Continuity short film

Above is my groups completed continuity short film. This task was given to us to create a short clip following a strict criteria.

In the opening sequence we decided to inlcude an edited title to introduce the short film. The title 'Love Affair' suggests the forthcoming events, which corresponds with the contrasted colours of the black and red title, the red connotes an element of love/romanticism or even danger and the black connoting evil/darkness. The fade transition works well as it introduces the viewer to the short film. We also decided on including an extra in the background to gain a higher sense of realism, the lighting of the scene is ambient to add to that realism.

This match on action cut was used at eye level for the first part of the shot and cuts to a high angled shot to get a better view of the prop (phone). Through the use of the first shot the audience are able to realize that the second shot of the phone being revealed by that character. The location (classroom) creates a more authentic feeling as the actor is clearly a teenager not trying to act an age which she is not.

This is a close up shot, it is used to show the content of the text of which the character has received and leaves the viewers wondering who 'George Cross' actually is, is it her boyfriend who the viewers previously saw in the clip?

A dissolve transition is included in this scene as it shows a change of location and a passing of time. The show cuts from the close up of the text message to a shot of this boy receiving the reply.

An establishing shot was used for this next shot to show give the viewer an idea of where the scene is set and familiarise themselves. A long shot is regularly used for establishing shots and it covers a wide area therefore the viewer being able to understand the location and see the character. This helps reveal to the audience: posture, costume choice, facial expression and other mise en scene elements. We found that the ambient lighting supports the naturalistic acting/narrative.

As a group we decided a tracking shot would be a useful affect as we have not yet seen the two people together as it is 'an affair' so it gives the audience a sense of revealing. As the camera begins pointing at the actors feet, it follows (tracks) the character whilst also slowly getting higher to reveal the actors face and then it flows into the previous shot so the editing fits together and makes sense to the audience. Also the fact that people are in the background, adds to the realistic style we wish to aim for.

We noticed after shooting the different scenes that we had made an important continuity error; The shot goes from the actor wearing just a t-shirt then it cuts to him then wearing it. This has helped us realise our mistake and can therefore learn from our mistake. Due to the error we decided to exploit it and really exaggerate the mistake. I also thought we would be a good idea to slow down the fps on a certain point of the scene, this added an element of comedy as it was at the point of one character making a move on the other. Exploring the use of slowing down the fps was interesting and gave us a broader option of things we could actually do with the short film.

Above is an eye-line match shot which we thought to be useful to continue the narrative. It's purpose is to express what a character is looking at, in this case the boyfriend discovery his girlfriends affair.

We thought this would be the suitable point to include a close up shot as it provides the viewers with a closer look at facial expression.

Throughout the filming process we made sure that we did not break any continuity rules. For example when we shot a scene with two characters we were critical that we did not break the 180 degree rule. This is when you are filming one character on one side and the other on the other side, this stops the viewers from becoming disorientated.