Evaluation: Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? - Mrs. Quinlan

What was the preliminary task and what were its main aims?

The preliminary task was a task set to assess and evaluate our skills as a form of practical, hands on planning. It would later help with what improvements we had to make in preparing, filming and editing. We were given a limited amount of time to film a 30 second scene and it had to follow a certain criteria. We were also given a camera and the final cut pro x software we would eventually use for the final product. We discussed amongst our group and decided on group roles according to our skills. I was made as director/cameraman and editor. Trang and Pervin were actors, with Trang also being producer and location manager while Pervin had the role of costume, hair and makeup, although a lot of these roles were not needed during the preliminary task. As a group we would later take on different roles in the final production as their skills suited different roles. As editor I faced some problems when editing as I had never used Final Cut Pro X before, I could only develop very simple cuts and there was a problem as there was a filter we could not remove that was preset.

Product of the Preliminary Task

Identify 4 things you are now better at and more confident with doing in terms of filming and editing:

Filming

This is a panning shot I attempted to film for the preliminary task, the shot was very long and the camera was shaking a lot. This made it ineffective and had to be drastically improved to be able to apply it to our thriller.

This panning shot was the one used in the final cut of the opening. I had improved in terms of camera work to keep the camera as still as possible, as well as making sure not to keep the camera focused on a subject for too long which would bore the audience quickly. I made sure the camera was zoomed in and at an angle where you cannot see the antagonists face, only his movement and location in the house. There is also low key lighting which we made sure to have while the antagonist was maneuvering around the house which was very effective to create suspense for the audience. I was a lot more confident in this shot due to the effect it had on the audience.

In this clip from my preliminary task while filming a medium shot there is obvious camera movement at the end which was not professional and did not make the preliminary task look good. It involved a lot of camera shake and was ineffective, therefore my skill when filming had to be improved for the final production.

This clip was a drastic improvement from my preliminary task as I had made sure the camera didn't move and the positioning of the camera was a lot better. This made it a lot more effective for the thriller as the distancing was appropriate. The camera was also very stable as I was a lot more familiar with it and therefore the was no lurching while filming this scene.

Editing

My editing skills have improved as I quickly learned to use the software Final Cut Pro X efficiently, a darkened theme was emphasised as I used a grayscale filter appropriately to convey a more gruesome, intimidating tone due to the antagonists presence. This effectively made the opening more frightening and increased suspense amongst the audience.

In this clip, while editing I had used slow motion editing as well as a jump cut. The slow motion editing was used to create emphasis on the antagonist and his surroundings, I believe this was used very effectively to show that he is in public in front of people despite being a possible psychopath.

Comparing my preliminary task to my thriller opening

1)

In my preliminary task my positioning of the camera was not very good and it wasted a lot of space and there were a lot of distractions on screen which would not have allowed the audience to focus on the characters. However in the thriller opening I filmed the scene with one of the victims so that he was not visible until the mirror was moved, this would have frightened the audience as it was

unsuspected and very effective due to the positioning of the camera.

2)

The high angle shot was not very effective as the audio went very quiet due to the distance from the actor and the camera, as well as the positioning being ineffective as it still showed other characters and things that were not meant to be a part of the scene, therefore creating distractions. In my thriller opening the high angle shot is a lot more effective when the antagonist is going downstairs, this character is the focal point in this sequence and this aids the high angle shot 

3)

This 'over the shoulder' shot from the preliminary task is positioned incorrectly as it shows too much of the character who is not talking, as well as there being a lot of background noise, this wasn't corrected during editing either as I lacked experience. Although in my thriller opening I split the audio from the raw footage and added the soundtrack and sound effects, making it a lot more effective.

Personal reflection

I felt as if my thriller production was very successful as my group and I had all improved in our various areas despite having limited or no experience in them at all. The thriller has a variety of shots, angles and lighting and I feel as if this was a great improvement on the preliminary task which was the main aim. Overall we made the opening very subtle and had stuck to conventions and conventional themes of thrillers, this made it a very effective thriller opening.

Personally I most enjoyed the filming and the post-production stages of the production as I could observe my filming skills as they improved and I found it a challenge to get the various angles and shots to make the opening effective. The editing stage was also a challenge which I enjoyed as correcting my thriller through Final Cut Pro X allowed a lot of discussion amongst my group and we made decisions based on each others opinion on which scene looked better or which edit or sound effect fitted in well.

The sound editing could have been improved as I felt there was too much going on at times, and the whole soundtrack is not as subtle as I wished it to be. Also another improvement could have been to use better makeup on the victims to make it seem more evident that they had been victims to a murder.

The main things I have learned over the whole process is to take more control and to ensure everyone on set knew what they were doing, to ensure less stumbling during the filming process. I have also learned that finalising a storyboard is very important as we did not stick to the storyboard completely due to lack of resources or lack of knowledge about the locations, but the storyboard did aid a lot when filming.