07/01/2007- match cut practical

In the first half of the lesson we were given an introduction to match cuts. match cuts are shots that are showing the same sequence of events but in different perspectives (angles and shot types)and when they are put together they still show the same sequence in order that flows through properly. We were then split into twos and given a scenario: setting in east London, a man is chain smoking whist on the computer copying some confidential files on to a CD and then posting it in the mail.
In pairs we had to come up with the sequence of events that would occur using a shot list. In the shot list we had to include match shots which we were introduced to. Once we had done this we were show a version of this activity that was made by the city and Islington media staff. From this clip we had to analyse the match cuts for when they were used. We were explained that match cuts are difficult to do and a good match cut is one were the audience do not notice the change in camera angle and shot type instantly.

After this activity was done we were given a brief into a match cut exercise. This brief was to film a sequence which had to include at leapt one match cut, an example of reverse shot showing the 180 degree rule, were:
• A character opens the door.
• Walks into the room.
• Sits down opposite another character.
• Share a few lines of dialogue.
For the remainder of the first half of the lesson we got on to planning our sequence and what was going to happen. As a group we concluded that our clip will be a comic representation of classic martial arts films. We also agreed the roles that were required with Daniel being one character and Claudio being the other with me doing the voice over for both characters to provide a more comic affect. For the second half of the lesson we went about filming our short clip. We first had to find a location for our film which we located as the staff kitchen for the 3rd floor. We then went onto complete the filming trying to fill in the criteria’s that were required in this practical. I found that doing the same shots in different positions was not difficult but a nuisance as we had to keep on changing the position of the camera, the height of the tri-pod and also we had to ensure that the acting was done in a similar way to the ones previous to make the match cuts more professional. We did manage to finish the filming and I feel that it overall went well as we did manage to include many different shot types and angles in each of our scenes. I feel that now our main cause for concern is how effective our editing will be to make this shot clip successful in fulfilling the criteria.