Question 7Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

MistakesFrom our prelim task: We thought about a story line and came up with ideas before we gave

people jobs We delegated jobs to people that wanted them, this way they would

be working to their full potentialThen we realised: We should have done this the other way around It would have been better to give people jobs before we came up with

the idea. For example, in our prelim task we had three actors; two being good and one not so good who would probably have been better at something else (e.g. storyboard, shooting schedule etc.) So; find out people’s strengths before confirming jobs.

For our final piece we focused on this. We set people roles before we came up with the idea so that we knew what we had to work with.

Camera skills.In our prelim task: No one in the group was very experienced at using cameras We had to record the prelim task with little experience regarding camera’s and how to plan a shot We also had to include a match on action shot and 180 degree reverse shot, this was difficult to

make look good for people who have never attempted to do this before. Therefore, because we have practiced in the prelim task, we were able to include it in the final coursework.

When we had completed the prelim task we watched back what we had recorded and were able to see what needed to be improved

This was: We knew that more shots needed to be steadied and we needed to use a tripod a lot more We also needed to incorporate a variety of different shots For the shots, some of them were not central to the things that we were trying to film and should

have been done again We wanted all the shots to look professional and centred on the things that they were focused on We experimented with the camera on the floor and also got high angles and panning shots In our prelim task, one of the main things we had to worry about was the continuity of the film

opening, so then knew how to make continuity flow in the final piece

When we had completed this, we then had the experience to take to the final coursework and recognised things that we needed to improve.

Centred Shots.

In this shot from our prelim task the character is not in the centre of the frame.

This shot was part of the final piece. This has a professional looking title in the centre of the shot

and is centred well with the surroundings buildings.

Editing.Another skill that had to be mastered was the editing software that we used. We used Premier to edit our film openings. When we started

editing our prelim tasks we had to learn how to use the editing software as we went along. We did not know all the tools that we could have used, as well as all of the audio and editing transitions and effects so the editing was not as good as it could be.

When we had filmed and started editing our final piece we new more about the software so we could use more tools (e.g. the razor tool) and more of the audio and editing transitions and effects and make the film look a lot better. We were also able to use the green screen when making film posters. This allowed us to make more professional looking poster for our film.

Character Profiles. In our prelim tasks we did not think a lot about genres and how we could make our

film look like that genre. We were given a genre so we could not choose. This meant we did not fully research genres and did not really know what the stereotypes would be. For our final pieces we spent a lot of time thinking about how we can fit conventions into genres and the things we needed to do. This included us thinking more about mise en scène and realising that some things are not suitable for the genre we are making (e.g. a love story in an action-spy film)

Also with our prelim tasks we did not really develop character profiles. In our final task we realised that this was needed and then made a chat-show style video so the audience knew more about our characters. Before we started filming we started looking at other characters in films we have seen in the past (e.g. Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games). This helped as when we went to film we knew what costumes to wear and how to play the character we were.

We spent a lot of time talking about the costumes that we were going to wear on the day and how we could relate them to costumes of character in films that share a genre with ours. In the end, we decided the boys should wear suit-like outfits (e.g. smart black trousers, tie and smart shirts with earpieces) and the girl should wear a dress to emphasise her feminine side as we were going against stereotype by having a female as the leading hacker.

Locations. Another major leap we made from a prelim task was the

locations and how creative we were with our ideas. We filmed in London for our final piece whereas we only filmed around our school for our prelim task.

We used the iconic landmarks to help the audience locate where we were and this enabled them to relate to our film and the genre (e.g. red buses and Piccadilly Circus)

We wanted some famous places such as Piccadilly, but also we wanted some places that people didn’t recognise to show that the chase has gone to more uncommon places and could end very badly for the lead character.

Details. Sound was very important to us all through making both pieces (prelim and final) For our first piece we went for well-known songs as we thought this would be more

relatable to our target audience This was easy to do and we were able to find some music that worked well. For the final piece we were not allowed to use mainstream music as it had to be by an

unsigned band for copyright reasons We had to spend a very long time looking for the right music that suited our film and

faced many problems. For our first draft many people did not like our music as it we used two songs, so for the final draft we only used one song and concluded this worked much better. We could cut appropriately to the action and chase of the film much easier.

Probably the biggest leap we made was the attention we paid to titles and the time we spent researching and designing them. We paid a lot of attention to exactly where the titles went on the screen, the font, size and colour. Our research on titles we had done on a previous task helped us here, as we had looked at other titles in action films (such as Iron Man) in close detail.

Watching our prelim task back we also thought that the overall story needed to flow a lot smoother than it did. The shots need to piece together instead of cut away sharply. This is something we think we have strongly achieved on our final piece.