Continuity Exercise Evaluation

Red- A film by Reece, Toby, Laura and Xene

For the second part of our Induction assignment, we needed to create a video that followed the theme of 'something being exchanged' with less than twenty shots. The shots had to cover a range of styles and contain no continuity errors. We decided to make our film the exchange of a letter leading to a confrontation between two people.

Continuity: This is the idea of creating an easy to follow product where shots flow together with no confusing issues created during editing or scene transitions, such as people moving to different locations or something being there when it shouldn't, a good film has little to no continuity errors. There weren't many errors in ours as we tried not to break the 180 degree rule, meaning that the characters always appeared to be in the same place, rather than changing sides of the corridor midway. This would have been the case if we'd tried to film shots from the left side of the corridor as well.
There were a couple of issues though, a main one being a jump in the last few frames. One character stabs the other, at 1:13, then appears to move backwards instantly at 1:14, which was a mistake from editing.

1:13

1:14

 Camera Work: We had to follow a set of instructions for which camera shots needed to be included, such as having to use a Match on action, as seen with the letter being picked up,  and one establishing shot, which was the opening. We did manage to include each of them and in my opinion they worked well, a personal favourite being the close ups and extreme closeups at the beginning.

Close up at 0:16

Close up at 0:18

Extreme close up at 0:25

Extreme close up at 0:27

The only issue was that a number of shots are blurred or 'shaky' which is due to a lack of equipment, we didn't have a dolly or crane so had to rely on a tripod. When we showed our film to the class, most people agreed that they liked the way it fades to red at the end. (A transition was one of the requirements).

The end transition

Mise En Scene- 'What is in the scene?' we were filming what appeared to be a meeting between two people that didn't seem particularly close, which eventually turned into a murder. We had a problem creating a realistic setting for out film, as we only had the college building and park to film in, but in the end found a decent location. It was filmed in a corridor up the back of the site, which was dark and isolated enough for it to be a believable place for a crime to happen. The costumes worked well with the plot, as the killer was dressed in black casual clothing whilst the victim is in a slightly more formal light jacket, which would link to their roles in it (She plays a much 'darker' role in the film). Some of the items in the background, such as display boards, seem ridiculous to have in this context but we had no way of hiding them.

Sound: Nearly all of our film is silent, as we wanted to build up more tension with what is happening. But we were told in the last few minutes that there needed to be some kind of effect used, so we quickly added the footsteps. There was no time to edit it so they sound very out of sync with the footage. It probably would have worked better if we'd have put music in the background, but there wasn't a chance to find some as we were still trying to edit the shots.


If we were to redo this project, I would spent more time on sound, both selecting and editing it. As this is in my opinion one of the low points of the footage. I would also try to create a better mise en scene, with lighting and a more realistic setting, as well as having the necessary equipment.