LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO FULL PRODUCT?

Task 7

1. The sophistication of the planning and preparation from the basic Prelim to Main task.

The main task was by far more in-depth and complicated in terms of planning and preparation in comparison to the preliminary task. In general we were working at a larger scale of production, given the freedom to negotiate and decide our own locations, actors, storyboards etc, whereas with the preliminary task we were instructed what to do. But with more freedom came more responsibility to plan and prepare our Main task within our group.

Preliminary taskThe preliminary task was more rushed than the main task seeing

as we were given only a couple of hours within the day to shoot. Previously in the week we had been taught the basics of filming so our preliminary task was the time to put our knowledge to the test. Seeing as we had a time limit to produce the footage the planning and preparation was no way near the same standard as the main task.

Within that time limit we had to go and find our own two actors around school who would agree to participate. These actors were given a short period of time to learn the story board-which we also had to interpret in our own way in order to make our footage unique.

Each group was set a location to film in so that part of planning was done for us. The whole ordeal was very rushed which was a lesson to most of us that preparation and planning is key when it comes to filming. So that on the day you know exactly where everything is and the process will run a lot smoother.

Main Task We were all aware that our main task was by far more

important than our preliminary task so the amount of planning and preparation was significantly increased. In comparison to our preliminary task we had more aspects of our shoot day to take into consideration.

This is because for one of our shoot days we had planned to shoot off campus in Guildford. This meant we had to plan a time to go out of school, prepare our actors and make sure that we had everything we needed with us. It was crucial that we didn’t leave anything behind because we only had one chance to shoot.

As I said before, we had more freedom with our main task to make our own decisions. This meant that, in terms of our storyboard it took a while to decide on a final plot. The logistics of filming at particular locations were the reason our storyboard was altered but in the end we planned our two shoot days, one off campus and one on campus which worked well.

2. Development of your film-making skills In terms of story boarding our perception of filming a story

developed from the preliminary task to our main task to the point where we were thinking how to tell the story visually rather than with dialogue.

I think this is because the storyboard we were given in the preliminary task was very basic, each group was given the same and although we were allowed to interpret it however we wanted it was still not our story that we created.

Whereas with our main task, as a group we had worked on our story board and the shots we wanted to get in order to produce our opening sequence to a thriller. Because we had the practice of the preliminary task I thought our film making skills had developed by the time we came to story-boarding our main task because we were able to be more creative with what we produced.

3. Use of Camera Seeing as our preliminary task had a time limit to produce we

were limited to the amount of shots we could achieve. Also many of us weren’t as experienced with the camera as we were in producing the main task. This meant that when we were using the camera in the preliminary task the shots went a lot slower to achieve because not many people were sure with what shots they wanted, what angles to use, what rules to abide by.

However I think that when it came to producing our main task we had all improved with our camera work. Seeing as we had more time to film our main task we had more time to think about how to frame our shots, what we were all hoping to achieve in the process and put the skills we had learned into practice such as the use of close ups, framing for eye line matches and keeping to the 180degree rule.

4. How your use of sound has developed

In terms of sound there was a big contrast between our preliminary task and our main task. Because producing our first piece of footage was all new to us the use of sound was very basic, just as were the shots we used during filming. In the preliminary task the only sound we used in our footage was the recording of the dialogue and the ambient sound in the room.

However when it came to editing our main task we were introduced to the programme Sound Track Pro where a whole library of pre-recorded sounds were there for us to use. This meant that we were able to incorporate non-diegetic and diegetic noises into our footage which made the piece work together better as a whole as apposed to our preliminary task.

5. Demonstrating your ability to master new technology The new technology that we had been introduced to were two

programmes; Final Cut Pro and Sound Track Pro. During our preliminary task we were introduced to Final Cut Pro where we pieced our footage together. Again most of us were new to this piece of technology so it took time for us to learn how to use it properly. As a result our finished product for our preliminary tasks weren’t as well edited as our main tasks.

Seeing as we were given a lot more time to edit our main task we were able to make our shots flow as smoothly as we could whereas in our preliminary task they were quite jumpy.

We didn’t use Sound Track Pro in our preliminary task, however we were introduced to this technology in our main task. This new technology played a big part to every group in improving and developing our footage from the preliminary task.