The document provides feedback on completing a preliminary film task. It summarizes that the group worked well together in pre-production but could have been more efficient with time. Filming with an iPad was convenient but resulted in low quality footage. Lessons learned include planning ahead more, being precise with shots, and focusing on establishing shots for future projects. The completed task met the criteria of filming characters in dialogue across different shots. Overall, the process taught valuable filmmaking skills.

1. Preliminary Task Evaluation
Goodfella Films
Michelle Williamson

2. How effective was the pre-production workflow
for your preliminary task?
Overall I think our group worked well together, Our work could have been
more sufficient but we each had our own final product. We all had good
ideas for a story and we all knew good ways which we could incorporate
the different camera shots and editing techniques we learnt. In the
beginning we sat down and discussed all our ideas together and I feel this
discussion really helped us to come up with our storyboard, also watching
past tasks helped us to get an idea of what would work.
Our main problem we faced was the timing, we were a bit late on
finishing our product and I feel this was due to us spending too much time
on a story beforehand – but somehow we managed to complete it on
time. I think to improve our piece we could have focused on the little
details such as the surrounding lights and perhaps picked a better
location.

3. What technology did you use to film the
task and how well did this go?
We used an iPad for our preliminary task and although it was quick and
easy to use and allowed us to quickly upload it to an iMac, the overall
quality of the recordings was not too good, the auto adjustment levels
made the lighting a distraction and the sound levels are quiet due to their
only being one directional microphone in the iPad, I also found it hard to
keep stable as it was handheld and we were unable to get a suitable
tripod for it, its size was easy, however as it was lightweight so we could
easily take it anywhere we had to film, you could access the clips quickly
and with ease and this allowed us to check our clips before uploading
them

4. What did you learn from the actual filming that
you will need to think about in the future?
During our filming we learnt that it will always be easier if you simply plan
ahead, we found that some rooms were full so we were unable to use
them and we also found that we had to make a last minute decision to use
a car boot as we thought this would be difficult so we were debating
removing it, but we solved it in the end.
We also found out that we need to be more precise with our shots and
spot the little details that could change everything (such as other people
being in the background of shots!) I feel that if I film something again I
need to ensure that I am steady, I may achieve a different outcome if a
different camera was used instead of an iPad

5. What technology did you use to edit your
preliminary task and how well did this go?
We used iMovie to edit our task and I found this
quite easy to use once you got use to it, We used it
to cut clips, add effects and sound and finalise our
film and then we easily exported it to our blog, the
whole process is made easy with a simple layout
and design that is quick to use
It looks complicated at first, but I found it
very easy to pick up.

6. How well does your completed preliminary
task meet the criteria set out for it?
I feel our piece successfully meets the set criteria as it is
continuous and fits in well. We stuck with the main
idea of “filming and editing a character opening a
door, crossing a room an sitting down in a chair
opposite another character, then exchanging dialogue”
We used different camera shots such as “two shot”
“the 180 degree rule” and a “tracking shot” We used
match on action and we regularly checked to make sure
we were getting what we needed. If we were to do it
again I feel we would focus on getting a good
establishing shot and perhaps an arc/panning shot.

7. What do you think, overall you have learnt from
the process of completing the preliminary task?
Overall I feel I have learnt a lot from shooting this small
amount of footage, I’ve learnt what skills go into
everyday movies and I’ve learnt how the editing
process works. I now know how to easily record a good
piece of footage using the correct camera shots and
then how to correctly pull them together to make a
continuous piece that works well and makes sense
I also learnt that you should always film more and make
sure you have time before speech so you can edit them
later and they don’t sound like they skip