The camera work and continuity wasn't very good in the preliminary exercise. Several characters were dressed similarly, which was confusing and showed the need to consider the role of costume in mise en scene and narrative. We broke the 30 degree rule at several points causing jump cuts such as here.
We were limited in the range of shots we used, partly because of the tight space we were filming in, although we did use a medium close up of the hand opening the door, followed by a long shot to establish location, two shots for the conversation (rather than the over the shoulder shot we should have used) and a close up of the main prop to show its significance.
We had very little camera movement, which was something I wanted to consider in my final piece, as we had experimented with the jib and track in class and I could see its potential.
After doing the preliminary exercise I decided that working in a group was restrictive and that I had a lot more freedom if I worked independently.
When I was working on my editing for my own thriller I made sure that the cuts between the shots linked well together according to the rules of continuity editing. Originally the hardest part was linking the sequence from the driving into the courtyard shot to the man walking to the front door and into the house but I had storyboarded, which helped, and played around with the timing of each shot to make sure the rhythm of the edits worked.
Another difference is that my thriller opening has a longer narrative sequence and poses several enigmas, unlike the preliminary exercise where the narrative just consisted of some milk dealing! The fact that I have included some stills suggests a more interesting and complex narrative.
I also added a soundtrack, which really added to the whole opening, as there were particular sounds in it which linked to the narrative such as the camera shutter. The sound effects used in the soundtrack create the idea to the audience that they are looking at stills that the killer had taken. The sound track also sets up the mood for the film which is disconcerting as you get all these strange, synthesized sound effects.
I tried to incorporate some graphics and titles, which we had not used in the first continuity exercise; the image of the frog was done in photoshop over the original picture and the fonts for the film title and the credits were found in 'dafont'.
I used more complex transitions in the final piece, too. The white transition between the stills gives you the effect of the camera flash as the character has just taken the photo. When I cut from the production company logo to the new line theatre logo at the beginning I made the colour dissolve a black so that it would contrast with the continuous white dissolves throughout.
I tried to incorporate both the jib and the dolly track in my thriller opening as there were two perfect places but unfortunately it didn't require the pan from the man getting out of the car as one of the jib shots did that better and could get a shot form the man walking to the door. The jib allowed me to get shots that would have been difficult to create without it, like the pan with the car coming in through the courtyard opening and the shot above the mans head when he is taking out the implements. I could have stood on a chair to do that but would have cast a shadow and ruined the lighting.
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