Evaluation: Question 7

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

The aim of the preliminary task was to introduce us to using the camera, tripod and Final Cut. It allowed us to practise the basic techniques of film making, shown by the briefing for the task which was to include a shot reverse shot, a match on action and to not break the 180 degree rule, after completing these we then also included several other shots including wide shots and close ups. This task was extremely helpful to me as it made me vastly more confident with using the camera as I was shooting it myself, as on the previous occasions it had been as part of a group and because it gave me another opportunity to use Final Cut and helped me understand how to cut shots together to create a fluid motion, again this task was more helpful than the previous one (The Package) as I had to edit it myself.

Sound
For the preliminary task I didn't use any external recoding and just used the inbuilt microphone on the camera, this gave a good enough sound quality for the purpose however looking back at the task it contains a large amount of background noise, this was mainly due to us filming at break and having a window open next to where we were filming. We took this on board when filming our coursework and therefore used the digital audio recorder in order to get clear dialogue, although we cut out most of this dialogue during the editing process we still used several recordings, the main one being the heavy breathing at the end of our opening. This enabled us to enhance the volume making the ending much tenser and also allowed us to loop it several times. This meant however that we had to sync up the sounds to her mouth moving, this was challenging and took several slight adjustments before we were happy with how we had got it to look.

The preliminary task also didn't include any non-diegetic sound, whereas in our final piece we have three different pieces of music. This meant that  we had to learn how to effectively transition between them, this is the one area I would most like us to improve in as at several time during the opening the music brings you out of the film due to rough transitions, this reduces the quality of the film. It was however the best we could do and took a long time of fiddling around with only slight adjustments.

Planning
The biggest difference between our final piece and the preliminary task was the planning that took place. For the preliminary task, all of the shots were thought of on the spot where as for the final piece it took months of planning to prepare, with us producing storyboards and shooting schedules. The storyboard that we produced was the most helpful to us when shooting as we were constantly referring back to it, as to see what we should be doing next. This shows to me that the most planning you do, the more relaxed you will be. I was happy with the amount of preparation that Diana and myself did and it really helped us on the days.

I also learnt a large lesson in organisation while making the opening as was responsible for taking care of the equipment on several occasions and sorting out telling where the actors to go in order to meet at the locations. The latter I have learnt a large amount in as on one occasion I thought I had it all prepared but due to unforeseen circumstances we started filming an hour late. This has taught me to always have a back up plan and to always know the relevant details needed perfectly or some people may end up getting lost and become fairly annoyed at you.

Camerawork and Editing
This is the area looking back at the preliminary task that I have felt I have learnt and progressed the most. For the preliminary task the only shots used were shot reverse shots and match on action, these are all now relatively easy shots to film and don't include any of the shots we found the most difficult; the pans or zooms. We found these the most challenging and had a large amount of out-takes on them due to us finding it difficult to get a steady shot throughout or getting a steady speed. Our final piece (shown below) uses a wide array of different type of shots from panning, to establishing shots to over the shoulder. I have learnt that by using a wide variety of different shots, it manages to make your audience engage more in the content as it is more pleasing to watch.

The preliminary task also didn't contain any titles or effects at all, this is another area I have learnt a lot about because of the time we spend researching different fonts and learning how to use Motion in order to learn how to move the titles in a certain way. The main area that we have learnt the most in however is the colour correction, as you can see from looking at the other post or looking at the rough cut and comparing it to our final piece, we heavily altered the colours. This was our intention from the start and we are delighted we how it turned out, we learnt a great deal from doing this from what makes up certain objects to what colours are best for changing to achieve a certain mood. We managed to learn all this simply by adjusting the values until we got the desired effect and then matched that same tone throughout all the different shots. This took a large amount of time and therefore we are happy that we have been able to take so much away from doing it.


Overall since the preliminary task we have not only learnt a lot of technical skills such as using the camera or Final Cut but also organisational skills and that it pays to be prepared, all of these skills can be applied to future projects. The amount of research that we did into our film was also extremely helpful as it gave us a valuable insight into our target audience and allowed us to create something which hopeful fits in with that style. On the whole the improvement in our skills in all areas has meant that we have been able to create a far more professional final product than it looked like we would have been able to do from looking at the preliminary task.

AF