Explain the story of your video.
In the video, the story was that I'm Ben's friend, he wasn't paying attention to me and was on his phone instead. Our friend Kush then comes over and I get him to take Ben's phone because I'm annoyed at him. Kush runs with Ben's phone, hits hit face on a pole, falls over and Ben manages to get his phone back.
How did you attempt to create 'narrative flow'?
We created narrative flow by trying our best to produce a slick film with good shot continuity. Since we were filming each shot from different angles, we had to position the camera and the actors in the same position as the previous shot they were in so it flowed well. We also made the story flow well with the variety of shots we used. We started with an establishing shot to establish the setting and characters so the audience know what the film is about. This was followed by a mid shot which zoomed into the conversation we were having, making the film look natural and keeping the viewer engaged. When Kush was running away with Ben's phone, we used a low angle shot to give a 'corridor'/'alleyway' feel, adding some intensity to the narrative. We then ended the film with a mid shot of Ben - this worked well because it allowed a clear, understandable ending to take place, making it slick and visible to the audience that Ben completed the task of getting his phone back.
Did you achieve full continuity? If not, why not?
Although we tried our best to achieve full continuity to create good narrative flow, some shots worked well whereas some didn't run so smoothly. Shot one into shot two looks naturalistic and quite professional however, at the end of shot one, I'm staring directly at Ben and at the beginning of shot two, I'm staring at Kush. This creates a slightly jarring, jumpy effect which isn't appropriate for the beginning of our film. Also, when looking at shot three, where Kush is running with Ben's phone, shot four, starts with Kush still running and turning a corner, however he should have already turned the corner for this shot to flow nicely - however, this is something which can be easily trimmed during the editing process. In shot five, it takes about two seconds for Kush to run into the shot. When looking at the previous shot and the position of the poles on the left, this shot makes it look like Kush has teleported back in time and walked forwards again. When unedited, this looks like a mistake and interrupts the narrative flow of the film. I feel as if this was because we weren't as precise as we could have been and didn't fully plan out our actions beforehand.
In hindsight, what would you do differently to improve the narrative flow of your video and tell your story more effectively?
I feel as if the continuity errors could be fixed by a detailed pre production plan, something our group didn't have. A story board, mentioning every detail, camera shot and exact location would be very useful so we can see exactly where we are going with our film, on and off set. This should also allow us to be careful and precise with the shot continuity of the film, a challenging task but effective and professional-looking when done correctly.
Our six shot accident:
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