Preliminary Vs Main Product

1. Evaluation: Question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
Preliminary Task:
When evaluating our preliminary task we identified mainly one aspect of the piece that we
felt needed improvement, which was the sound. No sound was recorded so we had to get both
actors back to record their lines separately, and while Tom’s lines were simple so his voice
was dubbed almost perfectly, Charlie’s came out as very odd due to the emphasis on his
strange character’s lines. Also, he was unable to record his voice towards the end so we
actually got someone else to do it for him, which made it even more bizarre. We like to think
that it adds to the overall eccentric vibe of the piece but it definitely didn’t sound great. The
sound issue & dubbing meant the volume levels were all over the place as some of the voices
were unintentionally louder than others, such as the loudness at 0:41 and quietness at 1:29. At
around 0:57 noises and speaking can just about be heard twice under the characters talking
which wasn’t meant to be there. The picture below shows where we missed out fades on the
end and beginning of music.
Reflections:
This was another mistake we’ve noticed that happened a few times, as we were filming in a
glass conservatory. There was this one where someone is in the kitchen and got seen through
the glass doors.

2. Lighting:
Again, we had trouble being enclosed entirely in glass windows because when the sun came
out or went in the lighting was changed drastically. Most of the time the lighting was
standard but since we were filming throughout a 5 hour period it was very noticable at some
points.

3. Mise-en-scene:
Most of the mise-en-scene is near perfect; the layout is similar and believable enough of that
of a restaurant but we did leave a script out visibly. It may not be a very big thing or that
noticable but it’s still unresponsible and makes it less realistic.
Main task improvements:
Sound:
We managed to break a part of the microphone during filming as it was dark and our main
character was running (should’ve realised it was a safety hazard) but fortunately we had
already gotten all of the sound we needed so there was no dubbing this time, thankfully. This
also meant that the volume levels were a lot better, although some parts we made purposely
quieter or louder, for example when the ‘monster’ screams at the end, the photo below
a=shows that we turned the volume up for that extra scare.

4. We learnt how to add fade effects onto the music downloaded from the YouTube library,
shown below. It made it flow a lot better.
When filming with the phone, it caused static to be recorded through the microphone but we
noticed this straight away and so lowered the volume of the clip and when we put the music
over it, it was unnoticeable.
Reflections:
While setting up this shot we realised that Rhianna and I could been seen in the mirror while
filming so ducked down. However, we were using torches to create artificial light so a beam
is visible but we decided that it was acceptable as it could be interpreted as the girl’s light
beam. We didn’t get anyone else in any shots who weren’t meant to be through careful
planning and placing people in certain positions.

5. Lighting:
We actually had to start filming earlier than we had initially planned so it was still light
outside. We combatted this problem with boarding up the windows
The boys were told to open the door as little as possible but basically failed so you can see a
little window light, although dim.

6. We used torches to create light, as said before, and it created nice effects with the shadows.
Below it shows her own shadow almost creeping up on her. Most of the lighting is yellow
toned from the walls but we think it’s deceptively creepy. It also makes the house appear
older.
This shot demonstrates nicely how the torch lights up certain bits while keeping darkness
everywhere else.
Mise-en-scene:
We got loads of old dolls and toys and placed them all around the ‘main room’ to add
creepiness. We kept everything quite bare in the corridors in which the girl was running
through to keep the ‘main room’ memorable and extra creepy.

7. Evaluation:
We were more aware of problems while filming our main task because of the problems we
came across during our preliminary task. We looked out especially for the sound and it turned
out successfully, especially compared to the preliminary. ‘Drowning’ has been massively
influenced by our preliminary task and helped to prevent us from repeating the same mistakes
in it. Over time we have also improved our technical skills, such as editing (fades, video edits
and transitions etc) but also camera skills and knowledge of positioning everything.