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

After evaluating our main product we decided that that main aspects that needed to be improved were:

Planning Camera techniques such as shot/reverse/shot not included Boom in shot Not having enough film to work with Not including enough titles

One of the most important things my group took away from the preliminary task was the importance of planning, as it caused many issues in our preliminary task such as problems with location, scheduling a shoot time, and availability of actors. From this we made sure that when planning our main task we had a clear script and detailed story board to work with whilst filming. This ensured that we had long enough to include the appropriate shots we needed to make it effective such as shot/reverse/shot, over the shoulder shot, match on action and an establishing shot. By developing our shots we increased our knowledge on using the camera equipment to make each shot look professional and sleek in comparison to the rushed preliminary task.

A weakness of our preliminary task was the lack of varied shots as we didn’t meet the brief because we didn’t include shot/reverse/shot. This is because we were rushed for time and our story board wasn’t detailed enough, this resulted in details slipping from our product. However we improved this including more varied shots such as high and low angles, close ups and mid shots, establishing shots, shot/reverse/shots, over the shoulder shots and panning. These shots vastly improved the overall quality of the final product. An example of this is the use of shot/reverse/shot, in the scene with the characters of the brother and sister; it is effective because as the sister talks to her brother and over the shoulder shot is used with a low angle. This gives the effect of the brother appearing big and intimidating. Then when the brother is talking to his sister, another over the shoulder shot is used but it’s a high angle instead. This gives the effect of the sister seeming

small and vulnerable to her brother.

Shot/reverse/shot - low angle

Figure 1 shot/reverse/shot - high angle

Another effective shot that we used was a close up on the main character while she was sleeping in the first scene. This was used to give a clear view of her expression and to convey that she was in a deep sleep and a high angle was used which presented the character as vulnerable which built suspense in the title sequence.

Close up -high angle

Other issues we had in our preliminary task included having the boom in shot. This was a simple mistake that we didn’t notice while filming however when we noticed this in editing we did not have enough product to replace it. This decreased the quality of our work dramatically as it took away the professional sense it had. We did not make this mistake in our main task. As even in particularly difficult shots we were conscientious not to make this simple mistake again, such as in the over the shoulder shot of the main character drying her hair in the mirror. This was done perfectly and looks professional to the viewer although it was difficult to make sure the equipment wasn’t in the mirror so we had to keep to the left and put the camera at a slight angry.

Another issue my group had in the preliminary task was having enough film to edit with. This was because we were rushed for time during the shoot so didn’t have enough time to shoot the scenes enough times. This led to a struggle during editing. As many of the shots were not adequate or up to a professional standard however we couldn’t do anything about this due to a strict dead line. During the shooting of our main task we were adamant that we would film each scene until it was good enough. This took a long time but we received quality results as we had plenty of clips to choose from during editing making it look smooth and professional to the audience as each scene is well crafted.

Over the shoulder shot – main taskBoom in shot- preliminary task

One of the most important mistakes we made during our preliminary task was not focussing on the titles enough as there were only four basic titles that weren’t even integrated into the film. We kept this in mind when planning for our main task such as visualising where we could put each title while story boarding and creating the animatic. This enabled us to produce a lot of titles with clever transitions that will catch the audience’s attention during the film. We used a consistent font but used a different colour for each title this design is effective as it conveys the ‘quirky’ side of the main character and the ‘indie thriller’ genre. The screen shot below shows a way that we have integrated a title into the narrative to intrigue and interest the audience so that they pay attention to what the titles say rather than just the narrative; it also shows how we have used colour to compliment the scene so it stands out to the audience.

Main task - title

As a whole I think I have learnt a lot from my preliminary task and that the main task has been largely influenced from the mistakes made in the first title sequence. It has made the group understand the valued lesson of the importance of good and well prepared planning and also being comfortable with the equipment and technology we were using which we were after the preliminary task.