Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product

1. Looking back at your preliminary
task, what do you think you have
learnt in the progression from it to
the full product?
QUESTION 7

2. The Task
For the preliminary we were asked to film a scene in which a character opening a
door, crossing a room and then sitting on a chair opposite another character in
which they both exchange dialogue. We needed to film and edit this.
We needed to establish three technical elements:
 Action Match
 180 degree rule
 Shot/reverse shot
Our preliminary scene was decided to be a scene between detective Manning and
detective Johnson a few days after the murder of Manning’s former partner, she is
invited round detective Johnson’s home for a seemingly friendly chat however
Johnson interrogates her about what really happened on the night of the murder

3. Cast
 Our cast for our preliminary was our antagonist, Detective Manning as she will be
the main character focus in the film as well as detective Johnson who is also in this
scene
 Charlotte Yates is playing Detective Manning, we felt Charlotte was fitting for this
role as she is in her twenties so relates more to the audience and has had previous
acting experience. We did not really investigate alternative actors and also did not
audition her for the role as we were positive she would be suitable for the role as
Natasha and Charlotte are both rehearsing for a play together and Natasha felt
confident she would be able to fulfil the role. Charlottes look also helped the role
as however when filming our main production, charlotte was unable to attend
any of our re-shoots which were crucial, so in result of this Natasha Walsh became
our actress, we need to transfer this when re-shooting the preliminary.
 Neal Addison portrayed detective Johnson although he has no acting experience
and was chosen more due to availability, but we felt his age and looks would be
fitting towards the character. Also his look helped the representation of detective
Johnson as he is misunderstood and also is a stereotypical middle class, mid 40’s
age. We wanted to create the representation of everyone should be given a
second chance and also the stereotype of stress driving to poor choices.

4. Use of Mise-en-scene
Setting/Location:
 The location was at my home, as we felt the kitchen was fitting for this scene. It
was fitting because the detective before his alcoholism, was successful in his
career so was affluent. This gave personal identity to our audience as they are
also affluent. It aided realism as it was a modern home and used day to day
household items e.g. a kettle, also suited our narrative and representations we
wanted to promote.
Mise-en-scene:
 I felt that the costumes could improve, as although Johnson was smartly
dressed, detective Manning was casually dressed. Genre theory suggest that
there isn’t a feeling of time, it is unclear in thrillers. So I feel she should be
dressed in the same attire as the opening sequence to follow this.
 Props that we used were daily house items such as a kettle, this helped the
feeling that the discussion was seemingly friendly. I do not see this as a
weakness in our preliminary. The kettle shot was also great practice for our
opening sequence as we used a similar shot when the male detective is
pouring his glass of milk.

5. Use Of Lighting
 We did not focus on the lighting in our preliminary, as we felt this was not
a major factor to change or set up. The preliminary was in high key lighting
so we only needed to use the house lights to produce enough. This also
added more realism as there was no additional film lighting and so made it
more realistic of it being in a home.
 As the scene was in high key lighting, this did not contribute to prepare us
for our opening sequence as it was filmed in low key lighting. I felt this
affected us as we then lost a couple of days when we were filming due to
being unsure on correct camera settings, sufficient lighting and adapting
the lighting to different environments e.g. outdoors.

6. Use of Technical Skills
 Our action match was created by the knock of the door from the outside and then on
the inside, I felt this was quite smooth and gave continuity between the two shots. The
action match demonstrated the scene of the detective visiting. Although in our first
draft of the preliminary the action match did not exist, we were confused on how to
create the action match. However the action match I feel could be improved by either
cutting from the detective answering the door to following the detective into the house
or filming the detective answering the door but from the outside view and then cutting
to the shot of the other detective entering
 180 degree rule – this was not broken and I felt this was done well, this should not be a
weakness when re-filming.
 Shot/reverse shot, this was also another strong point when filming our preliminary as
we kept to this criteria. Due to our target audience being sophisticated similar shots
could be used as they would be more interested in the dialogue and tension between
the two characters than the pace of the shots.
 From using these technical skills, this helped contribute to our opening sequence we
used the 180 degree rule.

7. Transferring skills from the preliminary
to the main production
 The preliminary gave us a greater idea on how to organise ourselves when filming, it showed that
everyone should be given each a role to stick with as this will cause less time to be wasted and to work
more efficiently. However we were unorganised with shooting schedules and booking sufficient
equipment, due to this we were limited to specific days. In the future we need to organise ourselves
more quickly to take better opportunities such as booking out equipment for more convenient days.
 Using the DLSR for filming the preliminary helped us to understand how to use the camera as it was
new to us all and this further helped us decided who was better to be in charge of the camera.
However during production the DSLR became more advance as we were filming in low key lighting the
correct camera settings need to be obtained for the best quality of film as during the first day of
filming, all footage was grainy.
 Furthermore the preliminary made us more aware of continuity, although this was a strong point in our
preliminary there were a few minor errors which could have been avoided such as the door being open
in one shot but shut in the other and also using the wrong hand to knock at the door.

8.  Sound also did not help us with our main production as we used the H4N
in our opening sequence whereas for the preliminary we used the sound
from the camera. Although we were successful without the preliminary
experience of the ADR, but it could have been stronger at times such as
actors turning away from the boom mic making it quieter.
 For skills which were unused in the preliminary but in main production is a
criticism which we need to correct in year 13. For future filming we need to
include all equipment in planning for production, so this makes it more
efficient using the equipment when in the production stage.
Transferring skills from the preliminary
to the main production

9. Reshooting The Preliminary
 There were both positive and negatives for Natasha to become the new actress
to play detective Manning.
 Positives were that although she looked young this worked in our favour as it
aided to subvert the stereotype of being at a low ranking in their respected
career because of them being at a young age. Also she was more familiar with
the character and how to create her.
 Negatives were she still did not look the appropriate age we wanted to have
for the female detective, although she is meant to be in her early 20’s, I felt
Tash still looked below this age and gave less personal identity to the audience
because of this.
 In our re shoot we had some distinctive colour grading differences, this was
due to us being unfamiliar with how to deal with this because it was never an
issue in Rook. This will be something to work on for year 13 as it is completely
unknown to me and so have a lack of experience in colour grading.