Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Preliminary Brief: Film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character. A couple of lines of dialogue must then exchanged between characters & match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule should be demonstrated.
Main Task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes (all video and audio material must be original, produced by candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source)
There were many aspects of the preliminary task that aided in making the process of producing the final opening sequence of the main task because of prior experience. Taking the initial product into consideration, I reflected upon the strengths and weaknesses of the previous task and worked upon them in order to get a better outcome in the main task. The brief of the preliminary stated that we had to utilise shot/reverse shot, the 180-degree rule, match on action as well as have characters exchanging dialogue. Because of having to ensure we showed an understanding of those things, the preliminary task acted as a foundation to build skills that were then honed in on for the main task. The knowledge we gained from the preliminary task was essential, because without it we would have spent more time trying to get accustomed to the equipment rather than making our open sequence creative and of a high, professional standard.
PRE-PRODUCTION:
For the preliminary task, the pre-production was minimal in comparison to the main task due to the restrictive time that was allocated to complete the whole production. However, I still learnt some of the essentials of pre-production that consisted of creating a storyboard, dialogue script, shooting schedule and location recce. The storyboard was redrafted twice and had a large influence on the outcome of the work as it summarised the concept of our sequence and ensured that all shots were carefully planned in correspondence to the script of dialogue that had to be exchanged. The storyboard was useful as it ensured that the whole group was envisioning the same outcome, as well as being a visual reference of our shots so we could manage our time efficiently whilst shooting as we would be aware of what shots to film. For our preliminary, we kept the storyboard idea simple and concise whilst still fulfilling the brief, whereas for the opening sequence the brief had a much wider requirement so we were required to think creatively and fully flesh out an entire film idea. The preliminary helped make this easier as we were already accustomed to pre-producing a simple idea, so the pre-production for the main opening sequence wasn't much harder. The shooting schedule and location recce for the preliminary had been quite brief, although for the opening sequence we had to go into a lot more thorough detail as there were a lot more shots and we were filming on a location other than the media studio, so the location recce had to ensure that it was an appropriate and convenient environment to film in. For the main task we also had to include a treatment and mood boards, which we hadn't done for the preliminary. This meant that planning for the main task was a lot more complicated as there were more things to do, as well as ensuring that they were more detailed than the preliminary. Due to experience in the preliminary however, as a group we managed to manage our time well by delegating smaller tasks to individuals once we were all sure we had the same vision. Overall, pre-production for the preliminary made us well aware of what planning elements were necessary before filming, and this was useful for the main task to save time as we knew what to do.
PRODUCTION:
During the preliminary task, when we were filming we had the issue of disruptive sound and intrusions of people into the room which interrupted filming. We were able to overcome this by reshooting, however the time constraints of the main task meant that this was not practical and we had to make do with the shots we had. However, for the main task we ensured the we limited the initial problems of disruptions by booking the room we wanted to film in, as well as filming after school so that the chance of anyone walking through corridors was less likely, which we had learnt from the scenes shot in the corridors from the preliminary task, as we had to reshoot after school and found it was much easier. The preliminary task allowed us to learn how to avoid these problems, which was useful for the main task as it meant the mistakes were less likely to occur again, which would have happened had we done the main task straight away.
The shooting schedule for the main task was a lot more thorough than the preliminary's, which allowed us to manage our time well. During the shooting of the preliminary we were unaware of how long it would take to film each shot, but the experience allowed us to learn and implement that knowledge for our main task shooting schedule and ensure that we left an appropriate amount of time to shoot each shot. This also allowed us to have extra time to experiment with shots and attempt to experiment with shot types we hadn't included on our storyboard.
During the preliminary, we had managed time by allocating various roles to group members throughout the production. My previous experience as the cameraperson during the preliminary taught me how to comfortably set up and handle the equipment, which was beneficial during the filming of the opening sequence as we didn't have to spend any time attempting to familiarise ourselves with the equipment.
POST-PRODUCTION:
The aim of the preliminary task was to simply fulfill the brief and ensure we knew the basics of filming and editing to create something that was coherent. Using the editing software was a dramatically new experience as it was something I had never used before, so the preliminary task was useful in developing editing skills. It was harder than anticipated, and I believe that had we not done the preliminary it would have been harder to edit the opening sequence. For the preliminary we were required to edit our shots into the correct order on the timeline, and we also experimented with some effects such as dip to black and black and white effect. This helped with the main task as we then knew what most of the effects were used for, so if we were certain we wanted to implement a particular effect we didn't have to experiment as we already had the knowledge. One of the main problems during the editing of the preliminary was that when the group was not entirely present, certain members might have been unhappy with the editing that another person might have done, so in order to reduce this conflict during the editing of the opening sequence we ensured that whenever it was being edited most of the group was present. For our preliminary task, we didn't recieve feedback as to how to make our work better, but for our main task we ensured that we did. To avoid overlooking small things that may not have been noticeable to ourselves, we asked for feedback from our peers as well as our teacher. By our classmates we were told that the sound was appropriate and implemented in a good way to create suspense, however the some of the shots weren't transitioning from one another entirely smoothly, which disrupted the sequence. However, the only way we could have amended this was by reshooting, which we didn't have time for so in the future I will ensure that we take a number of good shots as well as extra shots in case original ones aren't fitting.
