part 7

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Preliminary Brief: the task of shooting a two minute sequence film and in this we were assigned two cast; Yasmin and Edward and also to use film terminology and independent filming for example continuity, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. We started off by story boarding our simple idea of a boyfriend who upsets the girlfriend and eventually break up.
i feel i have progressed in many ways where i managed to identify my mistakes and make changes for the main task and improve.
The first stage was PRE PRODUCTION. This was all the planning and research before filming. For the preliminary task this was simple as we only had a short time to film and therefore we did not have time to plan too much. Although it was short it still showed me roughly how it would be when it came to the main task. For the pre production we had to make
- A shooting schedule
- A storyboard
- A script
we had a good shooting schedule
Prelim evaluation
In the prelim task, Rebecca and I got given a task of shooting a two minute sequence film and in this we were assigned two cast; Yasmin and Edward and also to use film terminology and independent filming for example continuity, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. We started off by story boarding our simple idea of a boyfriend who upsets the girlfriend and eventually break up. Rebecca and decided to organise a time for us to meet up over the weekend to finish our storyboard whilst exchanging each others mobile phone numbers this helped due to when Saturday came we face no problems with meeting because we had great communication skills.


We were given a shooting schedule which would help us to include continuity which was equally very important to the filming so that when it came to editing the film would flow, also we had a continuity sheet which enabled us to keep our good and bad shots organised. After contemplating about whether the shooting schedule would be helpful we decide to keep each shot in order as we automatically organised our storyboard without noticing. Rebecca and I decided to situate our location recce within the corridor and the stairs as in our main task we prefferred to use more private locations, as we explained our story to Yasmin and Edward we also gave them a script which was straight forward this contrasts with our main task because we were given more time and planned better as we held rehearsals for our cast, in the prelim task we could have improved our explanantion of the script by adding directions and frame positioning this would have saved a lot of time between Rebecca and I and our cast and also given them more time for rehearsal so this would have saved even more time due to where we had to corporate time between two groups as Yasmin and Edward filmed before us which ran into our time which we wasn’t prepared for and felt rushed.As a group overall we worked well together because each individual was dedicated this includes the prelim and main task, one of our weaknesses within the prelim task was that we needed more rehersal time, this would have saved alot of time and instead of concertrating on the script and shots we could have made the shooting schedule alot more detailed which we purposely tried to avoid in the main task.

For the shooting of the prelim task we used a XH A1 camera to shoot our prelim task which we were taught how to use in previous lessons this included adjusting the tripod to the right height, then secure the camera onto the tripod and also adjust the spirit level this made the camera accurate and straight.then inserted the battery and tape then eventually switched the camera on.the prelim task has developed my production skills in many ways an example of this would be we had to be aware of our cast positioning and still include continuity additionally we kept the same props i also relised as an individual that oraganisational skills were just as important and technical skills which i hope to use a equal balance of each in my next film task, the prelim task also included independent filming being able to express our creativity within our work which was practical, for example we used a pan in one shot when yasmin walks through the door and edward follows behind, this was hard due to using a stair case and keeping both charathers within the frame, we over came this problem by using levels and using zoom to capture the close up shots this also helped capture the characters facial expressions which was very important when using shot reverse shot.

i think our short film appeals to people who watch soap operas and as for age would appeal to any viewer that is aware or interested of conflict within relationships. An example of this would be when edward sits down on the stairs with his hands on his head this creates tension for the audience and gives the feeling of failure which draws our scene to a close, this could be compared to eastenders such as it will never end and towards the end something always interesting happens which is called a cliff hanger.the short film would come under the romantic genre as it involves a couple. As for the main task our opening sequence appeals to people who watch horror/thiller films as for the viewers enjoy watching these to specific genres. An example of this is when bianca looks down at the sink and the quicky looks up, this shows that something is about to happen which is also called a cliff hanger.

Editing
In class we were shown how to use the new editing programme, Firstly we started off by plugging our camera into the computer using a usb cable the inserting the tape we used to film our prelim task. Then we plugged in the lacie drive which is basically a large memory card, the next step was to load the editing programme and go to file then scrool down to capture, this is where we was able to record each scene so that we would no longer need to plug in the camera which makes it easier for future editing also made editing easier due to being able to add headings to each scene which organised our work. After recording the next step was to playback all the scenes and see which ones included continuity and also included the shots we initially involed.

The problems we faced with editing?
rebecca and i found the editing programme straight forward and easy to use althrough we struggled to invole continuity but still include naturalism we overcame this by shortening our scenes this mage the shots not look so practiced and obvious that the cast were being directed. Another problem we faced was that everytime we had edited a scene and drag onto the time line one scene would over write another, We also overcame this by spacing each scene out and pressing the shift button on our keyboard. Due to this being rebecca and my first time editing i think we did a good job and manage to complete our independent film with success with a few minor delays.



As for engaging our audience our intial thoughts was to think what would we like to watch which is short and simple but still interesting so we refered to an everyday life dilemma which would hopefully relate to alot of our viewers.
Main task.

Editing.
In the main task we were limited with time thats why it was very important to organise every step. When it came to editing day we captured the good shots which the continuity sheet helped us to identify each ahot and whether we need them or not this saved time and confusion. Then began to assemble our film which took a hour this is due to having previous lesson where i had learnt how to use the editing programme. Then we cut and made any changes to make the film look good and also included titles.

The problems we faced with editing?
The problems we face were due to opinion and whether the audiences intial thoughts was whether our film respresent the horror/thriller film as when we was editing we realised that the shot of bianca and the black figure in the mirror wasn’t very scarey we realised how to overcome this problem by finding a sound track which created a scarey vibe.

As for engaging our audience for the main task our initial thoughts was to look at what we did wrong in the prelim task for example in the prelim task our location reece did not work well due to being a busy public place where people needed to use, So for the main task we tried to avoid this by booking private rooms within school where we could not be disturbed i.e. class room and toilet and where we could not avoid using some public places we chose to use our time wisely and shot when all students were in lessons, this is shown when bianca walks to the toilet.