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

When looking back at the preliminary filming task we found that it was useful for us to have made a small task before filming our actual opening as it allowed us to experiment with the different camera shots as well as storylines and the editing software ‘Adobe Premiere’.

For the preliminary task we learnt working in a group brings different ideas for the film.  Within our actual opening sequence film I felt more confident and positive about the whole production I feel this was because I chose the people who I work best with instead of being placed in a group for the preliminary. I feel that in the progression from preliminary filming to the full product that the people you were working with was key to how successful your production went. This was because if you were working in a group you didn’t really get on with then it could be difficult to find common ground on what to include in our plot and how to edit our footage. Whereas, if you were in a group that you feel had similar ideas for the film then it would overall be successful as there were not many disagreements. However, some disagreements can be encouraged in our group as we felt if one of us was challenging a certain part of our production then we would be able to look closely at it to see whether we could improve it.

As a group we all wanted to have an equal input into all areas of production such as editing and directing so felt by sharing the roles we would all be able to put our own input in and gain a better understanding of the different roles associated with film production. Whereas, in the preliminary production even though we did work together as a team during editing we did all had separate roles to fore fill. This was good as it meant you gained much experience in your area but it also meant I wasn’t experiencing other roles I would have liked to have taken on. So by taking on this on board I carried it through to the production our actual horror film so we all could have roles in each role.

The preliminary task also helped us with the progression of how we used camera angles and what were the best techniques. (This print screen shows a scene from my preliminary filming task that shows use using the camera technique of the 180 degree rule).
Our preliminary filming displayed a small range of many simplistic camera angels as the main purpose of the film was to understand the 180 degree rule. The image shows our main focus of the prelim of an object passing through a door. This meant other camera techniques such as extreme close ups and pans weren’t really focused on as much as they should have been by me and the  rest of my group as it would have made it easier to prefect the camera techniques we needed to use in our major production. Our preliminary task allowed us to take the knowledge we learnt on the 180 degree rule forward. However, we didn’t really focus on this camera style in our horror as we felt this camera technique is used to help the audience gain an understanding of the scene. Whereas, we in our horror wanted to create confusion of the surroundings in the production as it is a generic convention found in horror films.
Furthermore, the preliminary task allowed us to look back at the videos created so we would be able to learn from our mistakes to stop us from making the same ones in the major production sequence. The mistakes included unsteady camera work due to not having a tripod. This meant some of the shots were unsteady which wouldn’t have a positive effect on the audience as it could disorientate them. We were to apply this knowledge to our final product by being able to correct this in our final product by making sure we were using the tripod at all the appropriate times needed. However, some scenes such as the handheld section wouldn’t need a tripod as we were trying to disorientate the surroundings due to it being a horror.

Finally, the preliminary task was useful to us as it helped us practice our camera and editing techniques before the final product as well helping our understanding of how important the right camera angles are to suit each scene and also the importance of editing. As we were able to use the editing software ‘Adobe Premiere’ to see how all the effect worked and how drastically they can change your film. This meant that the preliminary process was useful as we were able to experience most things we needed to before our final film. However, there were some problems we never experienced during the preliminary process that we did during our filming for our major product.  Such as the difficulty of filming outside in a public location. During the preliminary we filmed inside whereas during our horror we filmed outside in a park this made it much more difficult as there were many people around meaning we had to keep stopping during the filming process so they were not seen in the shot. In addition, lighting was a major issue as we were filming during evening hours near spring meaning it wasn’t that dark outside. This meant we had to use the lighting effects on ‘Adobe Premiere’ which we felt made our film an odd lighting but was the only option to make the film appear to be the setting of dusk we wanted. This image shows one of the scenes in our production with the lighting effect.