The Encounter-Evaluation
To film The Encounter, I followed the 180-degree rule by ensuring that Caitlin always looks to the right and Bella looks towards the left. I also made sure that the camera was on the left of Bella when she was walking in and on her right side whilst she was walking back out to ensure that the audience would not get confused.
I used continuity editing such as shot-reverse shot to establish conversation between the two characters from a long angle in order to capture the emotion of frustration within their body language.
I also used match-on-action editing in both the first three scenes and the last three scenes whilst Bella was walking towards and away from the pool setting to increase the pace of the scene to add a sense of quickly approaching ‘danger’.
Peer feedback:
What’s good- “I really liked the establishing shot at the start since it really helped me understand the setting and the high key lighting, even though it inherently doesn’t make me think of the drama genre, I liked how it made me think of the characters as entitled and how the entire scene is heavily based off of first-world problems. I also think that the closed framing that you used stands out to me as it immediately created a sense of disruption. The effect of the slowed down speed of Caitlin being pushed into the water added onto the intensity of the scene along with the low angle shot of Caitlin and the high angle shot of Bella.”
“I like the mood established by the minor key music which especially highlighted the drama genre to me and I also liked the low-angle shots when the camera skimmed across the water.”
How to improve- “I think that a close up of Bella during their conversation would’ve given me a better understanding of her character, the background sounds were such as the water sounds and the birds was very disruptive which overpowers some dialogue also, the sound quality got a lot worse once the phone went into the pool so using a different device to film those shots would improve the sound.”
Challenges:
I had originally planned to film the scene on the opposite side of the pool but I was not able to film whilst the sun was on it and had to change the setting in order to maintain the lighting I had initially planned for and, because there was not enough room on this side, I had to film from within the pool, causing the shots to be a bit shaky and tilted. On the other hand I quite liked the result of the camera skimming over the water. Also, the sound quality greatly decreased once I entered the pool but I had not realised this until I began editing and so, after Caitlin is pushed into the pool, only one microphone continued to work. Whilst filming the shot where Caitlin falls in to the pool, I wanted to do a tracking shot that follows her into the pool but due to the bright light I hadn’t noticed I accidentally that I got my finger in the middle of the shot until I started editing.
To improve:
Next time, I would like to use different a camera after submerging it in the water or use a proper waterproof camera to ensure that the quality of the sound doesn’t decrease or use a separate device to record all the audio and later insert it into the clip to reduce background noises such as the pool and birds. I also think that the stability of the shots can be improved by using a tripod which I will try and purchase in order to prevent my shots from being shaky and make sure to position it in such a way that I follow the rule of thirds to make the scene more cohesive. I should also increases the variety of shots and include more close-up shots of both the characters but mainly Bella to allow the audience to develop a greater understanding of the character. Finally, I would also like to edit using Premiere Pro next time rather than iMovie as I didn’t have access to that software on my iPad and so, I will use my laptop when I next edit to give me a greater variety of editing options.
