1. Looking back to your
preliminary task, what do
you feel that you have learnt
in the progression from it to
the full product?
Question 7

2. prelim Real thing
With research for our prelim we done simple things
like look into the 180’ rule which we used throughout
our prelim task which gave it fluency. We researched
into different genres but we learnt that it probably
wasn’t into enough detail from after doing our real
thing because of the depth of research we carried
out. I think as a group we done well for the
researching side of the task because we looked into
more than 2 types of films from the genre and the
type of conventions we would be including in our
task. With the prelim task we realised that the making
of the clip was harder than we had initially expected
because of our inexperience but feel that it was very
beneficial to do before out real thing as we learnt a
lot through it. Although we researched into the types
of genres we could have researched more into things
like; props, costumes, make up, lighting and sound
because we did take them into consideration we
didn’t particularly look into them in enough depth, if
we would have done this I feel we would have been
able to look into our target audience more
successfully and pulled of the comedy genre better.
Using our knowledge we gained from our prelim
task we then applied it to our film opening we
looked into the genre firstly in general looking at
films that had done well in the spy genre section of
the industry we then researched our target
audience of those films to have a general idea of
who would be our audience we then looked into
more specific research like one set in London with
characters from different countries, women as the
main characters and places/ settings used in those
films we then looked into their make up and
costumes used in those films; this was different
from our prelim research because of the depth we
went into although it was easier to go into a lot
more depth with research because we had a longer
time period to complete to tasks and research
needed, by having the longer time it helped us
greatly because we understood our genre in a lot
more detail and what conventions were a must to
fit with the genre and which ones we were able to
twist to give us a usp to our opening clip.
Research

3. prelim Real thing
planning
With planning for our prelim we carried out a
storyboard so we knew which shot was next and what
was going to be happening in each, we then created a
time schedule so we knew where to go and where we
would all be meeting and knew how much time we had
to complete the filming. We also organised who
needed to wear what and what props were needed for
the filming. We then went on to designate jobs to each
person in the group we decided Karina would suit our
main character best because of her looks and
confidence, we chose Sydney to be the teacher as she
looked the oldest out of all of us and we used who was
easiest to as we were in the same group so therefore
was easier to get us all together, we chose Toby to be
the other main character as he suited the character
best and had glasses which again fitted the character
and I was then to film. Although we did carry out a lot
of planning we didn’t follow it completely as we
decided that some of the shots didn’t look as good as
we had expected so we changed them to make the
footage more professional. I think we were more
successful on the planning side more than with the
research with task as we done more planning than
research but I don’t think it affected us too much.
Planning was a lot more vital when we done our real
film opening because of our setting we had to take a
lot more things into consideration like
weather, setting and shots. We first started off
planning by researching into locations in London we
looked at things like the embankment, roads near by
and different stations in the area we used resources
from this research and the knowledge of our taxi
driver to plan exactly where we was going and
structuring a time plan around this to choose which
were the best routes to take and what times to go to
avoid crowds at some setting and the using the time
to use the crowds for some of the other shots. We
then went on to draw our storyboards so we knew
which shots were in what order to keep fluency and
to make it easier when we came to editing. We then
planned all our outfits and how we were having our
hair and make up to match the filming this kept us
organised and on track. Planning was in more depth
and more secure for our real film opening because if
we didn’t know what we were doing it would have
had more if an affect because we were outside, in the
city and had to make it look professional so we
needed to be organised our planning for our real
thing was a lot more successful but we had learnt
what to do through our prelim task.

4. prelim Real thing
filming
Filming for our prelim task was amateur because we
didn’t know how to use the cameras at first we didn’t
even know how to change the tapes but we learnt
quickly and figured it all out. When we were filming we
changed most of our planning because as we used the
camera started to think of different shots to use and
what we though would look better than the ones we
had initially thought of although this ruined some of
our planning I think it made our end product better
and more effective we made sure we had used the
180’ rule throughout our filming we first of all test
filmed in a smaller dingy room and realised on the film
it looked very unprofessional so moved to a
bigger, well lit classroom which improved our filming
greatly and improved setting. Whilst we were filming
we applied our knowledge that we had learnt about
angles and shots to the different scenes which helped
us with all 4 of our knowledge applied to it. Filming we
found easy once we had got a hang of it which was a
quick process I think personally I learnt a lot with
filming because I was the person filming but as a group
we also took a lot on as well because if something
went wrong with the camera then we would all help
and when were practise filming we switched around
the group so everyone had had a turn using it.
For our real thing as we were all actors we had to
rotate and occasionally use another person to help
us film when we were all in the same scene. We
developed our filming skills a lot more after the
prelim task as we had the basics so we could then
develop them more we used hand held camera for
most of our filming as we wanted it to be an effect
on the filming like it was from a persons point of
view but we also used a tripod to balance the
camera and keep smoother filming, we used it in the
taxi as using handheld wasn’t as smooth as there
was too much movement when holding the camera
instead of it being stable. With filming for our real
thing we had also used a better camera as was our
own instead of the schools this improved our quality
of the footage and was easier using the camera as
we were more familiar on how to use it meaning we
didn’t waste time trying to figure out how to use it or
having technological difficulties. With filming again
we still learnt more even after our preliminary task
as we learnt how to film in different weather
conditions and using the tripod as we had our basis
skills we had gained from the prelim task and still
learnt more on top of it siccesfully.

5. prelim Real thing
editing
Editing our prelim task was a lot more difficult because
we had to learn from scratch how to use the software
(adobe premiere pro) we simply had to learn by
clicking different buttons and seeing what worked
eventually we all got a hang of it same as we did with
the camera and everything else we were newly faced
with. Our editing we only used simple straight cuts
through the whole process but also learnt how to slow
the footage down at a certain point and add text we
felt this was a big accomplishment although the
software looked difficult to use we realised that the
simple editing that we need was quite simple to
actually do although we did have to get some help
along the way to complete the editing process. It was
very helpful to have learnt how to use the editing
software before our actual real thing as other wise the
process would have been a lot longer than it would
have needed to have been. With our prelim task we
spread the work load across all the group making it
easier to get the work done and meet deadlines it also
meant we could all add our own mix to the clip and
learn how to use the software meaning we would be
able to use what we learnt for the next task which was
making our real film opening.
We had learnt how to use the editing software from
our previous task and could now apply it to this task
and although that was easy we still needed to learn
new skills as with our editing we wanted to add more
and needed the editing to be done well to make sure
we had the professional quality to the clip because of
the different mix of people from the people in the
prelim task group to my new group it was different as
others had not used the editing software and had put
their input strongly of other places in their prelim task
so as a group we had basic editing skills so knowing
this we had watched tutorials online on how to use the
software to gain more knowledge and also asked our
teacher for help when really stuck this helped us
greatly in the editing process as we the learnt for our
selves and through other how to use software more
highly and could apply that for whatever we need it for
next. I think editing was harder for our real things
compared to the prelim task in some ways because of
needing to still learn how to do new and complex
things compared to just simply cutting but without the
prelim task it would have been a lot harder because we
then wouldn’t have had the basic skills.

6. Overall
Overall from our preliminary task to our real making of the film opening I feel
I have learnt a lot I learnt thing such as:
•Knowing what things to research and what is important to know
•How to plan successfully for where were going and doing
•Learnt how to use the camera successfully
•Use the editing software to a good level
•Use blogger, prezi and slide share successfully
•How to use new technology
•How to work successfully with the type of tasks with different kinds of
people
From the prelim task to now i realise how beneficial using something like a
prelim task can be and what aspects you can bring to different tasks and
groups.