Thursday, 26 April 2012

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

The titles used in the Preliminary task, in comparison to the final product, were very boring and plain:

As you can see, the title from the bottom picture, taken from the final product, is much more interesting and exciting, in terms of font, colour and style.


The camera was very shaky in some parts of the Preliminary task:


As you can see, the bottom picture is a lot more steady and clear, as I decided to use a tripod for my film.


The lighting used in the Preliminary task was extremely good:


We decided as a group that natural lighting looked more realistic and was generally better to use for our final product.



The acting in our final product was much better and more professional, as in the Preliminary task, the acting was not taken very seriously, and one of the characters kept laughing:


The acting in our final product was taken much more seriously, and I believe that the acting was good.



In the Preliminary task, my group accidentally broke the 180 Degree Rule:



This is how we broke the 180 Degree Rule in our Preliminary task.


This is an example of the 180 Degree Rule that we did not break in our final product.



Issues encountered in Preliminary task

When filming the preliminary task, I decided to include dialogue, a mistake that I had learnt from when filming my final product. I allocated one day of filming for the preliminary, again another mistake, so had to make do with what I managed to film within the one hour and a half that I had. Because of this, the actors in my Preliminary task kept forgetting their lines, and making up their own, so the story got confusing, as one actor would ask a question, and the other's response would be irrelevant. 
Like I stated above, I only allocated one lesson of filming, so only had one hour and a half to get enough shots for a two-minute clip. Also, as I only decided upon one lesson of filming, I was not able to go back and correct any mistakes that I had made, e.g. the 180 Degree Rule.
My group and I decided that filming each character saying their lines individually, and filming them at Mid-Shot whilst zooming in would be very effective, and would look impressive. However, when we showed this to our teacher, he did not like this idea, and we all agreed that he was right, as it did not look good at all. It became very predictable and boring.
When filming the female walking to the male's 'office', there is a very over-long shot of her feet, which is extremely shaky and wobbly. This was due to inexperience and rushing to get all of the filming done. I learnt from this mistake and decided to use a tripod in my final product, and as you can see from the pictures above, the tripod helped as the final product looks much better.

Examples of Improvement made in Final Product

When planning Virus X, my group and myself decided that it would be a good idea not to include any dialogue for a number of reasons, one being the editing problems that we encountered with the Preliminary task due to dialogue. This made the entire production look much better and more professional. 
I allocated, at first, a week of filming, then if at the end of the week, I hadn't got enough footage, I would use another week. I managed to get everything that I needed to create a good opening sequence during the first week, so got an extra week editing. I was also able to go back and fix any mistakes that I had made whilst filming, e.g. the texting scene, the sun was too bright so you could not see the text. I re-filmed it, and it looks much better.
I had done a shot list before-hand, so when I started filming, my group and I knew exactly what shots we wanted, which sped the filming process up, and we managed to include a wide range of variety when it came to different camera angles. There are many used in the final product, and it looks very good.
When filming the Preliminary task I decided not to bother with the tripod in a lot of instances, which made it look unprofessional, and not very good. When filming my final product, I used a tripod for every single shot, which made it look so much better and tidier. It also added to the professionalism of the final product.

What skills have you improved upon or gained over the course of this project?

The main thing that I have learnt over the course of this project is how to use a camera correctly to film professionally, and how to make best use of a tripod. I have also learnt that you need to allocate yourself a lot of time to film, as that takes more time than editing, in my group's case. I have also learnt to carefully plan what you want to do and set a target of what you want to achieve during each lesson. Finally, I have learnt to always think about what you're filming so it doesn't break any rules, or doesn't contain any continuity errors.

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