media

1. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you
feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the
full product?
In my preliminary task I did no research into genre conventions what so ever and just came
up with an initial idea and continued to just plan out the filming and then film the opening.
However, for my main task I did lots of research into drama conventions to make sure that
my film followed the main conventions.
Drama research for main task.
In my preliminary task I did very little planning and only produced a non-detailed brief
storyboard and it didn’t show a very detailed and full structure. I just came up with one idea
and began planning and filming it. This meant that during the filming of my preliminary task
I was unsure about where I wanted my actors to be positioned and how long I wanted each
shot to go on for which made the filming hard for both me and my actors. I didn’t want to
make this same mistake again, therefore for my main task I did much more planning and
created many more in depth scripts, storyboards, shot lists, production schedules, floor
plans and I even did some film analysis of already made films so I could create my films
similar to ready-made drama films. At the beginning I also wrote down all of my initial ideas
and expanded on one of them fully.

2. Planning for preliminary task
Planning for main task

3. In my preliminary task I set my film opening in the school as it was available when I decided
to film my prelim during one of my media lessons. This didn’t look very good as due to the
narrative of the film, it should not have been set it a school, it should have been set in an
office block or a run-down building. On contrary, during my main film task I thought much
harder about where to film my film opening in order for it to match the drama film
conventions to make the opening look more realistic and professional and so that the film
matched the narrative. The school setting also had lots of background noise as there were
many students around, however I knew that it didn’t matter in my main task if there was
background noise as I would be cancelling out any sound and putting in the voice over.
However, for the argument scene, I made sure that there was no background noise before I
started filming.
Preliminary
Main task

4. In my preliminary task the two actors that I used were two boys from my media class. The
reason I chose them is because they were available in the classroom for when I wanted to
film my preliminary task. However, I do think that they both played the roles well although
in a real situation I would have had the roles played by older actors to make it more
realistic. In my main task I thought much harder about which actors I would use. I knew that
I would need one male and one female. I used two students from my sixth form who I knew
were both good at acting so that my film opening looked professional. However, if I did have
the chance to do my main film opening again I would use older actors.
For my main task I planned in advance what I wanted my actors to look like and what
costume I wanted them to be in. I did this to ensure that it matched the narrative and my
film opening looked professional and well planned out and so the characters came across to
the audience how I wanted them too. It also meant that I could show the actors what my
idea of costume would be so they could wear it and make sure in advance they had suitable
clothing. This is different to my preliminary task as in that my actors just wore what they
happened to be wearing that day and not what the characters they were playing would
actual wear.
Planning for costume Costume used in main task

5. For the music in my preliminary task I didn’t think out what to have in much detail I just
searched on YouTube for some royalty free chase music and chose the first I found which
sounded suitable to fit with my clip. In contrary for my main task I put in much more time
and effort in to find some pieces of music which really suited the film opening and matched
with the narrative as well as supporting drama film conventions and representing the mood
and feeling of the characters even more to the audience. This was shown to be worthwhile
as when I asked my target audience for feedback many of the comments were how they
enjoyed and liked my choice of music and sounds.
The only prop I used in my preliminary task was a silver case in which just happened to be in
the classroom I chose to film in and I therefore used it as the case of money. In my main task
I had all the props I was going to use and when I was going to use them planned out exactly
before I started any filming at all. This was so that when I came to filming I had everything I
needed and didn’t realise that I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do due to one of the
props not being there.
Props for preliminary task Props for main task
I also learnt about lighting between my preliminary task and my main task and managed to
change the lighting between my two videos accordingly. In my preliminary task some
moments were very dark making it very hard for the audience to see the characters facial
expressions or what was happening at some points within the film opening. However, in my
main task I was much more careful about the lighting to ensure that it looked exactly how I
wanted it to look to the audience when it was complete. In some parts of my main film
opening, such as the last scenes when the girl wakes up in bed, I wanted it to be dark, but I

6. made sure that I placed various lamps in the correct places so it could be seen to be dark
but the actress could still be seen clearly.
Another skill I believe I have learnt in the progression from my preliminary task to my full
product is the editing process. In my preliminary task the editing I did was very basic as I
knew little about the premiere pro software. However, when it came to producing my main
product I knew how to use premiere pro much better because of the practise and
knowledge I gained during the production of my preliminary task. Therefore, I could expand
and do more with the editing when it came to my main film meaning I was able to do much
more with the editing such as the rewind and speeding up scenes. Doing these scenes
meant that my film opening could end up looking much more professional and be more
effective and enjoyable for the audience.
During the progression between my preliminary task and main task I also believe that my
organisation skills have improved a lot. I have realised that managing time is essential in
order to complete the work. For my main task I produced a production schedule and a shot
list so that every step of my film production would run smoothly and so I knew exactly what
I was doing and when so I was able to arrange with my actors before when I needed them
so I knew they would definitely be able to make it. I believe it also helped me with
deadlines. With my preliminary task I didn’t organise anything, all I did was come up with a
script for my task and then filmed it, and as a result I struggled to get everything done in
time and as a result I was very rushed. Therefore due to my production schedule I was able
to keep up to the deadlines and keep everything up to time.
The main skills I have gained throughout the process are on premiere pro. At the beginning
when I was doing my preliminary task I needed help from my teacher and peers, and when
it came to my main task I managed to create my film opening successfully on premiere pro,
efficiently and independently. I also gained certain skills with the equipment I used during
my film production such as being able to use the cameras as I had never used one of the
school cameras before my preliminary task.
The improvements I would give to myself are to use older actors to represent the characters
I wanted to represent them to match the narrative even further. Using older actors would
also support drama conventions as drama films are often based on adults rather than
teenagers. In the future I would like to learn how to use ‘Adobe after effects’. I didn’t use
this software in my production and I haven’t used it before, however, I would like to teach it
to myself through asking teachers and using YouTube videos as I believe it will bring good
opportunities for me to use in the future, such as when I complete my music video in A2.