Preliminary Task

The Preliminary Task

The below video is our preliminary task about a man walking into a room and have dialogue with another person. The video was successful in a sense and abided by the rules and regulations given for us to obey.

What Went Well

We attempted to create an enigma in the video leading the audience into both a sense of confusion and intrigue, and i feel that we did this successfully in the task. We also included the necessary shot reverse shot, match on action and abided by the 180 degree rule giving the video realism and allowing it to look professional.

What I was most proud of was our camera work and our ability to follow the characters and yet still abide by the 180 degree rule. This was a key issue that we had to address (abiding by the 180 degree rule) and I feel we handled the problem effectively.

Even Better If

I feel that with our shots it would have been better if we had given space and time before each take in order to be able to edit our work with more ease. There were areas in our video where there wasn't enough space given for the actors and as a result it was too quick and even some of the speech or dialogue is affected.

Overall however I am glad with how we did the task and hope that viewers of it will also enjoy it.

Continuity Task

Continuity Task

In this task we edited footage of a women walking through a door, into a room and then sitting down and opening a bag. We as a class edited it and tried to include match on action and abide as much as we could to the 180 degree rule.

From the video you can see that i used match on action effectively when she was opening the locked door. I also always kept her on one side to keep the footage looking realistic and correct to the viewer. Therefore i have abided by the 180 degree rule. This task was purely based on us learning how to edit and incorporate the necessary shot types in our finished edit.

It is important to create a sense of continuity when editing so that the audience watching feels like there are actually there watching it. Therefore errors such as breaking the 180 degree rule cannot occur, otherwise the audience can become confused about the scenery and the positioning of the characters. When filming it is therefore important that the camera stays on one side of the room or area as this is what will be the face of the audience. The juxtaposition of the characters can however be changed when editing, however it can only be done so if you move the camera while changing the position by using techniques such as tracking.

To create continuity when editing it is key that there is a flow in the footage, unless you plan to incorporate techniques such as jump cuts. It can become very apparent to the audience when a characters position changes or something in the scene appears and disappears. It is therefore important to make sure that everything in the scene remains the same when you shot several times. By doing this you ensure that the audience can easily keep track of the video/film.

It is important to create continuity when filming and editing as the audience needs to feel as though they are actually there watching the scene so that the sense of realism is kept. Also keeping the continuity there is a flow kept in the scene allowing the audience to again, easily view the what is happening without them become distracted or confused.

One way of avoiding errors in continuity is to take pictures of what the scene will look like so that if it is necessary that you go back to a scene you know where everything is and what needs to be in place.

CSI South Norwood

CSI South Norwood Task

In this task we attempted to make a replica CSI opening however for South Norwood in london, hence the name CSI:South Norwood. I believe it was successful as i have not only learnt editing techniques but also recording techniques in order to produce a professional looking opening.

Below is the CSI:Miami video we used for inspiration when shooting and editing our clip.

Narrative Theory

Todorov's Theory



Tzvetan Todorov is a Bulgarian philosopher born March 1, 1939. He has lived in France since 1963 and now lives there with his wife and their two children, writing books and essays about literary theory, thought history and culture theory.

However the main part of this blog is outlining his theory on narrative. He believed that every story followed a three part narrative. Equilibrium - Disequilibrium - New Equilibrium. This basically means that at the beginning of the story there is a balance that we the audience consider normal. There is then a disturbance that cause the normal to change and all of a sudden there is no linger a balance. Finally after the disequilibrium there is a new balance that we know consider normal however it is slightly or largely different to the standard equilibrium. This is known as the Todorovian Narrative.




Syd Field's Theory

Syd Field is an American screenwriter, known as one of the kings in the profession. He has written several books on the subject of screenwriting, and he conducts workshops and seminars on the subject of producing salable screenplays. He was born in 1935 and Hollywood film producers have increasingly used his ideas on structure as a guideline to a proposed screenplay's potential.

He also had a theory as to narrative and it has served him quite well. He followed up on Todorov's theory and claimed that the Disequilibrium was the main part of the film where the audience is most interested. His theory (below), however was more complicated and suited to films more than all stories. His theory addresses the fact that in act 1 and incident builds up but doesn't begin. The audience knows something is going to happen. This stage is known as the setup. Next is is the confrontation, two sections were the incident occurs and the hero or good guy gains confidence to step up to the challenge (example). Finally the resolution comes were the climax happens and the good guy or the hero wins the battle or confrontation. 

Vladimir Propp's Character Theory

Propp is a Russian who analysed folk tales and from this gathered that in all stories (theory) there are 8 character types:

1. The Hero - Leads the narrative, usually on a quest, doesn't have to be male, for example a hero is spiderman

2. Villain - Tries to stop the Hero from succeeding, for example doctor octopus in spiderman

3. Donor - Gives the hero something special, whether it is power or a clue that aids the hero in his quest, for example Yoda in star wars

4. The Princess - Prize or Reward for the hero not always a person, for example princess fiona in Shrek

5. Helper/Sidekick - Helps the hero, for example robin in batman

6. The Father - Offers a reward for the hero for completing the quest, for example the sultan in Aladdin

7. False Hero - Takes credit for what the hero does, tries to marry princess, for example prince charming in Shrek

8. Dispatcher - Starts the hero on his quest, king from Shrek the movie

Claude Levi-Strauss (binary opposition theory)

This is the theory that a story unconsciously reflects the values, beliefs and myths of a culture. It also a theory involving conflict as binary is 2 (bi) and opposition is the confrontation between them.

Examples of binary opposition is Good vs Evil, Weak vs Strong, e.c.t.

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes is a french semiologist. He believed that narrative works in five different codes and uses denotations and connotations. The 5 codes are Action (were the resolution is made - for example in a shootout), Enigma (a mystery or questionable thing - it teases the audience by presenting an unanswered puzzle, an example of an enigma is a trailer), Symbolic (connotation), Semic (denotation) and cultural.

180 Degree Rule

180 Degree Rule

What is it and Why it is important?

The 180 degree rule is the ruling that ensures that the positioning of the characters in relation to the scene stays the same, furthermore this makes it easy for the audience to follow the characters and focus more on the dialogue and movement rather than the shots. It also therefore allows the audience to see the footage from realistic perspectives and from their point of view, making the audience the camera.

How can you use it?

Although it is in a sense a "forbidden rule" you can make alterations to the positioning of the characters and still abide by the 180 degree rule. You can effectively do this by tracking around the character, thereby moving the camera slowly and not make a transition to the next shot.

How will this impact on your planning for your preliminary task?

By doing this task we have learnt that when doing our preliminary task we will need to visually map out our camera angles and the angles we are going to use so that the footage looks and feels realistic. It will also probably be good to take some images that relate to the filming we will do and create a storyboard. In doing so we will be able to identify any errors and also be able to see if the shots look good and if they abide by the 180 degree rule. This task will thereby help our preliminary task, what we do and how we do it.