Continuity Task Evaluation

This is the first video task that we completed in our media course. The brief was to "produce a story featuring an accident in 6 shots, cut in camera." We would try to communicate a story that makes sense to the audience and create a feeling of continuity from shot to shot.

1. Explain the story of your video

In my video, there are two boys (Andreas and Morgan) playing catch with a tennis ball on a school playground. A girl (myself) walks into the action, gets hit with the tennis ball and gives one of the boys a 'death stare' at the very end.

2. How did you attempt to create 'narrative flow' (continuity)?

We attempted to create continuity by following the 180 degree rule that says that you cannot cross the line of vision between two characters. This is because the viewer's sense of direction in the scene would become confused and they would not be able to make sense of the scene. We also followed the 30 degree rule that says that the camera must move at least 30 degrees (if the same framing is kept) to ensure that there isn't a visible 'jump' in footage. An eyeline match was also needed in our last shot to ensure that the girl was looking in the correct direction and angle to follow the story. However, the most difficult rule to follow with a cut-in-camera task was the match on action. This rule meant that the girl had to be the same distance away from the boys as the shots progressed and the girl walked further towards them, to make the story flow through.

3. Did you achieve full continuity? If not, why not?

I think that we were not entirely successful in creating full continuity as there were a few jumps between shots. For example, the female character was walking in the correct direction between the two male characters playing tennis from shots 2 to 4, but in shot 5 she seemed to change direction. To resolve this continuity issue, we should have placed the camera at more of an angle so that the direction is constant.

However, there was good continuity from shot 5 to 6 because the shot changed from a medium-long shot to a medium close-up so the 30 degree rule was not needed and the shots followed through.

4. In hindsight, what would you do differently to improve the narrative flow of your video and tell your story more efficiently?

A main problem with my video was that the introduction of the female character was delayed through the masking of her face in shot 2 and the backwards tracking shot in shot 3. This built up a great deal of suspense regarding her character, which was impactful but unnecessary to the main story that was being portrayed and therefore didn't reward the audience. I would have also trimmed the establishing shot down because it is too long and could potential bore the audience from the very beginning.