Practical Task - Match on Action

Practical Task - Match on Action

A requirement that we had to include in our film opening was Match on Action which is where you complete one action such as opening a door in different shots from a variety of different angles. You then put them in order so they flow and look like one transition. We decided to put this at the beginning of the film opening and record the actress kicking down a piece of wood from 3 separate angles. I then inserted the clips into FinalCut Pro in the correct order to see if they fit well together and whether they flowed well one after the other.

 

After I inserted the clips, it was clear that all of the shots had not been recorded as one continuous scene meaning there was jolts and cuts between each clip which looked very unprofessional. I spent a long time cutting and extending the clips to create a continuous flow between each clip. The idea of match on action is to make it look like it had all been recorded at the same time so it was important for me to do this. At one point the wooden board that she was meant to kick down was on the floor before she had even kicked it so I had to spend time editing it correctly so it flowed perfectly.

Evaluation

Although this seems as quite a simple and easy task, I spent a lot of time on it because its one aspect that needs the correct time and attention to make sure it was edited properly. If there was any overlap between each clip then it would look artificial which would not be appealing to anyone watching it. The most difficult thing I found when doing this was being able to cut the clips without making the match on action scene as a whole too small. I found that if I cut too much off a particular clip then it would cause the whole clip to be over too quickly. I therefore needed to find the correct balance between the length of the clips but also the quality of the match on action in the scene. Overall when I watch it back, I believe none of the clips overlap and it looks professional and flows well.