question 7
TRANSCRIPT
Question 7Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
During the preliminary task I learned a lot of new things and used technologies that
I had never used before. One of the things we had to learn was how the camera
works, and how to position it. I found this difficult in the preliminary task as I had
never used a camera or tripod before. We also had to learn where to position the
camera in order for it to flow well, this included shot reverse shot, match on action
and the 180o rule. After we filmed the preliminary task we also learnt how to edit
the footage. We did this on the editing software called Movie Studio Platinum. Movie
Studio Platinum was very complex however was simple to use once I got the hang
of it. All of this helped prepare us for making our own film opening.
180o rule:
By doing the preliminary task it helped a lot when making our film opening, it
ensured we knew how to use the camera and editing software as we had past
experience with using them both and therefore was good practice. It also made sure
our film opening flowed and looked better and made sure that all of our footage was
of high quality and was less time consuming. During the preliminary task I found the
editing the easiest part. I caught onto it quickly and could make the preliminary
task look good and have continuity, this then helped me a lot in editing my film
opening as I knew how to edit to a good standard and could use my skills from the
preliminary task in my actual film opening. However I found using the camera and
tripod very difficult, this was because I had never done it before and the camera
was very confusing to use, it had lots of different buttons and I couldn’t set it up
very well. After a bit of practice I got better at using the camera but had to keep
asking for help, however when making our film opening I ended up having to do the
camera set up and filming and by the end of filming I found the camera easy to use
and could do it speedily.
A lot changed from our preliminary task to making the film opening in all 3 stages of
production (Research and planning, Construction and Evaluation):
RESEARCH AND PLANNING-
I think that this was the biggest development from the preliminary task to filming
our film opening. During our preliminary task we got told what to do so the concept
and idea of the filming was limited. The idea was spoon fed to us and it was very
basic and short and had no creativity to it. However In the film opening we could be
as creative as we wanted and we could come up with any ideas we wanted, the
whole concept of the film opening was much more complex compared to in the
preliminary task. We did story boards and a script in both the preliminary task and
film opening however the preliminary task story boards and script were simple and
only about 1 page long whereas when we planned our film opening we did several
drafts of the story board and script and they were in a lot of detail and were both
over 3 pages long.
PICS OF STORY BOARD
When planning our film opening we did intensive research into our idea to ensure it
was a good idea. The planning took several weeks of research before we were
happy with our final idea. This is completely opposite in the preliminary task as we
did no research and decided the idea on the day and didn’t change it at all. Before
we could film anything in our preliminary task we had to have a tutorial on how the
camera worked whereas when we filmed our film opening we knew how to use the
camera so a tutorial wasn’t needed.
CONSTRUCTION-
When filming our preliminary task we used simple camera shots ( Close up and long
shot) whereas in the film opening we had a range of different camera shots, this
made the film opening look a lot better and of a higher status .
Preliminary task –Extreme close up
During the preliminary task we only learnt about match on action, shot reverse shot
and the 180o rule. We used these in our film opening but we did more technical
camera movements for example tilts and pans. We also did handheld cameras to
connote fear and worry.
Film opening-
Close up
Preliminary task – Long Shot
Film opening-
Long Shot
Film opening-
Mid Shot
When editing the preliminary task it was very short and simple to do and we could
do it in about an hour. The only thing we added in was some text at the start with
our name on. This then developed a lot in our film opening as it was nearly 2
minutes of editing to do and took about a month to edit! We also made the editing
more complex as we added filters, transitions and lots of text. We also used
Photoshop to add in overlays on our film opening whereas in the preliminary task
we didn’t use Photoshop.
Another thing that developed from making the preliminary task to making the film
opening was Mise-en-scene. During the preliminary task the costumes weren’t
planned and people wore whatever they were wearing that day, the lighting was
exactly the same all the way throughout (high key), there was limited actors who
weren’t comfortable acting, no makeup or props were used and the setting was
simple and limited to the school corridor and classroom. Whereas during our film
opening we looked into the mise-en-scene and planned it carefully and had set
costumes, different lighting depending on the mood, high quality actors, lots of
makeup, props such as knives and guns and different settings. I think that because
Film opening-
Mid Shot handheld camera
Film opening-
Close up panning shot
Magic Bullet quick look filter selection
Magic Bullet quick look filter- what it looks like in my film
we did the mise-en-scene in the film opening in more detail it added to helping
make the film opening successful and look good and realistic compared to the
preliminary task that looked tacky and fake.
Preliminary Task-
Film Opening-
The preliminary task only had about 10 seconds worth of diegetic sound whereas
when we made the film opening we were flexible and added in sound effects, non-
diegetic sound and lots of diegetic sound.
High Key Lighting, normal school clothes, no props, low quality actor
Low Key & High key lighting, high quality actors, props, set costumes and makeup
EVALUATION-
After we filmed our preliminary task we did no evaluation at all whereas after
filming our film opening we did lots of evaluation. We did this on various
technologies such as prezi, powtoon, Microsoft word and PowerPoint and then
uploaded them to blogger using slide share.
Non Diagetic Music
Non Diagetic Sound Effects
Overall I think that I benefited from doing the preliminary task as it meant we had
practice in using the editing software and camera and we could develop our skills
we learnt when making our film opening such as storyboarding, editing, camera
shots, sound, mise-en-scene etc. It also meant we could plan/research, construct
and evaluate our film opening quickly and effectively and making it as good as it
could be.