Bag Man film- Continuity task- Evaluation

Production

We spent two lessons filming the whole of our film, ‘Bag Man’, which was an enjoyable experience for me. I’d never made a film before so there were a few complications. First of all, we struggled to attach the camera to the tripod securely. It kept wobbling when we tried to film a pan, so we constantly had to keep tightening it on. The weather was also quite a major inconvenience, because it kept raining on the first day of filming. We used umbrellas to protect the camera, but this meant we couldn’t easily film any of the outdoor scenes. We managed to do a few of them when the rain stopped, then had to do the rest on the second day. The weather also caused some complications with lighting. During the kidnapping scene, I had to open the door and this let in a lot of bright light. This caused the room I was in, and myself, to go so dark that I couldn’t easily be seen.
We also had a couple of problems using the camera. We had to retake quite a few shots, especially pans, because the camera was a bit shaky on the tripod. The shakiness worked well for POV shots, because it captured the appropriate movements for walking. The many shots we took though meant we had a lot of footage to pick from when putting the film together. There were also some issues where we got ourselves in the shots. We had to reposition the camera a few times to prevent this from happening. Despite these problems, we shot a lot of high quality footage to use and used a large variety of different shots. We even shot a successful dolly zoom at the end using an office chair.

Post-production

We took 3 lessons to completely edit and create our final film. We had a lot of footage to look through and picked the best shots for every scene. We fixed a lot of issues we had whilst filming and any errors there were in the footage. We fixed the lighting from the scene where I open the door using key framing and colour correction, so both myself and the room stay lit up. One of our shots was also slightly out of focus so we dimmed the brightness, making it darker so the problem isn’t as noticeable. This decision actually works well in the film because it creates a dark and sinister atmosphere as an antagonistic character enters.
We also used a few different transitions between our shots. We used a lot of basic cuts, but also used a few dissolves and a wipe. The wipe works really well because we timed it perfectly to the kicking motion in the scene, making sure it goes in the same direction as the kick. It also symbolises the change in location, as we didn’t think a plain cut would work so well. I think the fade to black after I get bagged works very effectively too, because it suggests a slight passing of time before the bag is tied. It suggests some struggle before he successfully gets me tied in the bag. 
We then had to implement the audio. We used YouTube to find our intense background music, which I think compliments the menacing tone of the film. We used both YouTube and various websites to find sound effects. We made sure to time every effect perfectly with the action on screen so it appears as if the audio is coming from the footage. I also suggested using the iconic Wilhelm scream within our film, which we used in the scene where I’m put in the bag. However, we were criticised for using a male scream so we altered the pitch to sound more feminine. This caused the scream to sound rather hilarious, giving our film the hint of comedy we wanted.                                                                                                                           

Continuity

I believe we achieved good continuity within our film, making sure of this during production and post-production. During production, we didn’t shoot outside when it rained so the weather stays continuous throughout the film. All of us in the film also wore the same clothes for both days of filming so it seems as if the film happens in a day.
During post-production, we had an issue of continuity during the end party scene. We wanted to use the pan shot to the party where we managed to fit everyone in, but I was standing up during the shot. This was an issue because in the reveal shot before and the dolly zoom after, I sat down. We fixed this by cutting from the bag reveal straight to the pan to the party. We attempted to use an upwards moving wipe to suggest the movement of standing up, but the former solution works better.                                                                          

Conclusion

I’m so happy with how our film turned out. This was my first experience with ever making a film. I’d never used a proper camera before or Premiere pro. Despite this, I think both the rest of my group and I created a pretty good film. The continuity is consistent, as the task required, and it’s an effective genre hybrid of thriller and comedy. I learnt so many new skills and I can transfer them during the projects we have in the future.