Question 7 looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Question 7 looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In comparison to our horror product, our prelim task was a complete mess. For everyone is my group, this was the first time I had properly filmed something using a tripod and a plan. As a result of the prelim, I have learned how to do all of these things to a successful standard, which are all skills that I could use for the actual horror product As a result our footage looks disjointed, and there is no flow between shots. We also had very little planning, and we decided on what shots we were going to use moments before we shot them. Because we spoke over much of our footage, all but the conversation at the end, much of our footage was silent. Our editing was weak, this was because it was the first time I had ever used editing tools as well. Titles were all put at the beginning of the footage, and weren’t creatively placed in the footage like I did in the actual horror product. As our prelim had very limited brief (walk through a door and have a conversation) we couldn’t stamp an individual style on the footage that we shot, resulting in dull footage. I learn a great deal from the filming and editing of the prelim task. It showed me the importance of planning, using the correct shot types, and working successfully as a team. All of these things were lacking during the prelim, but were present for the horror production.

From creating our prelim I had learned a great deal about shot types. These helped me film shots in specific ways, which can add much more substance to a scene. For example, by having a low shot looking up from the victim to the killer can show his superiority and strength. The method behind using shots was lacking in the prelim, and shots were chosen due to add variety and to look good, whereas in the horror product they were used for a specific purpose.

This also links to the creation and importance of our storyboards. In our prelim storyboards were created, but they lacked detail and direction, and weren’t even finished before we started filming. For our horror production, my attitude was changed dramatically, and the importance of structuring our footage became obviously important. As a result, a great deal more time and effort was put in from the group and myself to plan our footage. By doing this, props we could decide what props we would need to collect and what costumes we would need to acquire. This was a factor that was severely lacking from the prelim, where costumes were the clothes the actors were wearing at the time and no props were utilized, as we had no time to collect them.  Filming the prelim has also shown me that lighting can have a great effect upon the mood of a shot. In our prelim, one of characters was walking down a hallway, which was brightly lit, representing his optimistic attitude. It became apparent to me from this point that lighting was important, so I planned to control lighting in our horror production. This was done crudely by using the light on a mobile phone in the shots that needed it. I also altered the colour of the bathroom in our prelim to a green tint, making it contrast with the rest of the house and its safe yellow and orange glow. Overall, the prelim has taught me that planning is absolutely vital in order to add creativity to our horror product. As our prelim proved, lack of planning results in footage that is cohesive and interesting.

Just like our prelim, we chose to cast actors who were members of our group. This was good for multiple reasons. Firstly, it made them care more about how the footage turned out, as it affected there grade. Secondly, casting members of the group would allow them to understand the group’s vision, allowing them to act on it and make a better product. Unlike our prelim, we had time to develop the characters, as well as give them costumes that could represent them in various ways (such as the killer who wears a cloak, something symbolic of the grim reaper).

As our prelim had a plot that was already given to us, we had no experience going into writing our own. This lead to some complications. While we originally had planned for Stacy to be insane and the entire films events take place inside her head, we tried to be smarter and made things too convoluted by adding children to the opening scene, as well as a boyfriend knocking round for Marie (the first victim). All of these seemed unneeded, so we cut them and focused upon just the killer and the victim (Marie) in the film’s opening scene. Luckily, our plot wasn’t too overcomplicated, and that allowed us to focus on the brutal death in our opening scene.

Finding the appropriate soundtrack for our footage was very difficult initially. I found some great tracks that would fit our footage very well, but they were copyrighted, and chances of being able to use them would be slim. Eventually some copyright free music was found, and it worked well when put with our footage. This was another skill that we had to acquire on this project, as we didn’t need a soundtrack for our prelim, so my skill at collecting the music was limited.

While I did have some experience editing from doing final product in the prelim, I had used little in the way of dissolves and sound editing. I had learnt to make titles and put together shots in a basic fashion from my prelim though, so I had some experience. I developed my skills and learned to add music to the footage, adding greatly to the final product. I also learned to put titles in the footage, and to put them in areas that wouldn’t obstruct the events that were unfolding. I also developed my use of fades so I could fade into scenes as well as out. I also applied these skills to the products audio. Overall I felt that I have taken the basic skills I’d learned from prelim and developed them into something more advanced, which added greatly to the footage.

Easily one of the biggest problems that was faced during the horror product was lighting. We had shots that were too dark for anything to be seen, so they had to either be lightened up or reshot completely. The same could be said for shots that we taken during the day (due to us missing 1 shot from our schedule), which were too bright and also had to be refilmed. This wasn’t an issue during the prelim, as we filmed during the day, but our horror production was done at night, so lighting had to be taken into consideration. Every member of the group has a job, so we had to arrange to film late on days where we were all free.

Overall since the prelim I have gained and developed many skills.  The most obvious being able to use a camera and tripod to shoot the footage. The other was learning to use editing software in more advanced and complex ways. I have also improved my planning since the prelim, and learned the importance of planning via storyboards and then sticking (roughly) to that plan. My group work has improved dramatically, and I have become far more capable at helping in the development of group ideas.  I have also recognised the significance of the correct use of shot types, as well as the importance of using the correct lighting to set an appropriate mood for the footage.