1. Question 7
Looking back at
your preliminary
task (the
continuity editing
task), what do
you feel you have
learnt in the
progression from
it to full product?

2. Mistakes
From our prelim task:
 We thought about a story line and came up with ideas before
we gave people jobs
 We delegated jobs to people that wanted them, this way they
would be working to their full potential
Then we realised:
 We should have done this the other way around
 It would have been better to give people jobs before we came
up with the idea. For example, in our prelim task we had three
actors; two being good and one not so good who would
probably have been better at something else (e.g. storyboard,
shooting schedule etc.) So; find out people’s strengths before
confirming jobs.
 For our final piece we focused on this. We set people roles
before we came up with the idea so that we knew what we
had to work with.

3. Camera skills.
In our prelim task:
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No one in the group was very experienced at using cameras
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We had to record the prelim task with little experience regarding camera’s and how to plan a shot
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We also had to include a match on action shot and 180 degree reverse shot, this was difficult to
make look good for people who have never attempted to do this before. Therefore, because we
have practiced in the prelim task, we were able to include it in the final coursework.

When we had completed the prelim task we watched back what we had recorded and were able
to see what needed to be improved
This was:

We knew that more shots needed to be steadied and we needed to use a tripod a lot more
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We also needed to incorporate a variety of different shots
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For the shots, some of them were not central to the things that we were trying to film and should have
been done again
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We wanted all the shots to look professional and centred on the things that they were focused on
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We experimented with the camera on the floor and also got high angles and panning shots
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In our prelim task, one of the main things we had to worry about was the continuity of the film
opening, so then knew how to make continuity flow in the final piece
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When we had completed this, we then had the experience to take to the final coursework and
recognised things that we needed to improve.

4. Centred Shots.
In this shot from our prelim task the
character is not in the centre of the frame.
This shot was part of the final piece. This has a
professional looking title in the centre of the shot
and is centred well with the surroundings
buildings.

5. Editing.
Another skill that had to be mastered was the editing software
that we used.
 We used Premier to edit our film openings. When we started
editing our prelim tasks we had to learn how to use the
editing software as we went along. We did not know all the
tools that we could have used, as well as all of the audio
and editing transitions and effects so the editing was not as
good as it could be.
 When we had filmed and started editing our final piece we
new more about the software so we could use more tools
(e.g. the razor tool) and more of the audio and editing
transitions and effects and make the film look a lot better.
We were also able to use the green screen when making
film posters. This allowed us to make more professional
looking poster for our film.

6. Character Profiles.
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In our prelim tasks we did not think a lot about genres and how we could
make our film look like that genre. We were given a genre so we could not
choose. This meant we did not fully research genres and did not really know
what the stereotypes would be. For our final pieces we spent a lot of time
thinking about how we can fit conventions into genres and the things we
needed to do. This included us thinking more about mise en scène and
realising that some things are not suitable for the genre we are making (e.g. a
love story in an action-spy film)
Also with our prelim tasks we did not really develop character profiles. In our
final task we realised that this was needed and then made a chat-show style
video so the audience knew more about our characters. Before we started
filming we started looking at other characters in films we have seen in the past
(e.g. Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games). This helped as when we went
to film we knew what costumes to wear and how to play the character we
were.
We spent a lot of time talking about the costumes that we were going to
wear on the day and how we could relate them to costumes of character in
films that share a genre with ours. In the end, we decided the boys should
wear suit-like outfits (e.g. smart black trousers, tie and smart shirts with
earpieces) and the girl should wear a dress to emphasise her feminine side as
we were going against stereotype by having a female as the leading hacker.

7. Locations.
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Another major leap we made from a prelim task was
the locations and how creative we were with our
ideas. We filmed in London for our final piece
whereas we only filmed around our school for our
prelim task.
We used the iconic landmarks to help the audience
locate where we were and this enabled them to
relate to our film and the genre (e.g. red buses and
Piccadilly Circus)
We wanted some famous places such as Piccadilly,
but also we wanted some places that people didn’t
recognise to show that the chase has gone to more
uncommon places and could end very badly for the
lead character.

8. Details.
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Sound was very important to us all through making both pieces (prelim and final)
For our first piece we went for well-known songs as we thought this would be more
relatable to our target audience
This was easy to do and we were able to find some music that worked well.
For the final piece we were not allowed to use mainstream music as it had to be by
an unsigned band for copyright reasons
We had to spend a very long time looking for the right music that suited our film and
faced many problems. For our first draft many people did not like our music as it we
used two songs, so for the final draft we only used one song and concluded this
worked much better. We could cut appropriately to the action and chase of the
film much easier.
Probably the biggest leap we made was the attention we paid to titles and the time
we spent researching and designing them. We paid a lot of attention to exactly
where the titles went on the screen, the font, size and colour. Our research on titles
we had done on a previous task helped us here, as we had looked at other titles in
action films (such as Iron Man) in close detail.
Watching our prelim task back we also thought that the overall story needed to
flow a lot smoother than it did. The shots need to piece together instead of cut
away sharply. This is something we think we have strongly achieved on our final
piece.