12th January - Second Practical (Match Cuts)

We were given a practical task of filming using the match shot technique. Me and two other people in my group (Sevin and Slema) were absent the lesson before due to our AS psychology examination. This left Ola to explain to us what he had done alone in the last lesson, which did cause confusion between us. We missed a vital lesson and our out come had to pay the consequences.

Ola had already drawn up a storyboard for our practices practical and he explained to us what he had come up with. We then got ready to start filming but were not too sure where our filming location would be. Our plan and ideas kept on changing constantly and made the whole process more baffling. We decided to film in the corridor for our first shot. Through much of the filming, we had to take numerous shots because they didn’t turn out how we wanted it to be. The mood was down for a while because of the frustration of the perfect shots we aimed for and that we wanted to challenge and make the practice filming session better than our previous one about the newspaper thriller which I believe turned out better than expected. With a little help from Micky (Media Technician), we were able to be back on our feet again and our shots started to improve slowly.

Suddenly, thoughts were flooding our minds and our group was fully switched on but the time was an issue so we had to try and do the basic shots first but did have effectual attributes. We had accomplished the classic walking towards the camera down the corridor match cut which flowed smoothly and also completed our own opening then closing the door match cut. This came out superbly and was better than expected as Sevin and Selma thought of how to do it during editing making the outcome of our group’s practical come out much better.

We learned how to act as a team more in this practical then in the last one because during the last practical (newspaper thriller) there was only Me and Ola present during that lesson. This made us do all the filming by ourselves which was hard at times because it was hard for us to be present at the same time in the film, making us act towards something that wasn’t really there so we had to use our imagination very much, but this was not difficult as me and Ola both did Drama GCSE. Me and Ola coped very well during this and made us more independent because the other two members let us down by being absent. This made us feel that we could do this project all by ourselves but we learnt that we were wrong as the other two members are vital to us as they helped very much through editing which made the presentation more effective , appealing and enjoyable. So this session we decided to let the girls act in the practical so that our group could form a balance between camera work and acting. I believe they did an equally as good job. This process allowed our group to solve its problems and made us more enthusiastic making morale within the group to increase. By the end of the session we didn’t finish the production but had belief that we are very capable of achieving high but only if we work together properly.

Match cutting became more understandable in the way we can use it within our group and has become familiar in using this shot in our ideas before filming. This simple 180 degrees rule helped us fully understand the effectiveness of it and why so many professional films use it to create a specific feeling or meaning and also allows them to view a character from different angles which could perhaps symbolise the another personal side of the character. We were able to analyse the film properly, how editing does this effect and how to incorporate this into our film production.

I feel that we followed the forms and conventions of real films but didn’t use our time properly to finish. The wasted time at the beginning of the lesson cost our group very much. We were able to create suspenseful surrounding this technique with only the tools available to us so this sure does challenge the conventions of real films as they have much better equipment and also use some special effects what have the same effects as our practical. We still created a suspenseful atmosphere through match cuts what was key skill we had to use that lesson. The lighting was not really an issue we could really tackle but some lighting was used naturally without us meaning to use it like when Sevin’s match cut in the corridor, the other half of the corridor was darker which could illustrate that she is walking into trouble. That was pretty much about it for the lighting. The camera was used very wisely from us as we tried to stick to the storyboard but had to come away from it a few times to add particular shots. We tried to use various camera shots to give different perspectives, including point of view shot. These shots all had some meaning into them like the point of view shot of the room number as we wanted the audience to focus on this and keep this image into consideration. The mise en scene was not so much thought about because we had to rush into filming and that me and some group members were absent making it a little difficult to understand the storyboard plot at fist hand. The editing was coming along well but was disrupted by time again so we were not able to add any sound which is obvious in the film as we can hear ‘Action’ and ‘cut’ throughout the film. This was also were the match cuts were put in and we discovered other match cuts we could used from the footage we filmed, this was due to use learning more about the editing process showing that we have the power to control what sort of image comes across a character.

Our practise film could make little comments about representation by the way the camera shots are portrayed as we use extreme close ups to show a certain anxiety in the footage and the focus on room number as it could mean a particular thing but there was not as much representation as we would have liked to put in.

Overall, our group was not completely satisfied with our performance in the second practical production because of how it turned out and knowing that we were capable of making it much more better and effective. Within the group we felt a little disappointment because we know we can achieve much higher with all of our potentials. However, this taught us a valuable lesson and that we are not daunted by this slight failure. This will give as an eager trust to aim higher for the final thriller film. It made us only stronger and we all took into consideration that we need to use each other and time more effectively. I think this is a useful process in terms of using match cuts and resolving our group problems and has made us much more enthusiastic.