Preliminary Evaluation

Preliminary Exercise

Brief

Your preliminary exercise involves filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. 

This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. 

Planning

The script was useful as it included several elements that helped us film. It included stage direction which was useful to the actors, Nasteha and Salma, as it showed them the facial expressions/ body language that were crucial for the narrative. The shot list was also useful as it helped us figure out what angles would go well with the narrative. We included a few extra shots to experiment with- some of them did make it to our final production. The storyboard was useful as it helped us edit the clips we had recorded in chronological order.

Strengths

In the beginning we used several shots such as medium and long shots when Nasteha is walking out of the elevator. I thought this was effective as it established the setting and suggested to the audience that she is not interested in the therapy session she is about to have. Her body language could also suggest that this has been going on for some time. The non- diegetic music playing over the scene, was also effective as it foreshadows the threats and comments she makes later on. The song we chose was called ''crzy'' by Kehlani, I thought the editing for this scene was effective as the music suited the narrative of the story. We also included match on action when Nasteha was opening the door. I also thought the ''over-the-shoulder'' shots were effective as it helped show the facial expressions and the reactions of each character. I also thought the flashbacks were effective as they were edited in line with Nasteha's short monologues. The flashbacks were also effective in terms of editing as they were slightly blurry, which added to the nostalgic feel of the narrative. Towards the end, I thought the panning effect was good as it captured Nasteha's body language which showed that she was careless as well as troubled. 

Weaknesses

I thought the camerawork was in fact a little jerky- even though they only occurred in a few bits of the film it made it look slightly unprofessional as a whole. In addition to this I thought that we could have added a few shots that were previously on the shot list. For example, we had an idea that we could film Nasteha inside the elevator, where she would be filmed from a high angle shot (like a CCTV camera). I think if we included this it would have made her look inferior and ''dangerous'' in a way. Her ''crazy and paranoid'' personality would have been more clear. I also thought the diegetic sound was a problem as it kept changing throughout e.g when Nasteha takes off her jacket and headphones to get ready to start the session the sound is muted, whereas when they actually speak the sound of the air is heard. This again makes the film seem unprofessional.