Preliminary exercise: Evaluation

Brief: This 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 process and pre-production: The planning consisted of firstly devising a storyboard. The storyboard acts as a graphic organizer in the form of illustrations displayed in a desired sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing the look of our clip. Next, we created a shot list based from the storyboard which consisted of a full log of all the shots we wanted to include in our clip. It was used essentially like a checklist and ensured a sense of direction whilst we were filming. Lastly, we devised the script. This helps us establish the narrative. What makes the script so crucial however is the fact that In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated. This is such a critical part of our pre-production as it enables our group to be decisive as we are now supplied elaborate detail so we are fully confident as to what our clip will consist of.

Strengths: To begin, I think that the strongest aspect of this clip is the use of humour. I felt that our clip ensured that the audience could genuinely enjoy watching the clip. Also, the use of enigma codes built tension and intrigued the audience. Along with this, the action codes created fear or humour. In addition, I felt that we successfully demonstrated all the key skills such as the 180-degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. Finally, I felt that the clip was well put together in the sense that our use of mine-en-scene was parallel to the visuals. 

Weaknesses: However, this clip consisted of many weaknesses. For instance, I felt that it was too dependent on dialogue to explain the plot. At times, there were parts of the story missing such as how the protagonist arrived at the antagonist's house. Moreover, there is bad noise quality which is most prominent in the exterior scene at the beginning. This could have been due to the lack of use of the microphone on our persons. This same scene was filmed in the dark where lighting was not desirable, if we had filmed an hour earlier, we might have achieved a better feel. What really made our clip lack in quality was the fact that we had to use our mobile phones to film several scenes too. Additionally, I found that the editing was not fast paced enough. We could have built tension more steadily with better editing. Finally, our sound consisted primarily of non-digetic sound rather than diegetic which could have been used to add an interesting aspect to our clip.

Conclusion: To conclude, I think this clip is lacking vastly in any impressive cinematography but it manages to retain an interesting narrative. I also think we learnt a lot through all the mistakes we made, which is what ultimately makes this clip a successful attempt at the preliminary task.

Boys N The Hood Review

Boyz n the Hood is a 1991 American, Coming of age, teen hood drama film written and directed by first-time film-maker, John Singleton who grew up in the “hood.” Singleton portrays the challenging upbringing of adolescents who have to live in harsh conditions around not only their own homes but also their neighbourhood. 

To me, this film stuck me as the process of transitioning between childhood and adulthood in which we go through developing an identity and a personal philosophy. The main character and protagonist, Tre has to battle through two distinctly clashing societies, hood culture and mainstream culture and to make the right decisions regarding his future. As well as his constant struggle with trying to stay focused on achieving his education aspirations, whilst still trying to maintain friendships with other residents of the neighbourhood who do not have any intentions of getting out of the vicious cycle of violence and hood life. 

25 years on, this film, without a doubt, still retains its explosively powerful and influential insight about growing up in black Urban America. Watched now, a quarter of a century on, what remains so striking is not the explicit, immediate gore or confrontational aggression but rather the film’s extensive emotional depth into humanity, idealism, reinforced by astoundingly raw performances.

In terms of editing, the film had an almost effortless feel as everything, such as the setting and lighting looked very organic and natural. The high-key lighting that was used, to minimise harsh shadows for the majority of the film, again adding to the realism of the film. This helps the audience identify with the characters.

By the end of “Boyz N the Hood,” I recognised that I had not simply seen a thoughtful look at a young man’s coming of age, but a film of enormous significance alluding to several themes still pervasive to current day.

Preliminary Task

Shot List - Infatuation

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxWVJvePKrETc1VwbUJXOWVZblE

Storyboard

Script

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxWVJvePKrETc1VwbUJXOWVZblE

Learner Response: Film Langauage Test

Film Language Test: A- (37/48)
WWW: Excellent use of media terminology; good focus on techniques.
EBI: Write in paragraphs and avoid running out of time for the last question.

The editing in this scene is used to create drama and tension in several ways. To begin, the use of pace is significant as it is fairly slow at the beginning, which builds suspense. However, when the cigarette is dropped and the scene hits its peak in terms of chaos, the pace of the transitions increases. This may have been done to create drama and highlight the severity of what will happen. However, afterwards, the pace decreases again which is suggestive of serenity or justice being restored and therefore the culprit being caught.

Towards the end of the scene, when the gun is cocked and about to be blown, the visuals move away from what is happening. Instead, we are presented with a montage of establishing shots. This settles the audience as we are presented with tranquil images of the setting whilst we can hear a gun shot. The use of the montage may have been to give us an overall impression of the damage (as the setting is fairly worn down.)

The editing also takes the transitions into consideration too. We can see that there are several jump cuts being used to startle and engage the audience. This creates a sense of drama in the scene as we are forced to focus on the violent shots such as arson. The editing in this scene achieves the dramatic atmosphere and builds tension successfully. 

Finally, we are presented with a dissolve which transitions into the next scene, a court. The use of this dissolve suggests justice will be found.