Continuity Exercise Evaluation.

This video that I took part in was called 'diamonds'. The idea of this assignment was to make a short film consisting on specific shots, not using more than 20 shots, that a package to be delivered, and for no audio. We certainly didn't do all the specific shots we were meant to do (e.g. extreme close up, 3 close ups). In total we did 11 shots. However the main purpose of this exercise was to make no (or the lease you can make) continuity errors. Continuity is the flow of editing (putting it all together) including not to ruin the shots, the 180* degree rule, characters (with wearing the same clothing and not 'tellaporting') 

The weather played a big advantage for us as at the beginning as the outside scenes (in black and white) made the atmosphere apparent as you are unknown of whats happening and increases the tension. Also the last outside scene (when their walking towards the door) makes them slowly disappear into the fog making them black silhouettes which gives a good sense that these are not the 'good guys'.

The reason why we made this video into black and white was to make it look more old, fitting in with the 80's drama music and to also hide the fact that there was a continuity area. One of our actors (the one with the short hair and the one with the money) was wearing two different shirts in the video. Making the video black and white made it the same color however one shirt had buttons and one did not

 This continuity error was very unnoticeable however while writing this a member spotted it out, one of the actors disappeared along with his chair at the top of the screen (0:58). We didn't spot this until later because that actor was not in the center of the scene. Next time I will make sure that during each shot that the actors will be in the same place where they last and that each shot is double checked once its filmed.  

The music playing throughout the whole clip was an 80's crime drama music free from copyright. The music was very short so we had to cut the beginning bit (there was a long gap of silence before the song started) and we had to play it on loop. Thankfully the song worked playing on loop as the song originally was not repetitive. This music tied to tone together along with the story line and the black and white, without the music I believe that the clip would be slightly boring, the tone would have been less tense and the crime would have seen to be less criminal.

Another error that we made was with the lighting, originally (not black and white) the lighting was very bright or very yellow making there faces completions very pasty or yellow. Turning it black and white meant that they would be pale for the reason however the lighting still was a problem due to the lights being visible in the actual shot, both the actual light and its 'shine' on the wall. To undo this error we can move the light out of the shot and change its direction of projection so its not visible on the wall.

The locations worked very well for our scenes to take place. The meet up outside was dark, foggy, private, enclosed and in a unplesent area. The room where the deal actually happened work because again it was private. enclosed, dark and empty (apart from the table and chairs).

   

The last issue was the actual deal/ story line itself. Three packets of diamonds being sold for £200 (which looks like a thickness of £50) is not realistic and having teenagers/ young adults doing the deal is also unrealistic.