Match on action short film

To get a grip on editing for our final product of a music video, we were given the task to create a short film experimenting and developing our skills in match-on-action editing. Our brief was to create the scene of someone going through a door and crossing a room or corridor, with a minimum of 12 shots to document the movement. This was our final product:



We chose the location of a stair case leading to a corridor through a door. As part of the video it followed me running up the stairs, out the door and round the corner to mysteriously appear if I went through a normal door and came out a lift door. Before hand, we made a brief story board to decide what angles, camera positions and movement we would use to get a varied amount of shots documenting the movement. When it then came to filming, we used a tripod for most of our shots. This included numerous pan shots of me running, extreme close ups of me grabbing for the door, and a long shot of the staircase. We thought we would be more experimental for one of our final shots, with me holding the camera and running to give the perspective that the audience was in the same situation. It increased the tension and panic in the shot that would set the mood better when in editing.

Once we collected all our footage we started editing them in Adobe Premier Pro. Alongside our footage, we needed music to accompany it that would determine our editing style and pace. We went for the genre of horror/thriller that related to the reason of me running through the corridors. The length of each shot was therefore not only determined by the beat of the song, but the thriller experience we wanted to convey.

We also added some effects that contributed to the mood of the short film. We changed each of the frames to black and white to give a sinister effect. We also briefly reversed some of the footage at the end to appear as if the door was opening rather than closing. A dissolve to black helped with this when the focus of the camera was very close to the middle of the door, and at the end to finish the film.

From this activity I increased again in camera skills and post editing. Having to film numerous amount of shots for something that only lasted about 4 seconds seemed very elaborate to anything I had complied before, but showed me it paid off, giving the best result when creating an action sequence. It also enlightened me on the numerous angles and type of framing I could use in my own product, to create something professional like exiting music videos.

The techniques we used in editing also let me explore a wider range of skills. Adding effects after compiling our imagery proved effective in the overall atmosphere we wanted to convey, and introduced me to the range of possibilities that could be made on our footage. Not only was editing of the different frames to make a continuous movement a challenge, but adapting it to the music was also very insightful as how to set the right atmosphere even further. I had never previously considered this to be a necessary factor, yet doing so contributes well to the piece as a whole. I therefore plan to include this feature in my own final product.