Continuity Editing Intro

We started by looking at the brief to think of ideas for our sequence. The brief was quite loose, we were told that we had to include a character opening a door, they cross a room and sit down opposite another character and then exchange some lines of dialogue. We also had to include; match-on-action, shot reverse shot and 180 degree rule. Additionally, Simran and I also included some cross cut shots. 

We then brain stormed ideas and eventually Simran came up with the idea of having this interview with a really camp male and we both developed that idea and we ended up with the camp male - Sam,  interviewing the small town country girl - Bailey for a fashion editor job. The idea was inspired by 'Ugly Betty' an American comedy-drama television series, where Betty is a girl that doesn't have much sense of style and looks like the typical 'geek', with braces and thick rim glasses, but she gets a job at 'Mode' - a high end fashion magazine. We used this idea as we wanted to have some element of comedy and we thought we could make it funny by having Sam make fun of Bailey for her slight lisp and the way she walks. 

Betty Suarez from 'Ugly Betty' - the character Bailey was inspired by.

Marc St James - the character Sam was inspired from. 

The different camera techniques we will include are; shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule, high/low angles rule of thirds,  mid shots, close ups, establishing shot and a long shot. All these techniques will be used for a purpose, solely to make sure that the audience understand what is going on. 
 - Shot reverse shot: this will be used to show Sam's reaction when Bailey walks in dressed horribly. We will use a shot reverse shot so the audience can see Sam's eyes before she walks in and after she walks in. Before his eyes will be normal and after she walks in, he rolls his eyes, connoting to the audience that he didn't like her outfit or thought she was annoying.

A low angle - the person looks more dominant

- 180 degree rule: this will be used in shots where there is conversation between Sam and Bailey. We will use this shot so that it is easy for the audience to see that it is a genuine conversation.

- high/low angles: these two types of angles will be used when Sam and Bailey are talking. When Sam tells Bailey that her outfit is 'trash', I will shoot him from a low angle as it makes him look more mean, it will connote him as the villain. Where as when I will shoot Bailey replying to his comment, I will shoot her from a high angle so she will be connoted as the protagonist. By doing this, it makes it easier for the audience to see who they would sympathise with. 

A high angle - the person looks like a victim

Rule of thirds - this technique will be used through the whole time we will be filming. The rule of thirds is when you divide your shot into three horizontal areas. When filming a landscape, two thirds of the ground should show and one third of the sky, but when filming the sky, two thirds of the sky should show and one third of the ground. Rule of thirds is also used when filming people. When there is a shot of a person, their eyes should always be on the top line, no matter what type of shot it is. When filming we will make sure that our characters eye are always on the top line. 

Rule of thirds -his eyes are on the top third.
 Also, the restaurant in the background takes up two thirds.

Different types of shots.

- Mid shot/close up/establishing shot/long shot - these different types of shots are going to be used so that the sequence doesn't look boring. We don't want it to be the same shot every single second. At the beginning we will have an establishing shot, so that the audience know where it is set. In some shots we will use mid shots, these are used when the camera focuses on the individuals top half, so you can see their hand movements and the facial expressions at the same time. Similarly, long shots are used to see the individuals whole body language - like when Bailey walks into the office. Close ups are used when we want the audience to focus on something, they will draw their attention to that detail. An example of when we will use  a close up is when Bailey puts on her lipstick but she gets it on her teeth - it shows how she's clumsy and not that experienced in the beauty department. 

As well as camera techniques, we will use different editing techniques such as; match-on-action editing and cross-cut editing. Cross-cut editing will be used at the start of the sequence when we show Bailey arriving to Sam's office. It starts off with her walking, then a shot of Sam, than one of her putting on lipstick and finally another of Sam looking impatient. We will use this type of editing as it builds up to what the character (Bailey) would be like instead of going straight into it, it builds up some excitement as to who she could be.  We will also include match-on-action editing which is when you take two different shots but have one action in both of them that is parallel. For our match-on-action shot we will do Sam turning a paper, first we will shoot him turning the paper from the front, then film him turning the same paper from the side. We will then edit it to make it look like the page continued turning in the next shot. 

An example of match-on-action.