Continuity Evaluation Task

Our task was to create a story featuring an accident in 6 shots, cut in camera. This is what we came up with:

1. Explain the story of your video 

Our video tells the story of two boys (played my myself and Morgan) playing catch with a tennis ball on a school playground. Not paying attention, the third character walks between the boys playing catch and subsequently gets hit by the ball. The story ends with the girl giving a look of disgust towards the boy who threw the ball at her.

2. How did you attempt to create 'narrative flow' (continuity)?

In an attempt to fulfill the demands of the brief, Morgan, Alize and I discussed and planned the story we were trying to present, the types of shots we would use and how we would create narrative flow. One of our key focuses was to follow the 30 degree rule which we achieved by ensuring that consecutive shots had camera angle changes of at least 30 degrees, in order to avoid jump cuts.

Another way we discussed, in order to create a narrative flow, was to use matched cuts. We tried to make sure that each character appeared in the same place as they were last seen. This proved to be one of our greatest challenges in this task, as we were a group of three people and our video included three characters. 

3. Did you achieve full continuity? If not, why not?

I do not think that we achieved full continuity in our video. The most notable lack of continuity was between shots 4 and 5 because in shot 4, the tennis ball moves from the left to the right of the screen, however in shot 5, it appears to be coming from behind the camera, creating a lack of continuity and confusing the audience. This could have been resolved by having the ball thrown in the same direction. Additionally, due to where we positioned the camera, it often seemed like the girl character changed direction, between shots 3 and 5. To resolve this, we could've placed the camera behind her, to make it clear to the audience that she is walking in the same direction. 

4. In hindsight, what would you do differently to improve the narrative flow of your video and tell your story more effectively?

Looking back, the video we attempted to create may have been too ambitious for the amount of people we had and the time limit. The narrative flow of the video could have been improved by the correct placement of the camera in order to avoid confusion about the direction of the characters movement. Additionally, minor detailed also could have been rethought, for example shortening the establishing shot and using a more simple and direct shot to introduce the third character, in order to avoid the unnecessary build up of suspense.