Evaluation Q7

Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task (The Continuity Editing Task), What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Full Product?

The first thing I found when we started on our coursework task is that it was an extremely big step up from the pre-lim task. There are several reasons for this but the main one I believe is that for our pre-lim task we were put into groups and we filmed the whole peice once and in an hour. However I have found that it has taken a considerably long time to manufacture a quality peice of work for our coursework. This has resulted in several re-shoots with many different stroylines and alot of different actors. This became a real problem as it was very hard to find good actors because most people are quite shy and dont like to be filmed. Also with the pre-lim task it was a matter of uploading the footage and puting together a peice of work that had match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 rule. In our coursework once we had uploaded all of our footage we found that some camera angles/ shots didn't quite work so we had to re-shoot. The problem with re-shooting is that the actors have to wear the same clothes and the lighting has to be the same. 

Here is my pre-lim task: 

Apart from finding the coursework task a big step up from the pre-lim task I also learnt alot from my first media product. Looking back know I can see how much have learnt along the way. One of the main problems with my pre-lim task is that we didnt use a tripod and we just got someone in our group to hold the camera. This was a bad mistake as most of the shots are very shaky when they shouldnt be. As I have learnt from my coursework task if they are any shaky shot in our final product then we will get marked down instantly. Another improvement from our pre-lim which links into shaky shots is that from our pre-lim to our latest rough cut there is a vast increase in shot varaition which is a major factor that the exam board are looking for. For example there is a shot when Harry says that he is much better than me so we should of taken a low angle shot to show him as bigger and more controlling.

Another problem with my pre-lim task is that the acting was not really serious as we were amateurs at this point and it was our first performane infront of the camera. We didnt take it as seriously as our coursewrok task so we were trying to make it quite funny. This was mainly because the genres are very different in the two films as the pre-lim we filmed was obviously not a horror like our cousrework opening. 

Another progression I have found from the pre-lim task is that when we filmed it we only took us one hour to do it in and then we put it all together and that was it. However in the courswork task I have discovered how vital audience feedback is towards our final piece, without it our production would have been just our opinion and no-one elses. From the help of people in our media class and people in the other media class we have developed their ideas and made our film much better from it. It helps us understand not just what we want in our film but what our target audience wants and this had helped us greatly.

This is an example of us recieving audience feedback on 'Facebook':

Here is an example of us receiving audience feedback from our media class: 

One of our group tasks was to create the soundtrack for our film opening. However we did not use a soundtrack in our pre-lim task this made the task for us to make a whole new soundtrack and extremely hard and challenging one. We had to do quite alot of research and we did this by looking at 20 film openings and we found a few codes and conventions from them. We tried to base our soundtrack on this and we hope that when it is complete it will fit in well with our final product.

There were quite a few minor errors with my pre-lim task and it has helped me to make sure every little detail perfect in my final film opening. These extra points from my Pre-lim include:

1. We needed to edit in the purposely broken 180 degree rule to show how it does not work.
2. We could of had a set genre rather than just an everyday theme.
3. We needed appropriate props and setting. 
4. In the background we can see Sam so we should of made sure there was no one behind what we were shooting. 
5. We needed to have narrative enigma. We could of kept Charlie's identity hidden e.g. shot of feet coming through the door rather than his face.
6. There are a lot of jump cuts so we should of taken more shots.
7. To show the viewers anchorage of where we were we should of taken a master shot of the room and its surroundings. 

This is our latest rough cut of our production and as you can see it is a massive improvement from my Pre-lim task: