Preliminary Task Evaluation

The 180° rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another. When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle. Match on action is an editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot and this creates the impression of a sense of continuity. A shot reverse shot is a continuity editing technique used in conversations or simply characters looking at each other or objects and this means that when a shot is showing supposedly what they are looking at it is then followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it or another character looking back at them. An eye line match is based on the premise that the audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. The eye line match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, followed by a cut to the object or person at which he is looking. For example, a shot showing a man looking off-screen to the left is followed by a shot of the television that he is watching.


 We incorporated the 180° rule into our final film when we was filming in the canteen because we made sure that the camera didn’t cross over the line because if the camera swaps over to the other side for one of the shots, the pictures won’t work together and by doing this it made the characters looking directly at each other. This scene links in with the eye line match because we had to make sure that the one shot has to line up with the person or thing they’re looking at in the next shot and this was in the canteen when the two characters was talking to each other. We used the match on action during the locker scene. We edited this scene to make it look like that the camera cuts from outside of the locker and just as he is going to open up the locker the camera cuts to the inside making the movement of the camera one fluid shot. Lastly we used a shot reverse shot in the canteen. We did this by cutting the shots in the scene and by doing this we could focus on the one person during the shot and this assumes that the characters are looking at each other.


  The filming process went well as we had a clear plan of how we wanted to film the shots and also where we wanted to film around the school. When filming around the school we had to take a few shots until we got it correct. Also on the plan that we made we made it clear what shots we was filming and when we was filming it. The storyboard was clear as we could understand what we had to do during the film making process. On our story board we found some issues because we had to change how many camera shots we were going to use whilst filming it and this meant that as s group we had to decide on the shots that we were going to use instead of using the same camera shots over and over again. As a group we found it quite easy to film around the sixth form because none of our shots was near a classroom so we didn’t get distracted but a disadvantage was background noise such as the hand dryer in the toilets, and this was because people was using it when we were filming scenes such as the locker shot. We also got to use the tripod and this contributed towards our final film because it meant that we could get still shots and it was easier to pan for shots, such as when we was walking into the canteen.


We all had to input in the task so no one would be left out and we could all share ideas and if I was to do it again I would edit the storyboard so we could put more ideas on it which meant we will be able to plan in detail. On adobe premiere I learnt how to edit the clips and how to make them shorter. At first the software seemed to be confusing but when we started to get a hand of it we knew how to work it easier. By importing the music from then internet it meant that we could choose the music based on the genre, such as thriller. We also learnt how to put in a title screen which meant we could use many fonts and this also helped as then we could choose the correct fonts in the film and this meant we could edit how long the title was on the screen for. We did this task to the best possible standard and we used all of the tools that was available to us and we even asked the teacher to help us with the final scene so it linked in with our film, and that scene was just improvised so this also recognised our strengths.

Preliminary Task

Blue Velvet Opening Scene

Blue Velvet Analysis

Media – Blue Velvet Opening Scene Analysis

The opening scene in Blue Velvet sets it out to be a happy, peaceful and safe community, with the stereotypical 1950’s America neighbourhood. There’s a number of things at the start that indicates that this is a safe neighbourhood as happy children are crossing the roads helped by a lollipop lady, a fireman is driving by with his dog on the truck with not much urgency at all.

Sound

At the start of the extract the music is very jolly, happy and upbeat which makes you want to sing along with it as it’s also catchy. This sets the opening out to be along those lines of a happy start. However when the hose pipe gets caught in the buses and starts to get tangled the happy music dims down a little bit making it seem like something dramatic is about to happen. When the man yanks the hose he has some sort of stroke or heart attack and once he drops to the floor we hear some kind of beetle noise which may be indicating that everything is not all happy and jolly as it seems to be and that there’s more to it in the underground or if you watch further in to the film you see the bigger picture.

Editing

As far as the editing goes in this extract they do a good job of creating suspense and tension leading up to when the man drops down to the floor, they do this by the repetition of zooming into the hose and back out to the man. The creator of the film may have done this to entice you in and draw your attention to the film in the early stages. Also the use of the dissolve transitions between each scene gives a feel of the days going by and shows that the community is a nice and safe place to be in each day. 

Use of Camera

There’s quite a range of camera shots used in the extract, there’s a few pan shots which enables the camera to get the whole of the scene into the shot this works well with the flowers as they also have the white picket fences in the background which is a key symbol of 1950’s America. Also the camera is used well when the woman is watching TV as the camera shows her watching the programme and then straight after it goes into a POV (Point of View) shot which enables the audience to see what the character sees. The creator may have decided to include this scene into the opener as it may be some sort of hint to what’s going on further down the line into the film.

Misenscene

At the start of the extract it displays the name which is ‘Blue Velvet’ and the director does something clever by having Blue Velvet curtains behind the writing of the title and when the films about to start the curtains unveil and it goes into a similar colour blue of the sky which sets the opening scene. Also when we see the roses with the white picket fences and the blue sky the audience automatically think of a happy community/environment which also links in with the American flag colours (red, white and blue). Another shot were the director puts the message across of a good community is where the little kids are able to cross the road after school on their own just with the lollipop woman.