Evaluation Question 7

1. Lookingback at yourpreliminarytask,whatdoyoufeel youhave learntinthe progressionfromitto
the full product?
I createdmypreliminarytaskatthe verystartof the yearand wasunexperiencedwiththe equipment
and software thathadto be used. Iall so had to learnaboutthe range of differentshotsyoucantake
and how you take themfor example,close up,longshot,canted angle etc. to learn how to take and
use the shotswe createda technical shotshownearlieronmyblogthis got me usedto workingwith
the equipmentandhowto take the shots inthe mosteffective way. We hadto create a shortfilmin
groups of 3 or 4.
I chose to do a horror at this point because I thought it would be the most fun and it was around
wintertime whenwe hadto create the preliminarytaskwhichmeantwe werelimitedtodaylightand
therefore having a dark setting would be most appropriate. From using the dark setting for my
preliminarytaskIleantthatformymaintask I shouldchose alightlocationasthe lighteningneedsto
be well lit in order to be appealingto the audience. I set my main task in the day so that everything
was well lit and you could see the screen clearly.
Whenmakingmy maintask I changed mytechnique fromwhenfilmingmypreliminarytask suchas I
onlydidone filmingdayformy preliminarytaskbutfor my maintask I arranged 3 to 4 daysto filmif
neededthisensuredthatIwouldcapture everyshotat the rightangle withminimal continuityerrors
by doing this is helped me improve the selection of shots I had to choose from. This helped and
improvedmymaintask as I had lots of shots that I couldpick and choose fromand leave outsome if
I decided they weren’t needed.
For boththe preliminaryandmaintaskIcreateda storyboard,I got the practice withcreatingitfrom
my preliminarytaskhoweverwhenitcame to the maintask I decidedtocreate a shot listthiswould
thengive me a betterunderstandingtohow I shouldtake the shotsto match mystoryboard.I clearly
labelledeachshotinchronological ordersothatIdidn’tmissanyshots.AnotheradjustmentIdidfrom
my preliminary task to my main task was creating an animatic this is a series of shots from the
storyboardputtogethersowe getaroughideaonhow are filmwouldlookonvideowhenitsplanned
out,thisalso helpedwiththe myeditingskills and how the transitions between shots would occur.
For my main task I carried out a much more thorough and detailed research into the genre of a
romcom independent film this allowedme to see how real media products conform to stereotypes
andcodesand conventions Iwasthenable todecidehow Iwouldlinkmyshots together,ithelpedme
decide whattechniquesIwoulduse suchasfade inandfade outasit quite subtle andcalmcompared
to my preliminary task we used canted angles and quick cuts to make the audience on edge.
In my preliminary task I chose a font that was easy to find and looked scary and did not think about
how it is represented or what connotations it has however when It came to making the main task I
wantedto make the titlesrelatedto the filmand show some representationIthinkI done thisquite
well by creating a font that represents the iPhone texting font which shows my film is modern and
involvestechnology.Alsodue tounexpectederrorsbynotleavingenoughtimetofilmourpreliminary
task we had to compromise and add a lot of text at the start so that the audience could understand
whatwashappeningIdidnotlike thisideabecause if theaudience cannotreaditintime orlookaway
for a bit theymay miss somethingoutand the filmisthen not self-explanatory.Inthe main task the
whole product continues to explain what is goingon through the use of parallel editing there is also
not much textto readyand the onlypart the audience mightreadisthe textinghoweverif theymiss
whathasbeensaiditisself-explanatoryinthenextshotwhenthe maleantagonistanswershisphone.

2. Another improvement I feel I have met from filmingmy preliminary task to my main task is that the
audio is corrected to the right sound you would gear it at if you were there or it is increased to
emphasis an exact point for example the hair dryer is turned down so that it does not shock the
audience andso that youcan hear the sound track where as the lipstickaudiowasincreasedsothat
the audience couldhearand see whatshe isdoingover the soundtrackso that more than one sense
is being used which will get the audience more engaged. Whereas in the preliminarytask I was still
quite unexperiencedtopremierproanddidnotknowhow toadjustsoundandthereforesomesounds
such as the baby crying seem unnatural because they are too loud or to quite where they shouldn’t
be for example as the female protagonist is getting closer to the baby the crying should increase in
noise.
In my preliminarytasksome cutshad to made so that it justwentto dipto black because there were
parts I forgotto filmseveral timesandthe onesI did filmhad errors such as the shadowsof the film
crewsowe decidednottouse theminmymaintaskIpositionedthe filmcrew andthe actorsinaway
so that it looked like the audience was watching it in first person rather than looking like there was
evidence or someone filming the product.
Overall Inowfeel confidentusingthe softwareandequipmentandIfeelthatif Iwastocreate another
product it would improve againand again. I would use a series of different camera angles and shots
to give different effects and represent characters in different ways. The planning and practice I had
from the preliminary task contributed to the main product.