"Who am I talking to?" Final edit and evaluation

Watch "Who am I talking to?" here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYwzwr9f_Oc

Evaluation

When begining the process of creating our short film "Who am I talking to?" we went over a range of ideas that could benefit the short film the best and the carried out our pre production. For example, I was in a group with Ellie, who was director, John, who was camera man and Luca and Charlie, who alongside myself were actors.

During pre production, we went over the script that Ellie had written and made sure that all the scenes were do-able and were fine to film (based around timings, location, characters/cast and costuming). Based on the original script, we deemed it fine and carried on with pre production. We each had a task to do each with was beneficial to our time. Ellie as director created the shot list and the storyboard as she had more of a vision of what she wanted the film to look like. I did the location recces for all of the locations of where we were filming. This then connected with John who created a risk assessment so that we knew of any hazards whilst filming and filming in those locations. Charlie created a callsheet so we each new when we were filming, where we were filming and had the contact information for each person involved in the prosess. Luca created props and costuming sheets which explained if we needed anything to film with and use in scenes and if there was any specific costumes characters needed. The pros of creating all of the pre production documents was that we all then new what was going on and when and where it was happening. A con would be that we all needed the pre production documents to continue and some crew members did not prioritise their documents, meaning that it took longer to begin filming.

We worked in a group together well as we each took control of our tasks and played an active part in filming. However, whilst we used teamwork well there was often disagreements between group members. For example, looking back at my final edit there is a number of shots and scenes I personally would have done differently or changed whereas other group members said it did not need to be changed. An example of this would be in the first scene where we meet Jake and Leo, the scene often breaks the 180 degree rule and shots apear all over the place. If the vast majority of the group agreed, I would have reshot this scene with the 180 degree rule in place. I also would have reshot the scene where Leo and Jake are on the quad as this again broke the 180 degree rule a number of times aswell as being choppy (shots not matching up) and there being a lack of continuity. An example of this would be a wide shot of Jake on the bench and he is leaning over and then in the next shot he is sat up. There is no movement between these two shots. Thinking about camera work aswell I would say that we each contributed well (showing teamwork). We used a range of shots and camera movements well and represented that within the storyboard, shot list and final product. However, whilst I think we created a good range of shots using camera work, there is one shot that I think we should have considered ways to make it better. This would be in scene 1, we zoomed into Jakes face to show his expression (his laughing at Leo as he does not undertstand whats going on). In this scene we battled with the sun as it often ruined shots, I think we could have either done this scene differently or taken it out.

When editting my work I had to use three different editting techniques. In my short film I used a number of J&L cuts to show the use of dialogue beeing carried to/from shots. This was beneficial as it showed good use of reactions, context and conversation. I used this in the first scene (on the feild) and in the second scene (in the classroom). This was quite difficult as sometimes timing wise, when wanting to show the reaction of the character (to something being said), the character being filmed may not have the reaction that was wanting. Again this could have been fixed by reshoots. Another technique I used was a Jump cut. I used jump cuts to break up scenes and show a transition/change in scenes. This was shown typically at the end of every scene/start of a new one. Editting jump cuts was somewhat simple however wanted to execute it well which was the harder part timing wise. The final editting technique I used was Shot/reverse shot. This is used in majority of my conversation scenes when shots and angles bounced back and forward. This was simple as it was just a matter of changing the shots and making them have the conversation run smoothly.

Overall, I do think that I would have liked the group to agree with me over reshooting to make the film better as a number of scenes needed changing. However, as a group we did use a significant amount of communication and worked well between suggesting what looked best, changing how it may have sounded and who could do what.