Continuity

Whilst filming and editing we looked a lot at continuity, this refers to the film clips been edited together so the film flows smoothly and there are no differences that would confuse or distract the audience, for example if in a conversation the camera switches between two actors talking however everytime it cuts back to one of them he has a different jumper on. When filming this may not have been noticed but in the finished film this could really stand out. Therefore we were very careful, making sure we didn't make any obvious mistakes like this. Making sure that the same clothes were worn everytime we filmed and items were placed in the same positions everytime. So far there has been no mistakes that we have noticed so hopefully we have been lucky and done very well to make no obvious mistakes.
Whilst thinking about continuity in films I decided to look into the kind of mistakes made in some of the big professional films, with the amount of money and people working on big productions it is suprising how obvious some of the mistakes actually are. Below are a few examples:

Trip to Hull :D

So today we decided to venture to Hull in order to shoot a quick 10 second scene where Luke can be seen in front of the Ferry.

Due to Port restrictions, we were unable to get too close to the P&O Ferry, but we dealt with it just fine and used subtle zooming techniques with the hand held camera.

The weather was very windy, cold and rainy. But we got back home in one piece.

I believe we now only have the 'Hotel' scene to shoot, and a quick car scene where Luke introduces you to Melissa.

A complicated scene

When it came to filming the last scene in Kirstens house where Nicole finds out her boyfriend has been killed (the tear jerking scene). We had always had an image in our minds of her watching back the video on the handheld video-camera that Luke had been filming on. We especially wanted her to watch part where Luke is talking to the camera saying how 'you only get one chance to do everything you ever want to do'. But the complicated thing was how we were going to show this clip as well as her watching it. What we wanted was to have the clip playing and then for it to zoom out showing that it is on the video camera and that she is watching it, however we weren't sure whether we would be able to get this to look good.

Anyway we recorded the clip of Luke talking to the camera and then got Aimee (playing Nicole) to sit and watch it, we positioned the camera behind her looking over her shoulder and zoomed as far as we could so that the screen on the handheld camera was just about filling the screen on the main camera. This did cause a slight blur but we expected that, then as the clip plays and Luke's speech goes on we started to zoom out showing the camera in Aimee's hand and as the clip ends she closes it. Also the blur goes away when the camera is zoomed further out, the problem was getting it lined up right on screen, as it was fully zoomed in Aimee had to make sure she did not move the camera at all otherwise it went off screen on the main camera. After filming this 4 or 5 times we managed to get one that we were completely happy with.

Now the really complicated part was editing this bit together, because the way we visioned it was to put the clip we originally filmed on and then fade this into the clip of her watching it, this way you get to see the start of the clip and then realise when it fades in and starts zooming out that it is Nicole watching the clip. However the problems were that we needed to make the fade quite subtle and just before zooming out so we didnt have that much time to fade it in, also we had 3 things to match up, we had to make sure the two clips were but together so the flowed on, then we had to match up the sound. This meant the two clips had to be cut together so that there was no breaks or jumps inbetween movement or mouth movement, and then the sound had to match up in both clips. With all the problems we've had this year I wouldn't have been suprised if this didn't work, but not only has it worked but it looks just like we had imagined it. The clips fade together brilliantly and it really does fit the whole scene, we couldn't be happier with this and I can't wait for people to see it. As for the rest of the film, we have been editing sections together and hopefully it will all look just as good.

Different Shots From The Reshoot

Having to redo a whole scene at Kirsten's house was something we would have rather not had to do, however it did allow us to rethink some of the shots we were going to film. Due to the footage from the handheld camera being overwritten, we still had footage from the main camera but for continuity reasons we couldn't use that without the handheld shots from the same time. But this did mean that we could look at some of the shots we had tried and decide whether we liked them or not. As well as managing to spot a mistake in that the main character in that seen isn't wearing striped socks, however in the scene before in johns bedroom I was wearing striped socks which due to having to refilm anyway I was able to correct by making sure I wore the right socks.

Having looked at the shots we decided that some did not work, either they were bad shots or they were hard to cut together with other shots smoothly. This meant that when filming again the other day we filmed the shots that we had liked, but also added in some different shots, using different angles, pans, zooms and tilts.

Once this has been edited together we will go back to the shot list we are using as a guideline to our filming and create another draft of it replacing the shots we didn't use with the ones we have used. This hasn't caused any problems, the shot list is useful to have so that we have an idea of the shots we really need to get, but sometimes those shots arn't as good as we thought or once we get to the location we find better angles etc. that we think may look good. So we will make corrections to our shot list once we have finished so we have a record of every shot we use, and also so that we can compare it with the shot list we did orginally and see how different the shots used actually were.

Small filming documentation

Although the finished film is the only *real* important video that we need to submit, we have constantly been taking short videos and snaps along the way to document our project. This has become more of a fun project to do, rather than simply a college project.

This small shot has since been put on the computer, and is outstanding.

Basically, we were filming the small camera screen with the big camera at some previous footage that we had shot. The original shot fades into that shot before zooming out. It's actually hard to explain.

This time we had a tripod

Reshooting most of the first scence between Luke and Melissa today was a little repetitive, but . . . . . .

We had a tripod and plenty of tape this time!

so, all the shots should be smooth and seamless. Hopefully we shall be able to edit it all together without loosing half the footage this time :P

The Unexpected Snow

Who could have predicted we would see this much snow in such a short period of time! The days are getting colder and shorter and it's beginning to play havoc with our filming schedule. The snow around my house must be at least 6 feet deep and its taken a week to get any cars in and out of the estate, so that spelt trouble for re-filming.

Wednesday 8th December, we finally managed to get everyone down here to film the necessary scenes again. But the snow did add a nice effect to a short scene in the film; the ending piece with Luke talking about all his experiences in Europe which Nicole watches back on his camera. The snow makes a nice backdrop which differs it from other settings in the film.

Other than that, the snow is a nuisance :)