Evaluation Question 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 Task Brief:

Shoot a simple continuous sequence showing understanding and application of the 180-degree rule, shot reverse shot, match on action and dialogue.

The Video Brief:

Make a 2 minute opening sequence of a fiction film with titles and music throughout.

Obviously, the second task was a lot less specific in terms of objectivity; we knew we had to create a sequence, but it allowed us to be a lot more creative than before. This is a list of the things I have learnt during the different stages of production

RESEARCH

For the first brief, I was unaware of how to begin planning, whereas when it came to the second one I knew that I had to start researching and planning straight away.

• No extensive background research into sequences for Prelim; we only watched a few in class and made notes. Very different to the research stage of the video brief – researched opening sequences of a specific genre; looking at iconography, themes, typical character roles, titles and music all specified to that genre. Research was a lot more structured and in-depth.

• Realised importance of a clearly organised storyboard, script or shooting script after under-valuing them in the Prelim. I set out to ensure we had a very detailed storyboard, because it would act as a framework for us when shooting. It is logical to shoot some shots together and not all in order.
  

• Always make sure you have permission to shoot where you want to - we nearly had a run-in with a teacher for choosing a location without checking it with her!

The first brief was realistically a practice for the second brief; we had to execute controlled camera techniques in the first, but had to be controlled and creative in the second, with perfection in mind.

PRODUCTION

The most important things I learnt were:

• TEST SHOOTS AND RE-SHOOTS ARE ABSOLUTELY VITAL - we didn't have either for the preliminary exercise - we had to ensure we got all the footage we needed the first time round. [Which is why we didn't quite get all the footage we needed]

• To follow the process of ''Camera ready?...Sound ready?...'' Otherwise you might not pick up certain mistakes [microphone might not be on etc]
  

• Take the shot from different angles and vary the range of shots you used to make it more interesting.
  

• Overlapping the footage, for better continuity, rather than just filming the footage we needed (e.g. if we wanted a match on action of someone opening a door we would take the shot of the character from both sides of the door, rather than trying to cut it perfectly on camera). This would create the effect of a seamless narrative.

The preliminary task was extremely helpful because I realised that anything can go wrong, no matter how prepared you are, therefore you need a test shoot and re-shoots if you want a successful sequence.

POST-PRODUCTION

Learning about the editing techniques in the first task really benefited me when it came to editing our opening sequence:

• I felt a lot more confident using the software and was able to develop my knowledge further by using programmes [Adobe After Effects, FireWorks] to add effects.
  

• Whilst editing the preliminary exercise, I became aware of the difficulty in arranging a narrative structure on the timeline and took that into consideration when planning our edited sequence for the film opening.

• Captured footage doesn't always come out as you'd expect it to [i.e. the microphone was in various shots, which wasn’t detected whilst filming, or we had noticed that there was a continuity issue etc.]. This was an on-going occurrence throughout both tasks, which we had to bear in mind whenever we filmed.

FEEDBACK

• Preliminary exercise was screened in our class; feedback was given by fellow media students only. The task was evaluated form a theoretical perspective in terms of which shot types worked/didn’t work etc. This was just a learning experience to prepare us for the main task.
  

• Feedback and evaluation stage for our film sequence - held an audience screening; open to people throughout the school. We handed out questionnaires which everyone was required to fill out during the screening. We got 34 responses, which was very helpful to us because it helped us spot trends depending on age group and gender and meant we could be more specific with our Target Audience.