Q7) when looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Introduction

Since doing the preliminary task I have done a lot more research into existing films, I did this to gain a good understanding what a successful, professional film should be like. By doing the research I have picked up on things that will make our film interesting to our target audience and it helped me make our film look professional by using certain camera shots. Our preliminary task is very basic compared to actual film however I learnt different types of angles which I never knew before by doing the preliminary task, such as ‘match on action’, ‘shot reserve shot’ and ‘the 180 degree rule’. By using these within the preliminary task it helped me when we actually did our filming, this is because it allowed us to use them within our final task. The preliminary task is basic such as credits, location storyline, dialogue and lighting, yet we used many more features in our final you would expect to find in a typical film. If we never completed the preliminary task it would have made it a lot harder for us as we would have not had experience of Abode Premier.

The starting of the opening of the preliminary task

The starting of the opening of the final task

As you can see we decided to begin our final task different to the way we made our preliminary task, this is because when doing our research we saw that films being with the company that produced the film and who the film is distributed by. Yet, we never knew that until we did our research that is why our preliminary task starts differently, and this is why we began the preliminary task with camera shots that are featured within the film, which shows as we never did research we never stuck to how real films begin. But, with our final task we decided to begin with who our film was produced by ‘Revolver Entertainment’. We used this producer as it was mainly used within our genre so it made our film look realistic and professional.

Shot Framing (preliminary task)

Shot Framing (final task)

In the preliminary task we were not sure how to use framing, this is because we did no research and had not much knowledge on how a shot should be framed correctly. This is why the preliminary task framing is so rubbish; we know it is rubbish now as we know that every shot of a character should have the whole upper body in the shot not cutting her shoulder off. However, after doing our research for our final task we gathered information on how the framing should be within certain shots, and if the framing is incorrect than the film could look unprofessional. We used our research within our final task, however, we did parts which were filmed poorly but then we re-filmed them and made the film look more professional as much as we could. By re-filming parts it put us behind other groups however we had to as we knew it would not look realistic if we left hiccups within our film.

First scene of preliminary task

First scene of final task

In our preliminary task the first scene began with the character walking towards the door, the film began with story straight away which made it look unprofessional as it never showed the location or never thought about the lighting, camera shots and so on, so the audience watching the film would not have a clue where the character is, what they’re doing and why they are walking up to the door. When doing our research we saw that most films begin off with an establishing shot of the location where the film is taking place. As we were doing our final task we thought about how to make the audience know where the film is set, so we decided to include an establishing shot of Birmingham. By doing this it kept our film within the line of the traditional conventions of a real film with the same genre as ours, Social Realism.

Camera shots within the preliminary task

Camera shots within the final task

When doing the preliminary task we learned a few new shots, such as ‘match on action’, ‘shot reserve shot’ and ‘the 180 degree rule’. So we decided to include these within our final task, so the camera shots are more or less the same within both tasks, this is because we familiarised ourselves with the shots during doing the preliminary task. This made it easier for us to include the shots within our final task because we had practice using them. The shots above are both representing ‘shot reserve shot’ this shots gives off to the audience that two cameras have been used by leaving that effect whereas it was only one. However, we did use shots within our final task which we never used in the preliminary task. Within our final task we used shots such as close ups, long shots and point of view.

Location (Preliminary task)

Location (Final task)

When doing our research we realised that we need to show the location where the film is taking place, however within our preliminary task we never knew that so we never put a shot of the location in, which now we look back and see it looks unprofessional. The preliminary task consists of a police interview which was set in school; however we never showed the location so the audience would not have a clue what is happening. However, within our final task we based the film within Birmingham, then the scenes took place within a house and a school, which we added a shot of both places within our film, this was because it was part of our storyline. After doing our research we knew we had to include the location so we added in both scenes locations so it keeps the traditional conventions.