Continuity Task 1 (BLK)

1. In our video the audience sees Character A enter a lift in which Character B is already standing in, the lift doors close and the shot cuts to a digital display of the lift going down. The lift then reaches the bottom and the doors re open. Character B is lying on the floor of the lift, possibly dead. Character A presses the alarm button, steps calmly over Character B and exits the lift.
2. We attempted to create continuity by using an establishing shot to make the audience aware of the surroundings as well as introducing Character A. Also we used an Other The Shoulder shot to introduce Character B and at the same time move the action forward. By using a variety of shot angles and distances we attempted to give the audience an understanding of the setting. We also attempted to match the movement between shots so that one shot flowed into the other. Shot 3 is a shot of the lifts digital display, we included this to show the audience that time was moving on and the lift was moving. We also used camera movement, such as the pan in shot 6 to allow the audience to follow the action.
3.We did not manage to achieve full continuity. In many of the shots we did not match the action between shots. For example between Shot 1 and 2 the movement of character A did not match up, as at the end of Shot 1 the character was in the lift but at the beginning of Shot 2 she was only just walking into the lift. This stops the flow of the shots and confuses the audience. Shot 3 was ineffective as we used it to move on time and show the audience that the lift was going down. However the number on the lift didn't change so this shot just confuses the audience further. Their was also too big of a jump in framing between shot 2 and 3. Shot 2 was an MS and sot 3 was an ECU, this huge variation in shot framing is asking the audience to do too much. There was also a huge pause at the beginning of shot 6 which disrupts the continuity.
4.In hindsight if we did this task again I would ensure that we matched the action in between the shots. I would cut the footage so that shot 2 starts slightly later so that the movement flows between the shots. I would of also included another shot in between shot 2 and 3 which would show character A looking at the digital display as this would give the audience some context of where the digital display was. I would also ensure that the lift digital display actually went down as I think is an effective way of moving on time. Lastly in shot 6 I would get Character A to start walking from further back to erase the pause at the start of shot 6.

My Film Still Analysis (BLK)

The girl in the shot is reaching up towards the camera as if she is trying to escape from someone or something. She looks scared and as if she is asking for help. The shot is a long shot and the girl looks very small compared to the scale of the picture, this makes her appear more vulnerable and innocent. The genre of the film is horror and this is connoted in the setting of the shot. The surroundings are very dirty and dark with graffiti on the walls. The graffiti on the walls would plant questions in the audience’s mind: Who’s been down there before? Did they escape? The lighting also accentuates the genre as it is low key with a red tinge to it. We did this buy using a small hand held light and putting a red filter over it. Also the lighting obviously gets darker at the bottom of the hole and this makes it seem as if there is just blackness behind the girl which creates a sense of the unknown.

We were hoping that the audience would see that the girl is trying to get out of the whole and see that she is scared and trying to escape from something. We also hoped that they would immediately interpret that the genre of the film was horror due to the setting and the lighting.

I think our shot is quite effective as we chose a very good setting which immediately connotes the genre. However if we were to do it again we would make sure the shot was more centered as it is slightly tilted. Also we would make sure that you could see that actors face a bit better so that the fear on their face could be immediately interpreted by the audience.