1) The author's preliminary task involved filming a scene in a classroom setting with a spy retrieving a magical artifact. While the classroom provided challenges, an abandoned building would have been a better setting. 2) For the full film, the author chose a rundown prison in a forest, which better fit the action genre. The setting conveyed the film's themes of camouflage and vengeance. 3) Both films featured casual costumes to help characters blend in, which the author found effective for conveying stealth. Proper lighting and shot selection were also improved upon for the full film.

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

2. SETTING
My preliminary task was about a spy whose mission was to successfully bring
back the ‘dice’ which had super natural powers without letting anyone else
get hold of it. The setting which I used for this scene was in a school
environment and in particular a class room. I chose this location as it was
realistic and the fact that the character is in a large building with lots of
places where he could get killed added an element of difficulty with the
mission and this was successful at engaging the audience with the film.
However the location wasn’t the most ideal place I would have liked my film
to feature in. ideally I would have had the scene in a dirty, rundown building
and add effects which makes the building look like it was about to fall down
so therefore if I was to re-film the preliminary task, this would be the change
that I would make.

3. SETTING
Contrasting my preliminary film to my real film opening in ‘Pure
Vengeance’ I believe that the location was better suited to the target
audience in pure vengeance. This was because it was able to conform
to the idea of real life media products for my genre of action and this
was evident through the rundown building for the prison cell in the
middle of an excluded forest. The idea of a outback building which
looks like it could have been used for torture punishments is surrounded
by greenery such as trees and this adds an effect on camouflage with
connotes what is the happen later in the film as they ‘blend’ in with
their surroundings in order to find and assassinate their target. This
therefore shows that I have learnt about choosing a setting which
relates and fits in with my film genre to make the film look more
professional.

4. COSTUMES
the costumes in my preliminary film were casual. This was because
the spy was undercover and didn’t want to bring attention to him
that he had this very high value good ‘the dice’. The actor was
wearing blue jeans with a coat and this makes him blend in with his
environment and therefore no-one will know who he is. However I
did use the coat for the main actor as this covers his top half of the
body and underneath the coat he could have weapons and
armour should he need to fight off any attackers. But by wearing
this coat it doesn’t look like there is anything unusual and this helps
with the idea of camouflage. In my film opening to ‘pure
vengeance’ I have kept to this idea of normality and this is evident
with the very similar clothing.

5. COSTUMES
 Like in ‘The Dice’ the characters are wearing dark jeans with
coats and this is all for the same reasons. The idea of not standing
out from others and blending in is also a major role in my film pure
vengeance and after seeing that this technique worked
successfully in my preliminary I have decided to do this again.
These costumes do conform to the conventions of action films
but also challenge them as sometimes actors in action films
wearing protective padding and this was not used in my film
opening. However I believe that the setting worked equally well
in my preliminary task and my film opening and what I learned
was that by having effective clothing techniques it can highlight
to the audience the points you are trying to put across.

6. ACTORS
The actors themselves were all used for specific reasons. In my preliminary
film ‘The Dice’ I used Nathan Litchfield as the character of the undercover
spy. This was because he is a normal person who wouldn’t stand out from
anyone else. Therefore this enabled me to use him as camouflage and the
fact that he doesn’t look menacing could be used to imply that the
people trying to kill him won’t know that he has the dice. The other
character that I used in ‘the Dice’ was Callum Balfour and he was
someone who was looking for the dice and intimidated Nathan into
handing over the dice. I used Callum because he looked more menacing
and was physically bigger than Nathan adding this idea of power and
strength. Neither of these characters had previously done film work which
was why I wanted to use them as I didn’t want to make the film looked
acted, I wanted it to look real and this was effective as they didn’t know
about any acting techniques.

7. ACTORS
 After reviewing the preliminary film I decided to use Callum again
as the main character in my film ‘pure Vengeance’. The reason
for this was because I believed his acting skills in my preliminary
film were good and I believed that his appearance could work
well in the action genre film. The risk was worth taking and again
the actors successfully filmed how I wanted them to. Therefore I
have learnt that by choosing actors who haven’t done previous
film work can pay off if you are trying to get that idea of ‘real life’
across.

8. LIGHTING
throughout both my preliminary and real film openings there was no
differing lighting. This was because both openings were filmed as if it was
the same time in the film and therefore there were no need for altering the
lighting. I felt that the lighting was not appropriate for the film genres and
therefore deciding not to challenge the genre conventions. I have learned
that the lighting is effective for certain genres but there is no point putting
different lighting in films which simply do not need it.

9. SHOT TYPES
the shot types in my preliminary task were relatively simple and easy for the
audience to view. These shots consisted of over the shoulder and shot-reverse-
shot predominantly and there wasn’t really a variety of different shots. This
maybe could have been improved through the use of different and fast
paced shots as this could have added an element on tension and suspense in
the preliminary film when the main character was getting intimidated by the
other man. Therefore if I was to re-film this scene I would use a range of
different fast paced shots to add tension and make the opening more
engaging for the audience. However in my real film opening I changed this
and included a range of different camera shots with fast paced scenes. This is
because I learned through the preliminary task that fast paced shots engage
the audience closer into the film and are more effective. Therefore I used a
wide range of shots in the real film opening and I learned how these play a
large role in keeping the audience interested in the film.

10. PROPS
For my film I had a wide range of props as I believed they were effective in
conforming to the conventions of action genre products. I had weapons and this was
to indicate to the audience that the film was going to contain violence and this
conforms to action films as there are usually fights and guns. However for my
preliminary film ‘the Dice’ the only prop which featured was the dice. This was
because there was no need for other props as the film was centred around this dice.
Therefore I didn’t want to include lots of props as I felt this would distract the audience
from the main point of focus which was the dice. However what I learned from my
preliminary film to my real film opening was that props should only be used when
necessary as this could get in the way of the storyline to the film and the audience
may get lost in the events of what is happening.

11. OVERALL IMPROVEMENTS
Overall I believe that the one thing I would do in future to make my films better is the
smoothness of the editing. For example in my preliminary film the editing was a little
‘jumpy’ and the scenes didn’t flow as well but in my real film opening this aspect was
a little better. However I still believe that I could make improvements to make the
editing even better. I learned about the opacity of the different scenes and how you
can layer the scenes over each other to enable smoother flow between scenes and
make the film look even better. Other elements that I would like to improve would
be the camera focus as there were a few times in my preliminary film where the shots
were out of focus and 1 time in the real film where the camera was slightly out of
focus. Therefore I believe that if I were able to perfect these issues, my film should be
a lot better quality.