1. Question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task
Click to edit Master subtitle style
what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?

2. During the preliminary
tasks I learnt the basic
elements of filming. I
learnt things such as the
180 degree rule, which
initially we broke and had
to re-film, which gained
experience and provided a
learning curve. I also learnt
a lot about shot types and
variations, and what a shot
connoted and lastly
through the preliminary I
learnt briefly how to edit,
but not in depth.
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3. This was all crucial in being able to film
the Thriller. If I hadn’t of learnt key
filming aspects such as the 180 degree
rule, it would’ve been a crucial error
within the thriller film. My ability to
film has improved greatly since the
preliminary. The prelim was the first
time I’d ever filmed anything or used a
video camera, so it was really about
learning how to film and the different
shot types, however by the time I
filmed Angel Café I’d learnt a lot more
about filming and camera
shots/techniques and felt a lot more
confident to try/take numerous shot
types for the action.

4. I also learnt a lot about planning. During
the prelim, we put in a lot of planning;
therefore when we filmed although we
were side-tracked to some extent with
new ideas/inspirations which slightly
changed our production generally we stuck
to the plan. However during the first shoot
of Angel Café, there had clearly not been
enough planning put in. The areas in which
it didn’t work (location, character and
lighting) hadn’t been thought through
specifically enough, and after the shoot I
had to then do a lot more planning, and
find a different location and character in
order to make the opening work. However,
I’m glad that the first shoot went wrong, as
it enabled us as a group to be much more
specific when planning, and also to during
the re-shoot be very precise and not have
any errors, making our second shoot much
better, as we learnt from our mistake.
• http://youtu.be/2VGanq-ReE0
http://youtu.be/_9mNW8IKVY8

5. This lead to me learning a lot about how to work
constructively within a group. Luckily, all the people
in my group were good friends, which eliminated
any arguing. However, we all had to learn to listen to
each others ideas and make compromises. For
example, during the film if someone wanted to do a
certain shot that nobody else did, we would shoot it
anyway and let them use it. With the initial basic
planning we all took each other’s ideas on board,
and then would come up with something that was
based on someone's idea so that everybody had a
fair and even contribution and their ideas expressed
within the planning. The shoot was difficult to
arrange as we shot in Bungay, and only I live near
there so it was difficult for everybody to be free and
able to get there/back however, we managed to
work around it and I had to make sure with my boss
we could use the café and my Dad was able to act,
and Kaya was before we got the go ahead to film,
but managed to work around this.
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6. With regards to identifying an appropriate
soundtrack and title we worked together
completely. Although I was editing alone
and Alex and Emily were editing together,
we decided to use the same soundtrack and
film name. We researched into Thriller
soundtracks, and looked at soundtracks that
were used within other thriller openings.
For example, Harry Limes soundtrack which http://youtu.be/GXWnA7zlGjo
acts as a personification of Harry Limes.
Bearing factors such as this in mind we
wanted our soundtrack to be a crucial
tension raiser and part to the film. The title
‘Angel Cafe’ was the name of the original
café we filmed at, we decided to call the
film that as the idea of ‘angel’ creates
strong irony.
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7. My individual contribution was the location, as its
where I work so I arranged it/ got the permission. I also
arranged the two actors, as my dad played the part of
Adrien and my friend Kaya played the part of Darcie.
However, on every other aspect we worked together,
apart from the edit which was all my own contribution
as I edited alone.
I felt that the audience feedback I received was very
helpful. There was a slight element of constructive
criticism, mainly in making the ending more
emphasised. The audience feedback on a whole was
better than expected, and I think that the film was
defiantly targeted at the right audience, and those who
watched it seemed to really enjoy it and I received very
positive feedback, and from this I conclude that the
audience was able to relate to the character like I
intended and that they were able to follow and read the
film, and found they were hooked and wanting to know
what happened next.
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8. The strong weakness of my production
is that we weren’t able to use the final
shot that we wanted too. We wanted
to do a high angle shot of Darcie in the
freezer but were unable too, due to
lighting and space in the freezer. The
strength is defiantly having a strong
target audience, as I know from other
research that our target audience use
the cinema/online viewing most
frequently and another strength is the
plotline, as it has so many different
routes that it could go down after the
opening, which hooks the audience – a
defiant strength.
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9. Finally, the most important thing
that I’ve learnt about filmmaking
that I didn’t know before is
preparation and planning. These
are crucial in order to have a
successful film, which is
something that our group learnt
through two different shoots.
Also, to take as many shots and as
much raw footage as possible,
because its good to have footage
to play around with when editing
and to be able to choose the best
possible shot.
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