From shooting various monologues I’ve learnt a great deal about coverage and what works and what doesn’t in editing. After editing my final exercise, there are of course things I wish I could change. However there are also parts that I’m pleased with and know that I wouldn’t have achieved without completing and learning from my other exercises. My attempt to have my subject link his actions to word cues was only slightly successful. It mostly lead to the actions occurring around the same time instead of the exact same time. This again made it difficult to edit the way I wanted to. The second shot in the scene is much too long in my opinion. This was because I could only cut in the profile shot towards the end where it would fit in relation to continuity. Perhaps a medium shot from more of a diagonal angle could have been slotted in here nicely but unfortunately I did’n have that luxury. Furthermore, it’s important that I ensure that the person who is acting for me, maintains the same level of intensity throughout the shoot. As time went on my actor gradually dropped his intensity and lost the hysterical edge to his performance. This is noticeable in the edit as the tone of his voice varies significantly between clips.

One issue that particularly irks me is the creaking noise the tripod makes. I couldn’t possibly have known this at the time because I couldn’t hear it on the playback. I can only think to remedy this in the future by loosening the tension on the tripod. However this could cost me a certain smoothness to my pan.

I’m very happy with the way the shots with the dogs worked out. The old dog’s head doesn’t look like a dog’s in the first shot and achieved what I had aimed for. The eye-line match also worked well. The puppy jumping up on the table was unplanned but seemed to work well enough as the older dog kept his eyes on the subject. The dogs jumping off the chairs was also unplanned but finished the scene off nicely as they exit the frame and appear to be pursuing their upset master.
As I had anticipated this exercise was lots of fun to shoot and a little tricky at times- although not for reasons I had originally thought. A mid shot would have worked perfectly to slot in but at least I now know that I should attempt more shots than I need to give myself variety. After all these exercises I’ve grown to greatly appreciate the monologue and the creative ways in which it is covered. Whilst I have finished this assessment, I will continue to pursue my interest in monologues.