Looking back at your preliminary take, what do you feel that you

learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

By Samah Raja

Evaluation Q7.

Looking back on my preliminary task, I remember that we planned and filmed it right at the start of the school year, which

means my experience in filming and editing was very limited in terms of using

the different types filming techniques.Before we filmed anything I researched the different types of shots e.g. close up shots,

medium shots, long shots, etc.

These are some practice examples of some shots that I took which helped

me to practice in terms of gaining knowledge and

experience in angling and taking these types of

shots. I found this very helpful because it allowed me to be

prepared for when it comes to actually filming my preliminary task and

further into the future my horror film opening.

This is a practice shot I captured of a medium shot, which is effective in film because it helps the audience to focus

on the character as well as some of the actions occurring in

the scene.

This is a practice shot I took of a close up shot, which can be effective when filming because

it can emphasise on facial expressions ,

which helps the audience to interpret

the character’s emotions.

Planning wise, we further learnt how to plan out our concepts and ideas through creating a shot list. This was effective because we were then able to refer back to it whilst we filmed the different scenes and further allowed us

to have a taste of what we will have to do in the future when planning of our film opening.

This is a picture of the shotlist we created for the planning stage of our preliminary task. Each shot is clearly labeled on the top in chronological

order, with the type of shot listed below it. It then has a description of what each scene will consist of filming wise.

This is an image of a mind map I created of our initial ideas. From this basic plan, our ideas on our storyline and character development begins to form. This was a good starting point

because we all constructively sat as a group and gave input in all of our different ideas to include for our film opening.

After following our plan and actually filming our preliminary task, I undertook some research on

continuity editing and the rule of thirds aspect of editing. I learnt the importance of match on action,

180 degree rule and shot reverse shot. This helped me immensely when it came to editing our preliminary task footage together into one clip

because it helped me take into consideration matching together each specific movements between

each shot as well as matching the eye-line of the characters themselves.

As the time to film our horror film opening starts to near, I conducted some research into

genres and the typical conventions that are associated within the horror genre. I researched and analysed the typical

conventions of a number of different horror film opening sequences and investigated the different filming and editing techniques they

used, for example spice cuts and cross cutting.

Here are some examples of match on action used within my preliminary task

This shot displays a match on action shot of our character Frank walking down the corridor. The image on the left shows a long shot of him walking

through the double doors and the shot then transitions to the image on the right of a medium shot of him as he walks through the double doors.

This match on action shot of is of frank opening a door and walking through it. Shots 1, 2 and 3 show him gripping the door handle and walking through. It then transitions into shot 4, which displays him from the other side of the

door waling through. I edited this scene to make the shots visually transition as naturally as possible.

Shot 1 Shot 2

Shot 3 Shot 4

These shots within my preliminary task are conveying the shot reverse shot between mine and Frank's conversation thorugh an over the shoulder shot. I followed the 180 degree rule which portrayed the

conversation to seem as if we were looking at one another. This highlights how I am developed the knowledge of using implementing the 180 degree rule guideline in filming which resulted in an effective

conversational scene. Disobeying the rule would consist of crossing the imaginary 180 degree line and gang to the other side of the characters,

which would result in confusing the audience as they watch.

Progression Into My Opening Sequence

These images are from my actual opening, which displays an effective example of match on action of the two characters opening the door and then being shown to go through the doors from the other side. The transition of these cuts allow the scene to flow. During the filming process we realised our hands on the doors did not match the hand positioning in the transitioning shots, so to improve this we

re-filmed the scene and made sure we were much more accurate with our positioning. I thought we conducted match on action very well in our preliminary

task so we incorporated as precisely as possible into our opening.

1. 2.

3.

Here we thought that the over the shoulder shot within our preliminary displayed an effective and clear conversational scene so we decided to incorporated

this shot technique into our actual opening film.

Preliminary Task Film Opening

We used different shot, such as close up shots of the door handle within our preliminary task. We found this to be

effective because it puts emphasise on that particular object as it the main focus of the shot.

We decided to reflect our use of close ups in our preliminary task and develop them into our opening sequence, where we

have used an extreme close-up shot of the text messages of our characters’ phones.

Preliminary Task

Film Opening

We decided to further develop from the shots of our preliminary task and include a technique that we had not attempted to try before. We decided to incorporate

splice cuts into our opening of disturbing and creepy images of art work (drawings and paintings created originally) in order to create a distorted and eerie

atmosphere within the very start of the film opening.

Panning shot of corridor as splice

cuts occur

Some of the images used for the splice

cuts

Whilst filming in very dark locations we manipulated the light using a light reflector, in order to make the

dark scenes more clearer to understand.

Overall I am now much more confident with using camera equipment, such as the tripod to precisely achieve certain camera angles effectively. I have also learnt how to use a light reflector whilst filming in order to manipulate the

lighting within scenes and further use a camcorder to film effective shots, angles and clips.

All the planning, research and practices I conducted for my preliminary task really helped and guided me because

I think that without the planning, research and practice shots I would have found producing my end product very

difficult to achieve to the same standard I have.I also experimented with using a wider variety of shots and angles than compared to my preliminary task clip,

which shows my growth in progression and in confidence in.