Continuity Piece

Continuity Evaluation


We did a short continuity piece in preparation for our Thriller, to experiment all the different camera angles that are used for a certain effects. The theme of our continuity was action and we based it on a secret agent escaping from the school. We used this idea because it was useful in being able to try the different camera angles but exciting at the same time.

Firstly, within the mise-en-scene of our continuity, we used costume to create the effect of a secret agent. The actor mainly wore black such as the blazer and trousers, we did this because this costume is stereotypical of a spy agent that we have seen in other films and therefore conformed to our theme of action. We also added a black brief case as a prop to enhance this “spy agent” look to help emphasise our theme to the audience. We decided to film our continuity in the school because being such a large building it gave us a wide variety of setting and camera angles for us to film which was the objective of making continuity.

Sound was also an important feature in our continuity piece; we tried several sound tracks before finding the best one. The song we used was “The Prodigy – Warriors Dance” we chose this particular song because it was an upbeat and fast tempo track, which was relevant to our continuity as the actor was running fairly quickly around the school therefore using slower music would not have gone well. However, during the editing of this piece we discovered that the sound track may have been slightly too fast for our continuity. We had to use a programme called “audacity” where we could specifically edit the sound track itself; therefore we were able to adjust the tempo and speed in particular to match the speed of the actor running around the school which made our continuity more appealing.

We tried out several different camera shots and angles throughout our piece. For the opening scene we used a low angle shot, which makes the subject look more empowering and dominant which conforms to what we expect of a secret agent. Following this we kept the low angle however using a mid shot which allowed us to give more detail in particular to the costume whilst still giving an impression of the whole subject. We then filmed a high angle shot of the actor running down the stairs to give a variation of points of view for the audience, this angle is used to show the subject in a weaker, less dominant place which is relevant for our continuity as the secret agent is still in a risky position, it builds tension and leads our audience to believe there is real tension. Adding to this, we also experimented using a birds eye view angle to show the scene from directly above, we used this to show the audience a completely different perspective to create a dramatic effect that the viewers can see something the subject can’t. Further more, through out our continuity we included several close up shots and extreme close ups for a certain effect where the subject or certain feature takes up the whole frame, this allowed us to show a very in depth detail of the secret agent and yet again give the audience a variety of point of views. Finally we filmed an establishing shot which showed the whole scene and subject for the audience to see the entire setting; we used this along a long corridor with the secret agent running past the camera at the end to view the whole scene.

In our continuity piece we did not use much specific editing, in 2 scenes we included slow motion for example in the first scene when the subject comes through the door the slow motion emphasises the rush and almost exploding through it to build excitement and tension of a chase. Also in the establishing shot we added this to exaggerate the actors movement, the running is an important and an essential that is stereotypical of a secret agent which is why we therefore emphasised this.

Over all I was pleased with our continuity testing out all the different camera angles I feel will help us with our Thriller it will give us a variety of angles to try out for certain effects which I now understand.

Call Sheet for Continuity