Looking back at  your preliminary task, What do you feel you have  learnt in the progression from your prelim to the full product?

Question 7

Progression from Prelim to Final Product:

Pre-Production:

Before creating my prelim, I had very little knowledge of the techniques to do with filming such as knowing the type of shots I could use and the type of angles I could film. However, I was taught some basic knowledge on the techniques that can be applied and the researched on the rules of filming. I first learnt about the 180 degree rule in which the camera has to stay on one side of the axis for every shot in the scene between two people. I also learnt and researched on match cutting to get a better understanding on how a shot can be cut to a different shot effectively. Before starting to film our prelim, we decided on creating a storyboard by taking pictures on a camera as it would be very helpful when beginning to film and it would have made us much more organised. However, as a group, we were at a disadvantage due to the amount of time we had and so, we were not prepared on organising any props to help us when creating our video. If we did take this into account, it would have made it easier for an audience to gain an understanding of what they are watching. Despite this, we had good use of lighting as we were planned to film during mid-day when it was bright and so, mad good use of this when filming our shots.

Production

The filming process went very well as we had our storyboard from the pictures that we had taken by camera to follow while taking shots. We were also given a little script from a soap drama to act upon however, we had made amendments to the script and to the type of characters to be played in order to get more of a conversation and relationship between two characters so that we were able to add more use of match cutting. My main role in the production was to act as a character in the prelim, however, during the process of filming, I suggested ideas on the types of angles we could use for our shot, the way in which a shot was tracked in and out despite the fact that we already had a storyboard. This was because I had felt that our storyboard of our shots was very basic and attempted to make it more complex by using different techniques of camerawork. Although, we were at a slight disadvantage as we had not been organized or prepared on the elements of mise-en-scene for our prelim. We had not prepared on getting any vital props and costume such as a doctors white uniform or any medical equipment. If we had taken this into account, it would be easier for the audience to understand what is occurring in the scene and give them slight impressions. Therefore, we used our initiative and worked with what we had such as an empty classroom with a table and computer to give the audience an impression that it was the doctors office.

Post-Production

The editing stages for my prelim was very simple and easy to do. I was firstly introduced to the software of Final Cut Pro which is used for editing and adding all the shots together. It was very simple for us to edit our shots as we counted down before we had stopped recording to allow us to have time when to cut out of a shot when editing. Putting all the match cuts together, gave a better understanding of the relationship between characters and presented a good use of technique to the film. We also added sound to our prelim by using Garageband in which we created a soft soundtrack of a piano being played at the start to create a tense/emotional tone to the action behind it.

Analysis

After mentioning each stage of the production in making the prelim, there are many aspects that can be analysed. One element that can be addressed is the use of lighting throughout the prelim. As we had planned to film during mid-day, there was good use of lighting as it's shown to be very clear. However after watching my prelim video, I have seen that there is not good use of mise-en-scene. This is due to the lack of props, costumes and setting as we hadn't prepared and had a short amount of time to create the prelim. Overall, there was basic use of camera work in the prelim as we created match cuts and different shot types. There is, however, no complex use of editing such as any transitions or effects or any titles to illustrate what is occurring. There is a good use of sound at the beginning of the prelim however it's not very creative as there's only one type of instrument being played on the soundtrack. This has shown me that I did not present good use of technique into the prelim when filming and shows that there were many more things I could have used to make my prelim much better.

Development From Prelim To Full Product: Planning & Research 

From Prelim:

From Final Film

There has been a great development in terms of the amount of planning and research I did when creating my final title sequence than the prelim. When creating my title sequence, there was a great deal of planning & research I did such as researching into title sequences, looking at real movie sequences and analysing the way in which they are presented and by also creating an anamatic storyboard in which was given in more detail as it briefly explained was was happening in each shot and gave specific titles to each shot. This has shown a huge development from making my prelim as I did not do much research apart from learning the basic rules of filming and making a brief storyboard by taking pictures on camera, however hadn't explained what was happening in each shot or scene. 

Camera angles, shot types, distance & framing

Prelim

Title sequence

From the screenshots above, it is clear that there was not much use of camera work in my prelim. There tends to be many shots that have been filmed as close-ups. This shows that I had not used a variety of other different shots such as an establishing shot or possibly a long shot. There is also a mistake in the framing of my prelim between both characters in shot, this is due to the difference in height and could have been resolved if the camera was positioned at a higher level. However after analysing the camera work in my title sequence, i have seen great development.  The use of framing between all 3 characters is perfect as we are all in shot and there is no evidence of a difference in height. Also we used a variety of shots such as close-ups, long shots, establishing shots etc. Our title sequence also shows many different angles in which a shot is filmed as opposed to the prelim where the same angles were used. This shows that I have learnt from my prelim and have shown to develop my knowledge of camera which is evident in my final product 

Lighting & Sound 

After analysing my prelim, it is clear that there is good use of lighting used as we had initially planned to film during mid-day when it was bright. However our prelim is shown to have a scene where it may be dramatic and so having good, bright lighting can be seen to show a positive aspect. My final prduct also had good use of lighting in all different places we were filming in. We ensured that this was the type of lighting we needed to set the positive tone of the title sequence. Over the course of making my prelim to my final product, I have understood the importance of lighting is in a scene as it creates a certain tone and mood and have applied this knowledge when creating my final product. In my prelim, there was the use of sound that we had created in garage band in which we added at the start. However my final product is shown to have developed the use of sound even more as we used garage band and used different loops and stylised the sound to how effective it would be. My final product also has the use of a voice over which shows that our final product is more complex. The use of the voice over also allows our film to be easier to understand than the prelim 

Editing Skills

Prelim

Final Product

From my prelim, it is clear that I have developed many skills when editing. This is mostly due to the fact that my prelim had consisted of a majority of match cuts from one shot to the other and looked pretty simple. However, after looking back at my final product, I have shown that i have gained a wide use of editing techniques through the the of match cuts, using screenshots to freeze on a shot to emphasize on a character and purposely prolonging the screen time for one character to allow the audience to know that she she is the main character in the film. My final product also consists of a couple of transitions of fading in and out from a shot to make the audience aware that they are looking back at a "flashback". My final product has shown that I have developed many skills in the editing process by using different techniques but mostly shows that using many more different techniques can convey a message much easier 

Mise-en-scene & Titles

Prelim

Final product

During the production of our prelim mise-en-scene did not seem as an important aspect when filming. However as we began to start filming our shots we had realised that our characters were not presented correctly as we had not prepared on organising props or costumes. This is vital when filming, as i have understood that mise-en-scene plays an important role when filming as it helps the audience to understand the type of characters played and what they might be watching. Therefore, you can see a great change in our final product as I had researched upon the the types of costumes and props each character would wear to get a better understanding from the audience as they would be able to differentiate between each type of character. Finally, the most important development and change from my prelim to my final product would be the use of titles. As a group, we had created these titles in motion and added them to our title sequence. The use of these these titles gave a sense of purpose to our film and an understanding of what is being watched as opposed to my prelim

Development Overall

Overall, I have shown to present a huge development in the techniques of filming from my prelim to my final product. I have understood the importance of every stage of production. This was mostly in the stages of pre-production as during my prelim, I was unprepared and disorganised when planning out the storyboard and the elements of mise-en-scene (costume+props). Therefore, when creating my final product, i knew I had to research upon different title sequences to gain a better understanding of the different aspects associated with them to get my own title sequence to share similarities and have a sense of perfection