Looking Back At My Preliminary Task - What Do I Feel I Have Learnt In The Progression

From It To Full Product

Pre-production

Prelim • Before we filmed our preliminary video

we was given a list of shots we had to include and when we had decided on the setting and dialogue we literally went out and filmed it straight away. Although we didn’t want to plan too heavily what the actors would say (as when it came to filming, it would have lacked realism) we found that we hadn’t planed even merely enough when it came to editing. As we hadn’t written everything out in intense detail, when it came to shooting we had realised that we had forgotten most of what we needed/wanted to include, therefore we had to reschedule a date for the shoot.

Final • By the time it came to our final piece we

had made sure we had enough research and planning into our genre. When we decided on a date to shoot our opening scene we made sure that costumes, camera and props were ready in school days before we needed them. Even though we didn’t actually need to find the sounds or font titles, we made sure we had that all prepared before we shot our piece so that we had a clear idea of what the production was going to look like after editing. We found this really helpful because we had a more clear idea of what we wanted to produce. When we was filming, we was able to watch what we had filmed before we left the cemetery and was able to re-film if we was unhappy with how it had come out.

Production

Prelim • When producing our

preliminary scene we didn’t have any practice shootings before hand, we just went out and shot it, which we then found that when it came to actually filming the shoot, it was more time consuming and lengthy.

Final • When we planned our opening scene we

wanted to use a dark room with a bright spot light and have the camera at a high angle showing blood dripping from the actress’ hand. From a practice shot, we realised that it was really difficult to use the little black room we had dedicated to do this. However, in the cathedral that the actress is in when she walks through the doors, we found was an ideal place to shoot the final piece. We found that it was idyllic for the spot light and it helped add to the eerie effect. Also, we wanted to follow notes that’s the actress was dropping when she walks up towards the doors. From our practice shoot, we found this was much more difficult to do that we had first thought. Therefore, we had learnt that a practice shoot was essential for getting the perfect shots.

Post production

Prelim • When editing our shots we

found that it was difficult to get our heads around and the software that school was able to offer us, we found that it was not the most effective. It was good to be able to play around with the sounds when doing our preliminary video as we had a soundtrack and dialogue at the same time.

Final • By the time we had got to our final

piece we found that editing was much easier and that we were able to do things such as reversing the footage (which we used with the roses and the breath in the doorway). We was able to play around with the lighting as we had many different shades of lighting as we was relying of natural lighting. We was able to overlap sounds to build layers of sounds making the scene more interesting and scary.

Sound

Prelim• In the preliminary task we had difficulty

balancing the voice over and the soundtrack nicely so that the music wasn’t too quiet when there was dialogue yet wasn’t too loud that you couldn’t hear it. As it was the prelim task we had no difficulty with any copyright issues, however, being able to use the acoustic version of Ben Howards - Only Love would not have been possible in the Final coursework piece. We had difficulty with folley in the prelim task as it was in the school library, so at one point you can hear people in the background talking during one of the characters dialogue.

Final• In the final task we used a tick tock jungle to

add an eerie effect, alongside another atmospheric/ instramental piece. This use of layering sounds together effectively builds up tension, including a whispering sound in the background of the clip at the beginning. There was a lack of folley used which makes the clip lack realism, however, the character was not wearing any shoes so we weren’t able to add any footsteps sounds also the door that she opened was more effective to building tension if the tick tock was there along with the other layered sounds. There was no dialogue used until the end when it goes back in time to before she ended up in the cemetry when a guardian tells her to “wake up now”.

Editing

Prelim• When we first started our preliminary

task we didn’t film at least 10 seconds of useless footage, therefore when we had to upload the footage we had difficulty fitting the timings in order that we didn’t end up loosing any footage. When we filmed our preliminary video we shot everything in a chronological order but just did many shots. This made our editing much easier as we just had to choose which ones we liked the best and cut away the ones we didn’t need. As we didn’t have to put any credits on the preliminary task we never really had the opportunity to play with fonts etc.

Final• We had a lot of great shots when we came to

editing and I think the reason its difficult to distinguish whether its a trailer or an opening scene is because we tried editing inn all the great shots that we had. For example, the over the shoulder shot of the character slowly turning her head round when sitting on a pew, or the mid shot of the character and her head slowly tilts up and looks straight into the lens of the camera. We were also filming for 3 and half hours and when we had got to the cemetery it was light outside and by the time we came out it was dark, therefore when we came to editing it, it was difficult getting the same lighting all the way through because we was using natural lighting (this made our piece lack continuity). As we chose a horror come thriller genre we used mostly straight cuts in, however to add an eerie effect we did use a fade to the dead rose petals falling in the puddle, this was to emphasise the fact they were dead/lifeless. This would have been effective to the viewer because the image runs parallel to the theme.

Camera

Prelim • When the girl runs after the boy through the

door, after now having done the final piece, I realise that it would have been more effective if the camera would have then followed her on the other side of the door. That way the audience would have been able to see a reaction shot of the boy walking away from her. There was a more of a variation in shots with our preliminary task due to having a shot-reverse-shot, opening the door, use the 180 degree rule and a reaction shot. The easiest of the shots was the opening of the door and the most difficult was the 180 degree rule. This was because when trying to resume a previous position it was never the same position as before. This made sure that the finishing edit lacked realism .

Final• In the 2nd shot where the camera

follows the character down the path towards the cathedral, the camera work is not steady, making it seem less effective and decreases the tension building effect. When the character opens the door, she moves slightly to the right when she breaths upwardly and it would have more fluidity if she had been in the exact same position. By the time we was able to get a high angle of the cathedral the lighting was different, however, we tried using that shot because we hadn’t had a variation of different angles.

Mise en scene

Prelim • As we was using a school environment yet

had the genre of romance we had to use the facilities the best we could. As a result of this we had the girl in normal day-to-day clothes and the boy was to come across as if he’d just finished work. Sophie was wearing bed socks with her feet on the sofa to make it seem a home environment. The lighting was high key although a low key would have conformed the conventions of romance more. I have learnt that by not conforming the conventions of the genre it makes it less effective to the audience. The actors that are used conform conventions as you have a stereotypical, shy girl and a masculine, hard working male.

Final • We used a hospital gown in order to create more

questions for the audience to ask when watching it, it created the idea that maybe the character was either mentally or physically ill. We used natural lighting which was high key. We used a young girl who was slim with big hair which emphasised how vulnerable the character could be. In order to make her look smaller we made her hair even bigger. This was effective as she made the setting look bigger and herself looked smaller. The actress we used had pale skin and when we used the night vision mode on the camera it made her look more ghostly. However, I do believe that if we had another character in the scene it would have made the footage less repetitive. The fact that it had been raining on the day of filming made the a good use of pathetic fallacy. (the image of footage run parallel with the theme). The 2 main props within the clip was the cross that the character went a stroked and the phone that awoke her in the morning.