Preliminary Brief: Film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character. A couple of lines of dialogue must then exchanged between characters & match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule should be demonstrated.
Main Task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes (all video and audio material must be original, produced by candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source)
There were many aspects of the preliminary task that aided in making the process of producing the final opening sequence of the main task because of prior experience. Taking the initial product into consideration, I reflected upon the strengths and weaknesses of the previous task and worked upon them in order to get a better outcome in the main task. The brief of the preliminary stated that we had to utilise shot/reverse shot, the 180-degree rule, match on action as well as have characters exchanging dialogue. Because of having to ensure we showed an understanding of those things, the preliminary task acted as a foundation to build skills that were then honed in on for the main task. The knowledge we gained from the preliminary task was essential, because without it we would have spent more time trying to get accustomed to the equipment rather than making our open sequence creative and of a high, professional standard.
PRE-PRODUCTION:
For the preliminary task, the pre-production was minimal in comparison to the main task due to the restrictive time that was allocated to complete the whole production. However, I still learnt some of the essentials of pre-production that consisted of creating a storyboard, dialogue script, shooting schedule and location recce. The storyboard was redrafted twice and had a large influence on the outcome of the work as it summarised the concept of our sequence and ensured that all shots were carefully planned in correspondence to the script of dialogue that had to be exchanged. The storyboard was useful as it ensured that the whole group was envisioning the same outcome, as well as being a visual reference of our shots so we could manage our time efficiently whilst shooting as we would be aware of what shots to film. For our preliminary, we kept the storyboard idea simple and concise whilst still fulfilling the brief, whereas for the opening sequence the brief had a much wider requirement so we were required to think creatively and fully flesh out an entire film idea. The preliminary helped make this easier as we were already accustomed to pre-producing a simple idea, so the pre-production for the main opening sequence wasn't much harder. The shooting schedule and location recce for the preliminary had been quite brief, although for the opening sequence we had to go into a lot more thorough detail as there were a lot more shots and we were filming on a location other than the media studio, so the location recce had to ensure that it was an appropriate and convenient environment to film in. For the main task we also had to include a treatment and mood boards, which we hadn't done for the preliminary. This meant that planning for the main task was a lot more complicated as there were more things to do, as well as ensuring that they were more detailed than the preliminary. Due to experience in the preliminary however, as a group we managed to manage our time well by delegating smaller tasks to individuals once we were all sure we had the same vision. Overall, pre-production for the preliminary made us well aware of what planning elements were necessary before filming, and this was useful for the main task to save time as we knew what to do.
PRODUCTION:
During the preliminary task, when we were filming we had the issue of disruptive sound and intrusions of people into the room which interrupted filming. We were able to overcome this by reshooting, however the time constraints of the main task meant that this was not practical and we had to make do with the shots we had. However, for the main task we ensured the we limited the initial problems of disruptions by booking the room we wanted to film in, as well as filming after school so that the chance of anyone walking through corridors was less likely, which we had learnt from the scenes shot in the corridors from the preliminary task, as we had to reshoot after school and found it was much easier. The preliminary task allowed us to learn how to avoid these problems, which was useful for the main task as it meant the mistakes were less likely to occur again, which would have happened had we done the main task straight away.
The shooting schedule for the main task was a lot more thorough than the preliminary's, which allowed us to manage our time well. During the shooting of the preliminary we were unaware of how long it would take to film each shot, but the experience allowed us to learn and implement that knowledge for our main task shooting schedule and ensure that we left an appropriate amount of time to shoot each shot. This also allowed us to have extra time to experiment with shots and attempt to experiment with shot types we hadn't included on our storyboard.
During the preliminary, we had managed time by allocating various roles to group members throughout the production. My previous experience as the cameraperson during the preliminary taught me how to comfortably set up and handle the equipment, which was beneficial during the filming of the opening sequence as we didn't have to spend any time attempting to familiarise ourselves with the equipment.
POST-PRODUCTION:
The aim of the preliminary task was to simply fulfill the brief and ensure we knew the basics of filming and editing to create something that was coherent. Using the editing software was a dramatically new experience as it was something I had never used before, so the preliminary task was useful in developing editing skills. It was harder than anticipated, and I believe that had we not done the preliminary it would have been harder to edit the opening sequence. For the preliminary we were required to edit our shots into the correct order on the timeline, and we also experimented with some effects such as dip to black and black and white effect. This helped with the main task as we then knew what most of the effects were used for, so if we were certain we wanted to implement a particular effect we didn't have to experiment as we already had the knowledge. One of the main problems during the editing of the preliminary was that when the group was not entirely present, certain members might have been unhappy with the editing that another person might have done, so in order to reduce this conflict during the editing of the opening sequence we ensured that whenever it was being edited most of the group was present. For our preliminary task, we didn't recieve feedback as to how to make our work better, but for our main task we ensured that we did. To avoid overlooking small things that may not have been noticeable to ourselves, we asked for feedback from our peers as well as our teacher. By our classmates we were told that the sound was appropriate and implemented in a good way to create suspense, however the some of the shots weren't transitioning from one another entirely smoothly, which disrupted the sequence. However, the only way we could have amended this was by reshooting, which we didn't have time for so in the future I will ensure that we take a number of good shots as well as extra shots in case original ones aren't fitting.
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