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

Preliminary Task At the beginning of our AS media year we were asked to produce a preliminary film based on the evidence that we already had on producing films. We were set the task of producing the short film with a range of different camera shots, angles and editing cuts. We decided on a simple storyline of a student having problems at school and a teacher giving them a hard time, this way we could use both high angle and low angle shots in our work to represent the difference in power between each character

Planning When creating our preliminary task we made a small storyboard of 14 shots to guide us to film the short production. This storyboard included some dialogue we had planned to use, the type of shot, the length of shot and how we intended the camera to move.

When it came to planning our actual production we made a few drafts of our storyboard before finally settling on a 50 shot storyboard that included details of the shot type, camera movement, sound we intended, length of shot and titles etc. The pictures above show how much more detail we put into planning our actual production in comparison to the preliminary task as we knew we needed a more in depth plan if we we wanted our final film opening to look like what we had planned

Planning For our preliminary task we planned to use basic shots for example close ups and long shots in order to construct meaning and develop a short narrative. In comparison to this, we decided to show that we understood a larger range of shots in our final production including over the shoulder shots and worms eye view shots in order to display our narrative and build suspense throughout our opening.

Preliminary task Final film

Equipment We filmed our preliminary task on a flip camera as they were easy to operate and get files from therefore we did not require any guidance on how to use them. Despite this, the film they produced was quite blurry and did not look like an industry standard production.

When we came to film our final production, we shot on a Panasonic HDC-SD700 camcorder. The camera shot in HD which gave a high quality picture helping our film opening to have a professional look.

Equipment In addition to this, we also used a tripod and a dolly when it came to filming our final production which made filming movement on our camera much easier and helped to steady our film compared to what we filmed at the end of our preliminary task.

We used final cut express when producing our preliminary film, this software allowed us to do everything we wanted to do however it did limit the effects we could add to our final production.

When producing our final film we used Adobe Premier Pro CC 2014, this is a professional piece of software (used to make Hollywood films such as Gone Girl). It had the tools we need to edit our film including audio and visual effects. On top of this we used LiveType to create our credits and titles which allowed us to make our film look as industry standard as possible.

Camera skills – preliminary film In our preliminary film we had very little knowledge on the different camera angles/movements we could use. This made the our final product look very basic and the narrative did not flow as well as it could have with more naturalistic movements of camera.

We used a tripod for this production but we did not know how to work it very well therefore most of the camera movements were quite shaky including this one at

0:04.

The camera was also not very steady at this shot at 0:22 which gave the overall film an unprofessional and amateur look about it.

The camera also zoomed in and out in points where we did not want it to therefore making the film look jumpy and irregular.

Camera skills – Final production We had developed our camera skills when it came to our final production. Our best camera movement is when we panned our camera 0:28 to the next narrative and then tracked behind the male character to reveal the pin board at 0:38. This joint camera movement showed how we could express our knowledge of camera movement

As well as this, we used a few POV shots to show the film through the antagonists eyes which helped give the audience a more in-depth knowledge of the narrative and the character.

EditingWe used very basic editing in our preliminary film, this included putting our film together in continuity editing, adding sound and then adding titles. We did not expand our skills within the preliminary film therefore the final product looked quite simple and there was not an obvious meaning in the narrative.

In our final production however we expanded our skills of editing in order to make the film look as realistic as possible. We did this by adding filters to parts of he production that had a more negative meaning behind them (e.g. in the male narrative and when the two characters came together).

We also used much faster cuts when it came to creating our final production as this build up suspense in the narrative.

SoundIn our preliminary film we used a copyright track by snow patrol. We did this as it was easy to find and went well with the story as the music was emotional. We lowered the volume of this track when it came to the characters speaking but other than that we cut out any background noise that happened when filming. We also did not edit the sound very well as we just cut it in and out at the start and end of the production as opposed to fading it in and out which may have been more effective.

When it came to adding sound to our final production we spent more time searching the internet for copyright free incidental music. We settled on a track called Toscine Hell which went with the adding suspense of the narrative due to the gradually picked up speed of the track. We played this throughout the opening and faded it in and out at the beginning and the end to make a more a gradual effect.

As well as this we also added a ticking sound which we found on www.freesfx.co.uk as it helped us to link the two narratives further and also kept the idea of time within the opening; linking to the title 'one less hour'.

Furthermore, sound was also added to our ident which we also found on a copyright free sound effect site that made the production look more professional.

IdentFor our preliminary film, the ident in which we created was very basic and

therefore made the overall look of the production quite simple. We used a standard white font on a black background which didn’t appear to look original. This ident was not animated and therefore did not look as effective as it could have done.

In comparison to this, we spent a lot longer creating our ident for our final production. We used a professional programme called Adobe After Effects CC 2014 that allowed us to create an ident that was as authentic looking as possible.

The ident was conventional to film openings and appeared at the start of the production. The film started as a black screen and then the white was wiped on revealing the words ‘Rumford Roberts Productions’.

Titles and credits We developed our skills of producing titles and credits vastly throughout the period of time between producing our preliminary film and our final film. We produced 2 credits and one title when making our preliminary film on final cut express. These were very simple and did not look professional at all as we used a basic font and the film cut leaving them to appear on a black screen, they animated onto the screen in very basic ways for example moving up from the bottom.

We tried a lot harder to create more realistic titles and credits when it came to our final production, we still used simple colours such as black and white as these looked quite professional. We used LiveType to create these credits and title as they gave us more options on typography and how to animate and place the text onto the screen. We also decided to add the credits over the production as this was more conventional of film openings and made the overall production appear more realistic. We also decided to use a lot more credits in this production as this was more professional, we ended up including who the film was produced by, the main actors, who the film was directed by, who produced the films music, who edited the film and the film’s costume designer.

Team work We used a different group of people to create our final production as we thought they would be more reliable and easier to access outside of school. For our preliminary film we ended up only filming in 2 hours within school time however this was a lot harder to do when it came to filming our final production as we had to schedule 5 call sheets and ended up filming over 3 days in the end. This meant that our communication had to be better so we set up a Facebook chat and then scheduled our filming days on there.

We found we worked well as a group as each member split the work load between themselves well therefore making it easier for each individual.

Conclusion Overall, we think we have come a long way in terms of knowledge of creating a small production. We have learnt a range of skills based on the conventions of film openings in which we saw in our research which helped us to create an overall production that looks realistic and professional. We have also learnt how to use a camera in terms of movement and shots in order to create meaning behind a narrative. In addition to this, we have learnt how to manage our time efficiently and stay on a schedule to make the filming and editing process of our production as easy as possible.