Accident sequence

Above is a six shot story which our media group filmed without any editing to try and achieve continuity and practice following the rules to produce a successful piece. 

1) To aid the narrative flow of our sequence we attempted to use a variety of techniques such as different shots and framing, we tried to make smooth transitions from a low angle pan upwards to a high angle shot of the girls dropping the ball. The low angle shot where the camera was placed on the floor was also quite effective and dramatic. We made sure to follow the 30 degree rule and change each shot enough so that there wasn't a jump cut. I think we achieved the match on action shot very well between shots 2 and 3 and the shots changed just as the ball was dropped so the action was not repeated. This also gave the audience a point of view and understand the purpose of the shots. Our story had a logical structure and good concept, we also included a master shot and a pan of the setting in shot 1. I particularly liked the dialogue and thought that our actors were very good. Despite it being a very bright day we managed to avoid silhouettes and we kept the lighting the same throughout all the shots. 

2) In hindsight there are quite a few things i would change to aid the continuity of my sequence. I think the camera movement, particularly in shot 1, was rather disconnected and unsteady, the double zoom also broke up the narrative flow and distracted the audience. I also think that shot 2 could have lead on more smoothly from shot 2 if we had had a slight difference of shots so it was more clear that the bullies were above her, this is where the 30 degree rule would apply. In some of our shots our actors were unaware of when to start the shot which was due to a problem with directing. We could also hear the bounce of the ball before it hit the victim which we would have edited out on the computer if we had been able to. In shot 5 the camera tilt was very dramatic but i don't think we used it as effectively as we could have so we would have made that transition more smooth.