A2 Preliminary Evaluation

Pre-Production Evaluation ( 259 words )

The storyboarding process involved recording the shot lengths, types, angles and action, as well as making quick sketches to help visualize exactly what the shot looked like. Taking the position of director, I figured the original storyboard I made and that everyone else had done too was pretty mediocre, so I did a new one that involved actual shots from the music video we were mimicking, as well as camera positions and action diagrams (arrows, labels, etcetera.), plus all of the original information from the first storyboard.

Overall, it did a much better job than the original storyboard and allowed us to set up each of the shots much faster. Planning out the shots before even approaching the camera seemed to be a much more efficient process than just doing it on the go during shooting, and the final video was much more accurate as well.

The prop lists and locations list allowed us to list the needed props as well as what shots would be done at which location – this allowed us to appropriately prepare for the shoot by having the needed equipment at hand, as well as make the shooting faster due to the non-linear nature of the filming (we shot all inside shots first, then all outside shots, rather than alternating between the two by filming in the order the shots are in the timeline).

During this shoot, I've mainly learned that detailed planning can be beneficial to the final video a lot more than I thought it would be - both for time and quality.

Production Evaluation ( 402 words )

The actual process of filming went rather well. It took less than 10 minutes in order to set the place up (mainly just rearranging the tables and pre-loading the necessary videos), and then we decided on who would be sitting where and what shots to shoot first.

During the inside shots (which we did first), we did go over the time limit slightly due to problems mainly to do with the actors and finding appropriate compromises with the shots (the dimensions and layout of the room were, of course, different from the video, which meant we had to make adjustments to what the shots would be like). In order to quicken the process of the inside shots (after spending god knows how long on trying to get Harry to enunciate the phrase “oh yeah yeah” properly) I took control of the later shots away from the Jack and Jacob so that we could cut out the time it took to explain to the shots to them. Another problem we came across was the guitars – the music department, it turned out, would only lend out one at a time, so Harry and Pat had to go collect theirs over break. Jack resumed control once we started filming the outside shots nearby the library.

Outside we came across several problems with the filming which, again, involved the actors. The dancers used in the background seemed to stop at random points (here’s looking at you, Sanrita), damaging certain shots as well as disrupting the pace of the editing. The people in the band, mainly Tom, had problems with multi-tasking, apparently, as he didn’t seem to want to sing and play the guitar at the same time after jumping, as did the others multiple times – this created shots that were otherwise fine, but left the band not actually singing, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

In terms of continuity, I’d say we did fine, besides the shades being open and closed in certain shots inside, affecting the lighting. The problems we did come across can be addressed in other film projects by improving communication between the actors and the director (me), so I’m not getting mad at them for not doing things I simply forgot to tell them to do. I'd say that my skills of communicating what I want from the actors have improved due to the problems we've faced over the production.

Post-Production Evaluation ( 229 words )

From the beginning of the editing process, we came across the problem of having no-one show up to the class, which meant we had to use just a couple of people in each group. Due to problems we had with the program iMovies and the fact it won’t save blank projects for some reason, we had to spend a while loading in the footage, which was then disorganized. We spent the majority of the lesson organizing the footage before we could do anything about it, which I guess saved time in the long run but would have saved a lot more time if it hadn’t been a problem to begin with.

The editing itself went fairly okay – the final edit that our group did was as close to the original video that we could get considering the method we used to check it (running between two rooms and remembering the shot cuts and action), and we still managed to get it done by the end of the lesson anyway. I’d say that we’ve learnt how to properly use the program for editing videos during this, including the use of independent sound files and the modification of clip volume. Being familiar with other programs for editing due to not having a Mac, it was interesting to get to use it for a more extensive video than last year’s preliminary piece.

A2 Preliminary 'What I Go To School For' by Busted

A2 Preliminary Lipsyncing 'What I Go To School For'

Primeval Representation of Gender

Representation of Class Sherlock (2010)

Camera Shots

Close ups of Sherlock often either have just him in the shot or him blurred out of focus with the other characters – there is a clear barrier between him and the others, and the single focus on him shows a sort of self-importance that is often stereotypical of being upper class (though, generally, the new Sherlock is middle class, bordering upper).

Editing

Fast paced shots help to portray the speed of Sherlock’s deduction, mainly during his explanation of why he thinks Jim is gay. The shots are also blurred to show the focus of the characters as well as the boundaries between them – Sherlock is blurred when others are in close shots with him, probably to represent the ambiguity in people’s opinion of him (a common question raised is whether Sherlock actually cares for people or if he’s a sociopath who does things simply to entertain himself).

Sound

Sherlock is much more vocal about his thoughts than the others – the woman is in denial about her boyfriend being gay, the boyfriend is clearly in denial about himself being gay, and Watson is quiet for the majority of the scene with one of the first things he says being put down by Sherlock.

His accent is also more refined than the other characters – the others are clearly much more casual, where as Sherlock’s speech has a sort of elegance to it that you’d expect from the more upper-boundary of the middle class in society. The accent also helps to portray intelligence, a key focus of the series with Sherlock being, essentially, the most intelligent character in the show (not counting his brother).

Mise en Scene

Sherlock is sitting down – the other characters end up “looking down on him” figuratively by the end of the scene

Sherlock is wearing a suit, as opposed to the work clothes of the woman, the coat of Watson and the t-shirt of Jim.

Sherlock is the central point of the characters – they all face him, and the focus of the conversations are aimed at him as well (the introduction of Jim, the controversy behind Sherlock’s deduction and the counter points by Watson are, obviously, all focused around Sherlock).

Sherlock’s general speech is also very, very different from the others, not just in terms of his accent or formality, but in the way he shows his understanding of the others – ironically, for the most intelligent character in the show, he shows very little understanding of how the others think, another stereotype of the upper-middle class like politicians, who are very detached from the population in terms of understanding what they want.