Action Sequence Critiques

For our most recent Media Production workshop, I had to produce, do the pre-production materials for, and edit, a one minute action sequence, before showing it to the rest of the group and gaining critical feedback of it all. My action sequence involved a woman being stalked by a mysterious character.





Firstly, my group and I played my edit of the sequence we produced. The feedback I gained received mixed views. Firstly, they thought the match cuts at the beginning of the film were very well shot and edited together. They applauded this because in action sequences, it is quite important to pace the action, and my match cuts were a good way to make the cuts flow into one another, without disturbing the sequence. Secondly, they thought the cuts towards the middle of my sequence, when the stalker began chasing the victim, were poorly put together. This is because I faded to black a couple of times before continuing with the action. However, this was the only way of putting my production together, as a couple of shots I had to cut out of the sequence, didn't match well and therefore would have disturbed the flow of the action more so than what my fades-to-black already had done. Lastly, at the end when it came to the shot of the victim hiding in the foreground with the stalker looking for her in the background, they didn't follow why the stalker went out of shot but immediately returned a second later, appearing next to the victim. However, this was my intention, as I had hoped to add that extra bit of tension to my film. But the lecturer had pointed out that although this was a good idea, that it was executed to much like a horror piece. Overall, I think it is clear that my film had both good and bad elements to it and from the critique I gained, will enable me to produce something better in the next workshop.






The other edit of my sequence, was produced my Sam. The feedback he gained was again, quite controversial, but unfortunately it seems it didn't gain as well received views as the other edits. Firstly, what was critiqued more so than other parts of the production, was where, at the start, he missed the POV shots of the stalker, which is important as it established there was someone following the woman we are presented with at the start. The other critical responses he gained was when he obviously kept using the poor takes of the shots we filmed which put a negative light on the film.

Before my group had showed each of our edits, the other group showed their action sequence. The first of which I will talk of, is by Ben, the camera man of the group. Their action sequence was more or less the same;it involved a chase and a cliffhanger at the end. Ben's edit of his action sequence received both positive and negative feedback, much the same as my group's edits. However, unlike my edit, his film went from bad to good, rather than good to bad. The first part of his edit seemed to receive more negative feedback for the first couple of shots he used, which unfortunately didn't flow into one another, when really it should have been a clear match cut. Another critical comment he received was when the music he used, which started off well and complimented the action, started to become too mellow for when the film started to become more packed with action. Other than this however, his edit was received well, and good comments fortunately outbalanced the bad. Firstly, his use of black and white seemed to compliment the style of his action sequence, as it added to the thrilling and suspenseful elements much the same as the black and white tones do for film noirs.

Shanice's edit was praised very well considering it was her first time at editing. A match cut at first was the first positive feedback she gained. She carefully considered the flow of one shot into another and matched them both together very well. The music was a little too intense for the sequence, but nevertheless still fit in well in parts. The music matched the ending well too, and seemed to compliment the last couple of shots very well. Another element of her edit that was praised, was how she didn't need to use fancy effects to make her version of the film work.

Bi's edit was more controversial than the others. Firstly, she didn't match the shots as well as the other videos. Some shots were played more than once and therefore didn't flow into one another as well as they could, and for me, this unfortunately destroyed the tension, which is one of the elements I think most would look for in a good action sequence.

One Minute Action Sequence

Over the last couple of weeks, the rest of the class and I were again split into two groups, in which we would all work together and create a one minute action sequence. Our first objective was to think of ideas for an action sequence individually and then discuss with the rest of the group which one we most wanted to use.

After deciding which idea we would use, we then went on to produce a shot list, storyboard and a treatment. This is the pre-production process of filmmaking, and it was this that perhaps the most work was put into. This is because we had to draft out on paper how our action sequence would go, and how we could use the different shots of filmmaking to heighten the action of our one minute film. I drafted out the storyboard for my group as it was my idea that was nominated to be the one we would film. I already had an idea of how I wanted the film to go; I thought perhaps the best thing to do for such a short film would be to build as much suspense as possible and involve something adrenaline-fueled, rather than focusing on the plot or storyline. This is why I thought a chase would be an applicable action sequence to revolve my film around.

After producing all the pre-production materials, the rest of the group and I began the production process. I was camera man and director again and felt that I managed to control my group quite well. It took us about 1 or 2 hours to get all the takes we needed and edit them together in Final Cut Pro. I felt that my camerawork was quite professional, apart from the last shot where I tried to match-cut two shots together. I also felt my direction wasn't too bad either. The team seemed to know what they were doing from the instructions I gave them and put all their effort into their specific role. One drawback which didn't make the film as good as I had hoped, was how the antagonist of our one minute drama wasn't to be seen on the day of filming, which meant another performer had to step in; had we been prepared for this, perhaps our film would have been better.
After we finished filming, we spent a lesson editing in Final Cut Pro. This is where each of us in the group could have a go at the same role. All of us edited our own version of the film and will decide on which one to use next week. However, I did help some of my group members with their version of the edit, as they have had no experience with editing before.
Overall, I felt it was a good team effort and all of us worked as well as we possibly could. My roles in the production were - the cameraman, director, editor and also being involved with all the pre-production processes and responsible specifically for the storyboard. I hope it shows that I tried as hard as I could in the time frame we were given, and although I feel I made a good one minute film, I will learn from the few mistakes such as the one at the end that I mentioned, to make a better job of my role in the next production we do on the BTEC.