Question 7

1. Looking back at your preliminary
take, what do you feel that you
learnt in the progression from it to
the full product?
By Samah Raja
Evaluation Q7.

2. Looking back on my preliminary task, I
remember that we planned and filmed it
right at the start of the school year, which
means my experience in filming and
editing was very limited in terms of using
the different types filming techniques.
Before we filmed anything I researched the
different types of shots e.g. close up shots,
medium shots, long shots, etc.

3. These are some practice
examples of some shots
that I took which helped
me to practice in terms of
gaining knowledge and
experience in angling and
taking these types of
shots. I found this very
helpful because it
allowed me to be
prepared for when it
comes to actually filming
my preliminary task and
further into the future
my horror film opening.
This is a practice shot I
captured of a medium
shot, which is effective
in film because it helps
the audience to focus
on the character as
well as some of the
actions occurring in
the scene.
This is a practice shot I
took of a close up shot,
which can be effective
when filming because
it can emphasise on
facial expressions ,
which helps the
audience to interpret
the character’s
emotions.

4. Planning wise, we further learnt how to plan out our concepts and ideas
through creating a shot list. This was effective because we were then able to
refer back to it whilst we filmed the different scenes and further allowed us
to have a taste of what we will have to do in the future when planning of
our film opening.
This is a picture of the shotlist we created for the planning stage of our
preliminary task. Each shot is clearly labeled on the top in chronological
order, with the type of shot listed below it. It then has a description of what
each scene will consist of filming wise.

5. This is an image of a mind map I created of our initial ideas.
From this basic plan, our ideas on our storyline and character
development begins to form. This was a good starting point
because we all constructively sat as a group and gave input in
all of our different ideas to include for our film opening.

6. After following our plan and actually filming our
preliminary task, I undertook some research on
continuity editing and the rule of thirds aspect of
editing. I learnt the importance of match on action,
180 degree rule and shot reverse shot.
This helped me immensely when it came to editing
our preliminary task footage together into one clip
because it helped me take into consideration
matching together each specific movements between
each shot as well as matching the eye-line of the
characters themselves.

7. As the time to film our horror film opening
starts to near, I conducted some research into
genres and the typical conventions that are
associated within the horror genre. I
researched and analysed the typical
conventions of a number of different horror
film opening sequences and investigated the
different filming and editing techniques they
used, for example spice cuts and cross cutting.

8. Here are some examples of match on
action used within my preliminary task
This shot displays a match on action shot of our character Frank walking
down the corridor. The image on the left shows a long shot of him walking
through the double doors and the shot then transitions to the image on
the right of a medium shot of him as he walks through the double doors.

9. This match on action shot of is of frank opening a door and walking through
it. Shots 1, 2 and 3 show him gripping the door handle and walking through.
It then transitions into shot 4, which displays him from the other side of the
door waling through. I edited this scene to make the shots visually transition
as naturally as possible.
Shot 1 Shot 2
Shot 3 Shot 4

10. These shots within my preliminary task are conveying the shot reverse
shot between mine and Frank's conversation thorugh an over the
shoulder shot. I followed the 180 degree rule which portrayed the
conversation to seem as if we were looking at one another. This
highlights how I am developed the knowledge of using implementing
the 180 degree rule guideline in filming which resulted in an effective
conversational scene. Disobeying the rule would consist of crossing the
imaginary 180 degree line and gang to the other side of the characters,
which would result in confusing the audience as they watch.

11. Progression Into
My Opening
Sequence

12. These images are from my actual opening, which displays an effective example of
match on action of the two characters opening the door and then being shown to
go through the doors from the other side. The transition of these cuts allow the
scene to flow. During the filming process we realised our hands on the doors did
not match the hand positioning in the transitioning shots, so to improve this we
re-filmed the scene and made sure we were much more accurate with our
positioning. I thought we conducted match on action very well in our preliminary
task so we incorporated as precisely as possible into our opening.
1. 2.
3.

13. Here we thought that the over the shoulder shot
within our preliminary displayed an effective and
clear conversational scene so we decided to
incorporated this shot technique into our actual
opening film.
Preliminary Task Film Opening

14. We used different shot, such as close up shots of the door
handle within our preliminary task. We found this to be
effective because it puts emphasise on that particular object as
it the main focus of the shot.
We decided to reflect our use of close ups in our preliminary
task and develop them into our opening sequence, where we
have used an extreme close-up shot of the text messages of our
characters’ phones.
Preliminary Task
Film
Opening

15. We decided to further develop from the shots of our preliminary task and include
a technique that we had not attempted to try before. We decided to incorporate
splice cuts into our opening of disturbing and creepy images of art work
(drawings and paintings created originally) in order to create a distorted and eerie
atmosphere within the very start of the film opening.
Panning shot of
corridor as splice
cuts occur
Some of the
images used
for the splice
cuts

16. Whilst filming in very dark locations we manipulated
the light using a light reflector, in order to make the
dark scenes more clearer to understand.

17. Overall I am now much more confident with using
camera equipment, such as the tripod to precisely
achieve certain camera angles effectively. I have also
learnt how to use a light reflector whilst filming in
order to manipulate the lighting within scenes and
further use a camcorder to film effective shots, angles
and clips.
All the planning, research and practices I conducted for
my preliminary task really helped and guided me
because I think that without the planning, research
and practice shots I would have found producing my
end product very difficult to achieve to the same
standard I have.
I also experimented with using a wider variety of shots
and angles than compared to my preliminary task clip,
which shows my growth in progression and in
confidence in.