Continuity Editing/Preliminary Exercise Evaluation

The Story

To show our understanding of continuity editing we decided to film a short conversation.
Our sequence was as followed

Character A walks through door and starts talking to Character B
Character B responds
Character A and B hold a short conversation.

This simple sequence was chosen as we could incorporate the editing techniques into it.

Match on Action

To create match on action we had character A walk through the door. The first thing the audience can see is the back of character A opening the door, then it cuts to the front of  character A walking through it. This was chosen to smoothly transition the character from the activity of one shot to the continuity of it in the next shot.

Eye Line Match

To include an eye line match shot we had character A glaring at something. We then cut to a shot of character B; and it is revealed that is who character A was looking at. Lastly, we see charcter A's reaction again.

Shot, Reverse, Shot

As our sequence included dialougue it was easy to include shot reverse shot. As the two characters argued we transitioned the camera angle to focus on the talking character and the other character's reactions.

180 Degree Rule

It was very important we didn't break the 180 degree rule. We had to make sure that the two subjects always had the same left/right relationship. To make sure this was in place we made sure the camera did not pass the crossing line.

Overall Evaluation

Overall our preliminary excerise was successsful as we were able to correctly film these continuity editing shots. We also made sure that the mise en scene was the same. This included the character's hair, costumes, make up and using the same room, except for one scene at the end.

As we are still beginners the filming and editing could have been tighter. Upon reviewing the film you can see little mistakes that could have been rectified.
If we were to do this again we could do things to improve it. This could include making sure the camera is completely leveled, getting rid of any extraneous noises during filming and making sure everything is neatly edited together.