Preliminary task evaluation

1. Preliminary Task Evaluation
Filming our preliminary task became a big issue with our group. At first we planned to do a
completely different idea called ‘love at first bite’; this involved a come dine with me style
film with a twist, the host is actually a murderer. After spending around 3 hours filming this
idea at are planned location with the chosen actors (our friends Ellie and Henry), we finally
had the perfect footage and enough shots to produce at least 2-3 minutes of film. We made
sure all of the actors wore convincing costumes and set out a candle lit dinner with
champagne glasses to make the mise-en-scene authentic, we also used props such as a large
knife. I was in charge of directing the actors, telling them where to stand, how to act and
what to say, whilst Ceara another member of our group filmed it with my direction of what
shots to use. At the start due to the serious nature of our film we all found it funny and kept
laughing, although after a lot of practice the acting got better and better. We had a few
issues whilst filming with the camera running out of charge and Ceara finding the tripod
hard to use. The lighting was great as we picked a bright day to filmit on and we were able
to use the lights I the house due to it being inside. After a technical issue all of our film got
deleted and we were unable to produce this idea. Due to a strict deadline we quickly had to
reinvent our idea and filmit in school.
Our second preliminary task was nowhere near the quality of the first. This one consisted of
an interview between a detective and a thug. Due to the actors not being availed to re film
love at first bite, we tried to put filming off for weeks to try and get the same actors,
although we were finally made to do it in school by our teacher. Due to having to film it
quickly at school in a media lesson we had no chance to produce costumes or an authentic
mise-en-scene, this meant our film lacked a professional quality. We filmed the preliminary
on a winter’s day meaning that the outside shots were often to dark or the camera kept
adjusting to the lighting, this meant we had to filmthese shots various different times.
Although the bright inside lighting of the office we filmed it in allowed us to get clear and
bright shots. Due to filming in school we found it hard to find a location with minimal sound
disturbance, this meant we were limited to certain locations. We also had to crop many of
our clips due to talking in the background. I believe that this production didn’t represent our
true ability. We managed to filmand edit our new preliminary task in one media lesson,
although we faced various difficulty’s we managed to produce our filmwith the shots that
were required.
If I had to do this task again I would ensure that all of the footage was uploaded to the
computer as soon as we had filmed it, this would leave no room for risk. I would also make
sure that we used sound and lighting equipment to make sure that the shots we took were
clear and easy to understand. I know that if we were to do it again careful planning would
need to be done of the location to make sure the film was authentic and interruption was
avoided. It may also be a good idea to spend more time getting used to the equipment to
make sure we had a full understanding of how the equipment worked.