analysis of the opening of Step Up 3

  Analysis of the opening scene of Step Up 3 

Straight away there is a shot of the main character with playful music in the back ground (shows its a family film) made to look like he is filming himself on a hand held video camera. This is for realism, he is also the first person to be seen at the start of the film to show that he is a important to the story. Also shows that its his film (that is relevant later in the film). immediately after these opening shots the first main character introduces the other main characters in a home movie format. All from the point of view of a video camera as if looking at the screen on the camera. Each character gives a brief interlude about why they dance and how it has affected them. This gives the viewer a idea of what the film is about and who its about also about some characters circumstances. This was done to help engage the viewer and set the mood of the film.The title (Step up 3) was shown over the New York skyline thus setting the location of the film.

Then there was a scene showing a crowd of university freshmen (first years) on a tour of the campus which moves to show another main character to show he is important and who he is. This leads to a brief conversation with his parents which reveals that he has a past and passion for dance. This conversation gives a insight into his life and gives the audience a clue to the story line.

Preliminary Task ( Short Film)

Preliminary task

What did you learn about the camera's and editing software during the Preliminary task


During the preliminary task we used the camera and a specific editing programme called Final cut pro.
With the camera's we learnt how to get the required shot using a tripod, which steadied our shots and increased the aspect of our shots. But before we started filming our prelim task we did a few  practice shots to get the feel of it.


The Final cut pro software we used was really hard to get the hang of first, but we finally got grips of it and it was simple. It allowed us to cut what we didn't want in the scenes and allowed us to get better shots and cut out and put to together scenes that looked better together. Final cut pro also helped the short scene we made look professional.

In filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved


In the process of filming our project the things that worked well was the team work and the way we all put the scenes together in the Final cut pro software. What didn't work well was the scene when Victor was running outside with the bags at the end, the doors he was running through were automatic and Victor was running at pace so we needed someone to stand at the door so the sensors will be triggered so Victor could go through it . We couldnt find anyone at the time we were filming so we had to recruit John to stand at the door which on the plus side allowed the door to stay open but when looking over he video you can see John at the door so he was in two places at once which deleted the concept of our film.


How did you make sure that you didn't break the 180 degree rule? or if you did, what have you learnt from this?


We did break the 180 degree rule at first, by making the main character going into two directions, we now know not to make that same mistake in the main task and stick to the 180 degree rule...


Give a detailed account, specific example of how you used a shot/reverse shot combination in your shot


We used shot/reverse shot during the exchanging of bags and money with Victor and John. We achieved the shot/reverse shot combination by filming from character A's (Victor) shoulder to show the full conversation between John and Victor. But we didn't film from John's shoulder so we kinder achieved the Shot/reverse shot.

Give a detailed, specific example of how you achieved match cuts during the editing process


An example of when we used a match cut is when the main character (victor) was running out with both bags and the camera cut back to second character (john) showing his reaction to victor running away with the briefcase.

Preliminary introduction

For our preliminary exercise we were given a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. this task should demonstrate match on, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. We started by dividing our  short production into crew roles, Gasim was camera man, John+Victor were the main actors in the short opening scene