Evaluation 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

During the early stages of year 12 - I had no experience at all with general media. I had never edited any footage before and for my preliminary task it was the first time. During the planning stage for my preliminary created a story board: That is where I learnt how important and crucial planning all my ideas ahead really is. This was the stage where I first was introduced to the numerous different shots and how to use them. From this task I was able to again confidence with using the different types of shots and techniques used such as the 180 degree rule, match on action, shot/reverse shot, continuity and camera work to build tension, suspense and empathy. These particular shots turned out to be vital in creating my film. I discovered that the use of the different shots had an impact on what needed to be stressed. An example of this is using an extreme close up to show the characters inferiority and the sense of entrapment whereas using an extreme long shot can encapsulate someone’s feeling of alienation and loneliness.

I also learnt how to adjust the lighting of my footage as some scenes were poorly lit due to me not having the lighting equipment at that time. Therefore, I had to fix this because the scenes were consecutive and it wouldn't have looked good thus would impacting the continuity, I fixed this issue with the colour corrector tool on Final Cut.

 However, from looking back at my preliminary task I knew I needed to use the knowledge from working with the different techniques and implicate them into my thriller. Moreover, due to this being a proper film opening, I felt I had to make it look far more professional as in some of my preliminary tasks the footage was quite shaky and didn't flow particularly well. Therefore, to improve on this I had to research in depth how shots and techniques really help to impact the scene and how they needed to be edited, I learnt that this wasn't executed as well in my preliminary tasks.

For my opening thriller I created a shot list to remind myself which shot is which, as my preliminary taught me how much planning and structure is necessary in making a successful video.

  

In this task we were focussing on continuity, making our different shots flow after each other, smoothly. This is also known as invisible editing. We also tried "match on action" which is when you cut between two shots whilst trying to not let it look like time has passed as they must look like two consecutive shots. This is crucial to the editing process as this is what helps to keep the flow of a scene and this is why there are people in the media industry whose sole purpose is to check the continuity. This video shows the match on action for when the character goes through the door and when she goes up the stairs.

The preliminary task really helped to make me realise how crucial continuity is, when making a film, because a poor execution can damage the films credibility and lose the audience, as poor transitions can take the audience out of the story, thus failing to keep their attention. However, one of my preliminary tasks executed this well as the transitions were smooth and flowed well together. However, the use of a POV shot at the end was fairly shaky and from this I've massively improved and learnt from my mistake.

I learnt how to use 'over the shoulder' shots and tracking shots - On top of that I learnt that the sound track can really affect and change the view of the audience. The sound track built suspense and made the preliminary more tense than what it is without the sound track. I also learnt how to work with the camera and the tripod more, being able to keep the camera steady for a neat outcome. My thriller opening needed effective work and effort in the mise-en-scene as it needs to create a mood and scene so that the audience can relate and connect themselves with the movie more. Where as in my preliminary we did not think about what could have ruined and effected the genre. The lighting was more thought through in my final thriller opening as in the preliminary we used the original lighting with no editing included.

Above is the preliminary task I did prior to my thriller. I found this particular task quite useful in building my knowledge of what shots work best and understanding what makes a good film opening as we did our best to copy the original opening sequence. This task was by far the most beneficial preliminary task I've done due to it fitting the brief of an opening sequence which is what my thriller is as well, an opening to my film. Moreover, I found by partaking in this task I learnt so much about organisation; organising venues to shoot in and organising the actors. I also learnt about editing in a lot more depth as I now had to think about the sound track as well as the film, whereas, in previous tasks sound wasn't an issue. The editing process also helped me to develop my knowledge and confidence with the software Final Cut Express and all its tools.