Homeland Continuity Task

1. What was your role in the task and what did you actually do?

My role in the task was writing the script with Tilly and Cherish. We had to make sure it represented the plot conventions of Homeland and formed a convincing scene from the spy thriller genre - we therefore decided to make the scene about an interrogation, a common trope of the genre. I also appear in the video, and created my own edit of the scene.

2.  What factors did you have to take into account when planning, filming and editing?

When planning, we knew that we would only have an hour and twenty minutes to shoot the scene, and we therefore made sure that the scene would be of an achievable length. As well as this, we created a shot list so that the shoot would be structured and so that we would have a clear idea of which order we were going to film the shots in. A storyboard helped us to plan the framing of shots and positioning of characters, which would later help the blocking of the actors in the filming of the scene. When editing, I had to make decisions about when to cut to different shots in order to keep the visuals interesting and relevant to the events in the story. It was important that continuity was maintained through match-on-action; for example, the moment when Riana slides the folder across the desk is shown in two shots, and it had to already be moving in the second shot.

3. How successful was your sequence? Did you manage to demonstrate match-on-action, shot-reverse shot and 180-degree rule? Did you achieve continuity overall?

I think our sequence was successful, as there is a strong sense of continuity across the whole scene. Between shots, we kept the background as consistent as possible, and kept props in the same places to avoid breaking continuity. As an actor in the scene, I tried to keep my actions as consistent as possible in order to allow a the full range of shots to be used and still match up in terms of continuity. We adhered to the 180-degree rule, filming only from one side of the conversation so as not to confuse the viewer's perspective. The shot where the door is opened has been edited so that it effectively uses the match-on-action technique, again lending consistency and continuity to the final edit of the scene.

4. What have you learnt from completing this task?

From completing this task, I have developed my understanding of shooting and editing a scene, and how these two parts of the process can influence each other and need to work together in order to create a successful final product that has a good sense of narrative flow.