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?

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

The preliminary task:

The preliminary task is a short 30 second sequence which we made as a group as a taster production before the final filming for our thriller.

The purpose of the preliminary task was for us individually and as a group to learn how to film, how to operate the camera and for us to see what filming was like, it helped to identify our strengths and weaknesses, therefore the preliminary task was an eye opener. In addition, the preliminary task helped us experiment with camera angles and camera movements. All of these experiments we did helped us to gain a better understanding in how to take certain shots, use camera angles and movements that we practiced which could be potentials to use in our final thriller filming. Also the preliminary task taught us how to use a tripod and how to operate a tripod for example the tilt shot is archived using the tripod and a pan shot.

Also the preliminary tasks purpose was for us to put the 180 degree rule into practice which had to be used in our thriller. Furthermore with our preliminary task finished we had to use final cut pro which is an editing software which helped us learn how to edit the preliminary, hence the editing of our final thriller. Also the preliminary task taught us how to present our work through a timeline and how to select footage. It also taught us basic transitions and editing techniques.
Lastly the preliminary tasks purpose was to help us with the group roles. For example the preliminary task helped us chose and see who in the group was best suited to what role, for example who would be the best camera man and who would be the best person to be the director. The preliminary task helped us as a group designated key roles to each member of the group which helped in the production of our thriller as well.

My preliminary task:

 

Four areas that I am now more confident (Filming and Editing):

 I am now more confident in the framing of shots to get rid of unwanted background space. For example the close up shot of the antagonist in the thriller when the antagonist is shown going into deep thought about his relationship with the female victim. This was a much better framing of shot as the antagonist could be seen and the main detail off the antagonist face and eyes were shown to show the audience that the antagonist is having flash backs. This showed my confidence in handling the camera and framing the key scenes and shot to deliver a chilling response from the audience.

This is the close up of the antagonist as the key details can be seen which are his eyes and his face to show that he is having flashbacks.
 
The improvement of framing our shots can be seen as our final product in the thriller captures the main details as the preliminary framing has a lot of background

I am more confident in filming the key details and giving attention to detail in the filming. For example I can now capture emotions of the characters which are significant in the scene. The best example of the confidence that I have developed in filming now is when I filmed the eyes of the antagonist and zoomed into his eye of the antagonist which then later shows his flash back. This has now enabled me to capture the most significant detail as the zooming into the eye and then a flashback of the antagonist is the most important detail for the audience to see and I did that to enable the audience to understand this in the narrative.

Another area I have improved is using transitions to help the audience understand emotion for example using a fade to white to show the antagonists flashbacks. The use of fade to white was used in every flashbacks of the antagonist to outline the importance of the narrative.
Fade to blacks are also used to show time has passed and that the antagonist is becoming more and more obsessed over the female victim and that soon he will commit a crime or murder. This is an area that I have definitely improved on.

 The attention to detail in the in the preliminary task is not very good as there is a lot of unwanted details in the shot which does not make the shot look good. Also there are others in the background of the shot which make it look relay basic and unprofessional. Also the audience maybe confused by the extra details in the shot and it does not appeal to the audience as they would not know why this shot is significant.

The attention to detail has improved a lot as in the thriller there is no unwanted details in the shot as there is a close up into the eyes of the antagonist which is the most significant part of the scene to emphases the flashbacks that the antagonist is going through and the audience can easily identify that.





In the preliminary task the capturing of the movement scenes were not as good as the movement was not captured fully and as a result it looked very basic and unprofessional in the shot.






In the thriller the capture of the movements are much better as the movement is captured at a variety of angle and the shot and the movement scenes look much better in the thriller to create a more fluent scene. This is one example of the movement captured in our thriller.



In the preliminary task there was a lot of background noise and a lot of background people in the preliminary task which made the filming look very basic and of a beginner’s level. The noise was loud and there were a lot of unwanted sound which can confuse the audience.




In the thriller there is less or no background noise as we used sounds to take the background sounds out and the sounds made the audience feel a certain way hence the sound was used. Also in the thriller there are no other people in the background and there’s is only detail in each shot which is relevant to the target audience.
This is the example of less noise and attention to the detail that I used in every scene.



Did we make a successful thriller?

I think that we made a successful thriller as our thriller has all the common conventions that a modern thriller should have. For example in our thriller we have an antagonist and a female victim as the character use significant iconography which was the blood and the knife.
The thing that I most enjoyed in the thriller production was the filming and the story boarding as it was good to see our ideas coming to life exactly as we planned it on the storyboard,
The thriller could be improved by there being more use of low key lighting and colour to make it a more chilling opening for the audience. I would have liked to use a red filter because this will connote danger and death towards the audience which will chill the audience.
The main things that I have learnt from the whole process are how to work, effectively in a group well and how to respect each other’s ideas to produce a final idea which we all agree on.
I learnt how to film and how to edit the filming as this was all new to me and it was a good experience as now I have more than enough skills to make a film or a short video by myself. Furthermore the process has taught me what the steps and process are when a film is made.