PROGRESSION FROM PRELIM TO FINAL

PRODUCT.

PRE-PRODUCTION

Final Product: Our final product took significantly more planning than our prelim. We had to firstly create our own plot based on whether we wanted to make a youth drama or a high school drama. We then had to plan our shots and produce storyboards to know what needs to be filmed shot by shot. We had to decide on effective costumes that presented our characters well and decide on locations. The filming was a process that took a number of days, we had to plan our timetable and schedule carefully. We chose to film on our weekends and days off over half term because we wanted to have full days to film and some to spare in case we had to have something re-filmed if it wasn't quite good enough, we weren't happy with it or it didn't work with our film. We also wanted to choose interesting, lively locations to film at; we decided to film in a shop for our shoplifting scene. We had to get permission from quite an independent shop to film. This proved to be incredibly difficult as many shops didn't allow filming due to legal reasons and wanted permission to have been asked weeks before; we did not have the time. However, we managed to find a shop in Dalston that gave us permission to film. This shop was ideal for our film because it had clothes racks that were easy to capture on film and changing rooms where the shoplifting took place.

Prelim:

Before filming our prelim we planned it carefully. We decided on the props that we needed, we got a copy of the script from the real film and we planned our shots and scenes. Not much planning went into our locations; we filmed it in college which was a weakness because it wasn't very interesting. However, the film is based in a high school which meant our location did work because we were able to capture a similar environment.

Shop in Dalston

WE PLANNED OUR SCENES USING STORYBOARDS:

PRODUCTION: Final Product:

When filming our final product we had everything planned, we knew what we had to shoot. We shot the same scenes with different camera angles. We made sure to film close ups as we knew these shots can be extremely powerful and effective especially when trying to gain sympathy for a character from the audience. On our first shooting day, it was an extremely cold morning in February, we made sure to wrap up warm and to bring a large umbrella in case it rained to protect the camera and any other equipment. Travelling from one location to another wasn't a problem because we had planned our routes and what buses or tubes we had to take. We filmed the locations that are closer together in the same day and the locations that required a long time to shoot separately. The editing process was extremely difficult; we had to cut down our footage to roughly two minutes. We had to find music that worked well with the tone of our film, we tried making our own music as well as finding existing instrumentals and adding our own mark on it using GarageBand. We got our font from Dafont.com and it was called "Urbana", we added the titles using the programme Motion.

Prelim:

When producing our prelim film, we stayed in the college. This was not an ideal location because there was restricted space and many shots were dark due to the lighting. We also hadn't developed much of our filming skill, this meant many of our shots were plain; we would only use wide shots for example. We tried to experiment with the 180 degree rule for example but we didn't film that successfully and it could therefore not be used.

POST-PRODUCTION

Prelim:

After producing our prelim and remakes, we didn't share it on social media as much as we could have, we did create a Twitter and a Facebook page but we didn't update it frequently and for that reason I think the likes and follows that we did gather lost interest in what we had created.

Final Product:

We created social media profiles throughout production and kept them updated even after the film was created. After our screening we gained interest and feedback from our audience. The feedback could then be used to help us evaluate our work and if we were to do it again, we'd know what we need to change or keep the same.

IMPROVED SKILLS:We improved on our planning skills, we learnt to plan our schedules, locations, props etc thoroughly and not just half heartedly to make sure that we were fully prepared for filming. We also improved on our camera use, we framed the characters properly e.g. we didn't cut the top of someone's head off.

top of head was cut off for prelim

Hidden SkillsWe developed many group work skills. It sometimes proved challenging to agree on

locations, times, dates and costumes. However, we had the opportunity to learn a lot from one another; we learnt each others strongest skills and made sure to use them and

because everyone had different skills we were able to use all and make the best possible product.

We also learned to be more independent. We had to make sure to keep our blog updated and our social media profiles. Some of us were really good at taking photographs for

example which proved useful for these tasks. Also, I really enjoyed the organisational side of the project, especially keeping up to date with the blog posts, If I saw that blog posts

were outstanding I made sure to complete them.I also really liked experimenting with the presentation of our blog. I wanted to see what kind of IT skills I could incorporate and I'd search the kind of interesting things you could

add to your blog on blogger and managed to find that you can insert moving GIF's for example.

GIF's used on the blog

OVERALL...

I have enjoyed this project and I have gained many skills both academically and socially. I think our film was a success however there are always improvements that can be made. The prelim and remake activities were a good introduction to our final product. The final product was a lot more stressful to make however but also a lot more rewarding when finished.