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

A brief of preliminary task including filming and editing;

• One character is sat in an office
• The other character opens the door
• Walks across the room and sits down opposite the other character.
• Both characters exchange a couple of lines (dialogue)
• The other character gets up and stomps out of the room.
• Shot reverse shot
• Continuity editing
• 180 degree rule

A brief of the main task;

• Two minutes clip

• Evidence of some understanding of using different camera angles and shot

• demonstrate understanding of using continuity, shot reverse shot and editing
• use of a copyright free soundtrack or create your own music.

• A man walks down the road
• A girl enters a building
• The girl walks up some stairs looking suspicious
• She then sits down on a table
• The man walks in the room the girl is already in
• The girl says “do you remember me?”

From the time of the preliminary task to the main task, I learnt a lot of genre conventions and spotting them in films and television programs. Given that our preliminary task and main task wasn’t the same genre, we had to do a lot more research.

Pre- production:

Our main task needed a lot of planning which was something we did not do on our preliminary task. For our first task, we just had an idea of what we wanted the sequence to look like and we went straight into filming it. From our preliminary task, I learnt that planning is essential to having a good film.  We did a lot of research to find out more about psychological thriller conventions so that we know what we had to include in our sequence.

We then went on to drawing our storyboard which I later learnt was very important when it came to filming our footage. 

 Me doing some extra research on psychological thriller.

Production:

From the preliminary task,I learnt a lot about using camera equipments. During our preliminary task, some of the shots were handheld and for other shots, the camera was put on a table for stability.

During our main task, I learnt how important it was to use tripod. Because we filmed in an old warehouse, nothing was strong or stable to film from so we had to use the tripod. We shot some scenes as handheld because the scene was viewed from as characters perspective. We also used the tripod to take an establishing shot which although it wasn’t needed in the preliminary task; it gave us the confidence to try out other techniques such as camera angles.


Settings:

Settings of our preliminary task and main task.

 

Post production:

We found the preliminary task difficult to edit because it was filmed from three different cameras. It was difficult having accurate editing from the different cameras and joining them together. This process gave us the confidence to edit our main task.

Because our main task was filmed from a single camera, we thought it was easier to edit the footage compared to the preliminary task. The editing we found most difficult was adding soundtrack and cutting it off in particular scenes we didn’t want. 

 In general, this task has thought me a lot about working with people. We were assigned in groups to do both task. I had to work with people I don’t know before. I have learnt to listen and communicate with them which were out of my comfort zone. The most challenging part was making group decisions. This however helped our group because we all had a vision of what the film should be like and our group strive for the best possible outcome.