybe that the dialogue between the characters can overlap. Although in some cases jump cuts are acceptable because they explain the story better than if it were just an ordinary straight cut. I learnt this through the continuity first when we came to the editing and then we used the advise in the actual, final film opening.

Finally, the last thing I learnt from editing the continuity/preliminary exercise to applying it into the final piece was the idea of the 180 degree rule. The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle. The 180 degree rule enables the audience to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the immediate subject and is important in the narration of battle scenes.