Evaluation task 7
- 1. Evaluation task 7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product.
- 2. Production and planning In terms of planning, there was a lot more work put into the main task rather than the preliminary. The preliminary task was the first piece of shooting most of us had ever done so we were all given guide lines to follow. We were given a script for our actors to read, told how to set the filming equipment and also told where to film. This made it easy for every group to do this task because we had been given instructions to follow, whereas the main task we had our own decisions on what to film, where to film it and to create the set to fit in with the storyline of the film.
- 3. Production and planning In terms of time taken to complete the project, the preliminary task was finished far more quickly than the main task was. It was also extremely quick to produce, we were given one media lesson to go off and shoot it, whereas on the actual shoot we had a lot of other components to think about e.g. actors/where/lighting/props/costume/set which took up a lot more time than the preliminary task did. This meant that we had to think up different shots on the day, set up the scenery and decide how to change the storyboard to fit with what we had on the day
- 4. Production and planning The planning on the main task was a much larger task than the preliminary task which required almost no planning. It took weeks to come up with an idea that all the group liked and that our fellow classmates thought would create a good production. Once we had found the idea that we all agreed on, we could move on to planning our production. We had to decide where to film it, who the actors would be and their costumes, the lighting, the shoot day and importantly the time limit. If we did not plan as thoroughly as we had done for this we would have ended up with another amateur piece of work like the . Due to the fact that the main task is part of our exam, we knew the planning process would be much longer because we had to make sure that we had everything prepared and taken into account.
- 5. Development of film making skills During the preliminary task, we were all given a storyboard to follow, this at the time was suitable to what we were capable of and gave us some room to change things how we wanted them to be , however when it came to the main production we had covered a lot during our media lessons. This meant that we all had a lot of different ideas that we could use within our production and we did not have to follow a certain storyboard. This allowed us to use our own ideas and we were free to do as we liked to create what we thought would be the most effective way of portraying our production. In my own opinion, I feel that the fact that we had control over our own storyboards, it meant that we were able to create a much more fluid and impressive production, rather than our preliminary which was very jerky and static.
- 6. Use of camera In our preliminary task it was obvious to see that we were all very new to the camera that we were using whereas within our main production it is clear that we all felt a lot more comfortable handling the camera and we were able to put in shots that were not possible for us to do while filming our preliminary. Now that we have done both the preliminary and the main task, it is clear to say that if we were to go back now and do the preliminary again, the shots would be a lot better than what we did whilst filming our preliminary’s. The shots we used in the preliminary task were basic and made the sequence altogether rather slow and jumpy to watch. Over time we have learnt how to decide what shot would be best to use in each part of our main task which would make the sequence flow better and look more professional.
- 7. How the use of sound has developed In terms of sound within our preliminary task, it was extremely basic, consisting of dialogue and ambient noise within the room that we were filming in. This was due to the fact that when we came to editing our prelim task, we were again new to it. This meant we did not have the knowledge/experience to create a production that had a lot of sound within it. However once it came down to using sound in our main task we were introduced to soundtrack pro, we also had a longer period to develop our understanding of adding sound into our production. This also meant that we were able to add in music to create suspense and we were able to add sound effects such as the sound of the shotgun at the beginning of the production. This meant that we could save ourselves a lot of time when it came to editing, instead of using a microphone to record these sounds we had them at hand on the computer to use instead.
- 8. Demonstrating your ability to master new technology When it came to editing our main task, we were re-introduced to final cut pro, this is the same editing programme that we used to finalise our preliminary task. However, while we were editing our preliminary tasks, we were unable to spend a huge amount of time on the productions, the extended amount of time that we had to complete our projects allowed me to get to know the programme which will be invaluable next year in editing my A2 project. There was a massive difference in terms of editing from our preliminary task to our main task because we weren’t as experienced when it came to editing our preliminary task. That meant we spent longer going over our sequence again and again to make sure everything was edited properly together and as a result produced a higher quality sequence.