Evaluation Question Seven

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

Preliminary Brief:

Our task was to film and edit a character walking through a door, walking across the room, sitting down and having a conversation with another character. The 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot must be demonstrated.

Main Task Brief:

Our main was task was to film and edit the opening sequence to our new fiction film that we had to make up, this included the titles. The opening sequence had to last a maximum of two minutes and minimum of one minute (all video and audio material must be original, produced by candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source).

I feel as if my ability and knowledge as a filmmaker has increased from my preliminary task to my main task. I have learnt from the mistakes in my preliminary and have worked hard to ensure I did not make the same mistakes in my main task.

The preliminary brief and task was straightforward as we did not get a lot of camera training, but instead I think we was being tested to see how much we can do without much guidance from our teacher. As I done media at GCSE, I was already familiar with editing, camera angles, camera movements etc. But I had never used the Canon XAH so I played close attention when we had a lesson on how to operate it. The main purpose of the task was to demonstrate our ability to use match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180
degree rule.

The main task was much more complex; it required much more commitment and effort. The media product was longer in length and the three stages of production were much more in depth; it actually gave me an insight into how much effort goes into making actual films. A minimum of twenty five shots were required, and this included a variety of camera movements and angles. I was excited to do this task as I was proving to myself if I am capable of being a filmmaker as a career and now I believe I can if I keep working hard and developing new ideas.

Pre-production for Prelim

After receiving our brief, no time was wasted as we went straight into our pre-production. During our preliminary, the pre-production was quick as the media product we had to make did not require much in-depth planning. I still learnt things from the preliminary pre-production.

There was three members of my group, myself, Heena and Janelle, we all had to work together to make sure we got our pre-production done smoothly and quickly, so we split up the tasks. For our pre-production we had to produce the following documents:

• Storyboard
• Script
• Shooting Schedule
• Character profile
• Treatment
• Location Recce
• Props list
• Cast list
• Photo storyboard

These documents were very useful to us and without them we would have struggled to film. The storyboard made sure every member of the group had the same vision of each shot and the overall opening sequence, we preferred using the storyboard more than the photo storyboard simply because it was more simple interpreting the shots. In the preliminary, one of my weaknesses was that my time management was not good; my group did not finish all our shots on time because we took too long filming shots. However, this was because we did not produce a shooting schedule, but in my main task we used a shooting schedule which ensured we filmed every shot on time. We had to finish our opening sequence by 5pm, and by using the shooting schedule properly, we managed to finish fifteen minutes early.

The location Recce was not really important in the prelim as we shot the majority of the footage in one classroom, but outside in the hallway was where the location Recce really helped as it reminded us that we had to film quickly before it became congested with pupils. In the main task, the location Recce was much more important as we as all the scenes had specific lighting (red, whit and green lighting was used). I believe my prelim pre-production prepared me for the main task’s pre-production, and all the previous mistakes I made in the prelim did not happen again in my main task, for example my continuity was a lot better.

Production for Prelim

In the preliminary task, we was not a loud to re-film due to limited time so we had to film our shots accurately as these were our final shots, however we was a loud one safety shot. The prelim production stage went well; but we had issues with time management as we took too long to film certain shots and ran out of time to film all our shots.  I also struggled to get the zoom I wanted while filming, in the end I chose not to use any zooms as I was too frustrated because learning how to zoom properly was time consuming. It was not long for the actors to rehearse their lines from the script and this helped the fluidity of the filming as we did not have to keep stopping to rehearse. We also came up with an extra shot while filming, this was the long shot from Bianca's (Actress) point of view, this shot helped the film to flow. We did not need to change the lighting in the room, but honestly at this stage we did not even take lighting into account.

Production for Main Task
In my main task, we were given three safety shots for each shot to avoid making mistakes and to have a variety of shots of a certain shot. For example, in one scene, I wanted a pan of a phone lying on the floor, but this proved difficult, so to make things easier my teacher told me how I should take different shots of the phone so that if the pan does not look good I can replace it with another shot, in the end I used a still close up of the phone. In the main task I also learned about the use of cutaways, and used it in my opening sequence.  Also, in the main task we was asked to switch roles a lot to gain more experience at every role, initially I had no problem being the director because that is something I aspire to be, being the camera operator was fine as well as I am familiar with operating and filming footage, but I had never done sound and continuity before, not even in the prelim, so this was something that through me off guard, because I didn't think such a role was needed, but I still  filled in the sound and continuity sheet, as it was not difficult. We overcame our time management problem by strictly sticking to our shooting schedule, something we lacked at the prelim stage. I found out that if I want an accurate zoom, I should adjust the speed of the zoom using a zoom speed button; this helped out a lot in the production of my opening sequence.

From my preliminary task to my main task I learned the following things:

• Time management is vital, without it problems may occur as your time is not organized and you many fail to meet the expected deadline given for your film. Do not rush filming but be cautious of the time you have available.
• A shooting schedule is an essential; it keeps you on track, helps to avoid rushing and may even help you finish with spare time. Following the shooting schedule gives you superb time management as you film in a certain order, which is quicker and you do not jump between locations, which is time consuming.
• Have as many safety shots, and a variety of different shots. I learned that your footage may not be to your liking when you play it back in post-production, and if you only have one shot and there are problems with it, there is not much you can do about it, other than to re-film. So as a solution you take safety shots so you have spare shots to you use in case your original shot is not what is wanted. Taking a variety of shots gives you more options to improve your film.
• Check everything in your shot is perfect, continuity is an essential. I learned that before you record your footage, you should always check that everything in your scene is as you want it, anything out of place may spoil the continuity and ruin your film. To do this, analyse everything in the viewfinder, making sure you have everything you want in the target lines.
• Make sure the camera is in focus.  To do this, you twist the focus dial until it is in focus. This is so your footage does not appear blurry. However I did use this focus dial smartly during the shot of the mobile phone, so the audience anticipates the name on the mobile screen.
•  Rehearse your scenes. It is wise to rehearse before you record so that the actors and production team are well aware of what they most do when the camera is rolling, otherwise you will waste time retaking shots and scenes.

Post production for Prelim

In the preliminary task, the film was meant to be short and quick so this meant the same for the editing. As I was already experienced at editing, this task was simple for me as I had to do basic editing like, razoring, digitising, adding transitions, adding effects, slowing and speeding down shots, editing the volume of the sounds, copy and pasting, and re-ordering.

Post production for Main Task
However, the main task was a much greater task for me; this was the task where I needed a bit of help from the teacher when editing. For a successful opening sequence, the sound has to be as good as the film itself. I already knew how to edit the volume of sound, but in the main task I had to make all the voice overs have the same level on the volume bar, but when I adjusted each voice over individually to lower the volume, they all still sounded totally different as they were not on the same level on the bar. I used all the editing tools i learned in prelim, like editing sounds and adding effects. I was introduced to a volume setting/tool that I had never used before and it allowed me to edit the volume of the voice overs and soundtrack in greater depth, and the voice overs in the end were at the same level. Furthermore, there were problems with the lighting that we could not notice during filming, but while editing some scenes appeared to dark, so as a result i had to use lighting effects to make some shots brighter . I learned that while filming with dim light, you should always play it back on the camera during filming too make sure there are no lighting problems.