5. Evaluate how well you did the task - use screen grabs to show how effective the following were: continuity, match on action, shot reverse-shot, 180° rule.

Continuity 

This is a shot from not long after the beginning of the short film; it started out as a long shot of me walking down the corridor with 2 cut-away shots of another member of the group, Nathan sorting out a file.

You can see me to the far left of the image and when watching the film I am walking off the scene which then switches to a shot where I appear on the far right of the screen and approaching a door. This is to demonstrate that I have walked round a corner to a door, as I appear on one side of the screen to the other it illustrates continuity. This is because it is clear to the audience that I have walked down the corridor, round a corner and toward the door in the next shot. The audience can follow where I am heading and are not confused as we picked out a variety of appropriate shot types that would clearly show where my character was heading to. 

Match on action

This is a medium shot of me holding onto a door handle. In the next shot you can see an extreme close-up of my hand and a door handle. The previous shot was filmed intentionally for the next piece of footage as we were letting the audience know who it was that was opening the door to the room. It is clear that my group have used the skill of match-on-action to portray the action of my character in the previous shot. It also links to continuity as it displays where the character is going. This skill creates a visual-bridge that draws the audience’s attention to that one action.

Shot reverse-shot and the 180° rule

A shot reverse-shot is where one character is shown as if they are looking at another (an often off-screen), and then the scene reverses over to the other character who is shown to be looking back at the previous character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer naturally assumes that they are looking at one another. 

We have used this technique so that it conveys that the 2 characters in the shot are exchanging dialogue between themselves which is why we have used this technique as it also adds some context to the situation. It gives the technique a purpose to be used and can also be used to signify a character looking at an object or another other subject matter.

The 180° rule is applied most commonly within a long shot. From the cameras/3^rd person POV looking at a scene from a side profile, known as a master two-shot, you can see both characters and the whole scene. It is apparent that you can see one character and are on the left hand side and facing the right. The other character however is on the right hand side and facing to the left.

We applied this rule by merging it with the shot reverse-shot so that whenever we shot from one side of a character that we used the same side on the next character so that it was clear that the two characters are facing each other. It also helps to not confuse the audience, if we were to film from one side of a character and then shot from the opposite shoulder on the other subject it would look as if the characters had switched seats.