Evaluation Question 7
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When looking back at our preliminary task I am astounded at how far we have come as a group and how much I have developed as an individual. When watching our task now we believe that our it was general unsuccessful, however when comparing it to our final two minute film opening it clearly shows how much we have advanced.
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When creating our preliminary task we paid no attention at all to one of the most important elements in film, mise-en-scene. As I was new to media studies I had no idea at how much mise-en-scene could contribute to the plot and look of a film. After studious amounts of research into the 5 elements of mise-en-scene, once our prelim was filmed, we made a decision that we would have a large focus on the five elements.
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When it came to our prelim there were no props at all and we decided that we would just use whatever place was available to us for our setting (the school library), however when it came to the pre-production of our final piece we came up with a whole number of props (such as the phone and the puzzle box) which gave our piece a more realistic feel to it. In relation to setting we went through a whole location scouting process, looking at 5 different possible places where we could film and finally choosing the more aesthetically pleasing and practical place to film.
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Another element of mise-en-scene that we feel we needed to pay more attention to was costume, hair and makeup. When planning our prelim we made no comment at all in relation to the costumes of our characters, however when discussing this element for our final film we decided that although we wanted the characters to wear generally dark clothes to fit with the conventions of a thriller we wanted at least one of our character to be wearing an item of clothing that stood out, this eventually resulted in the bright bed coat that Tyler wears.
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Lighting and colour were minor concerns when it came to our prelim because all we wanted was to be able to actually see the characters, which was why it was so light in our prelim even though thriller are usually very dark. We had a completely different approach in regards to lighting and colour in our final piece. We were filming in a very dark and badly lit barn making lighting a priority. We borrowed one of Media’s lights which allowed us to effectively see the character we were filming as well as making sure that the lighting wasn’t too high key so we could fit with the conventional thriller lighting (low key lighting). In addition when it came to colours we decided on having a darker pallet of colours (as this is what is conventional for a thriller) with the exception or the red jacket that Tyler wears. This colour choice was very important as we felt that the colour red had a connotation of danger and violence to it so it perfectly fitted in with our narrative making the audience fearful before the main action has even started.
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Finally when looking at the positioning of character/objects in the frame I felt that our prelim did a rather good job at creating effective shots (although this was generally subconscious) we decided to develop on this idea by making more of an effort to highlight certain aspects for example the puzzle box being in the centre of the shot showing the significance of it. I believe that from the preliminary task to the final piece I have come a long was in regards to mise-en-scene. At the beginning I had no understanding of it and the colossal effect it can have on the audience, nevertheless I believe that now I have a full understanding of how to effectively go about using these five elements to the group’s advantage.
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At what time of editing our preliminary task I have a very basic understanding of editing and this can be clearly seen in our prelim as it is not of a very good standard. From the beginning we knew that we were going to be using Final Cut Pro, because we knew that we needed to find software that was easy to get the hang of. We decided that we were going to edit our prelim also on Final Cut Pro so we would be able to have more practice on it. Using Final Cut Pro to edit along with watching YouTube videos and general playing around with the software meant that myself personally and our group as a whole were able to develop our editing skills to the point where we felt that our final piece had a very professional aura to it and really highlighted how far we had advance as a group from our prelim stage to now.
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In our final piece we created a whole range of complex and difficult effects (like the Sin City effect) which created a hugely effective atmosphere to the film as a whole. In addition, our preliminary task we made up of a series of long lasting cuts that created a sense of calm, this went against the codes and conventions of a typical thriller so we decided that in our final piece we were going to make sure that we have more quick cuts so that we would be keeping our audience more on their toes. We also found that certain aspects of our prelim were very difficult to edit as none of us had the ability to actually fix them. For example the problem we had with our dimensions, as no of our group could fix it we decided that we would just have to leave it, however when it came to a similar problem we had when editing our final piece (due to the fact that we filmed on a series of different cameras) we were able to put our heads together and figure out the solution as a group, which in reality wasn’t that difficult when we had got the hang of it. When looking back at the editing of out prelim to the editing of our final two minute film opening it is clear that we have massively progressed as a unit. Similarly I believe that I have progressed on a personal level as I now have a wide understanding of editing whereas a few months ago I had no understanding at all.
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For our preliminary task there was a few key things that we had to include and due to our basic understanding of cinematography and the fact that, for some of us, this would be the first time we would actually be filming we only focused on getting these specific shots done. This was the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. As shown in our prelim there is little to no development of these shots, or experimentation using other types of shots (other than the exception of the close up of the hand slamming on the table). When it came to actually filming our final piece I had done a lot more research into the different types of shots and the effect that they gave, so I felt that as a group we were able to create a large variety of different shots even though we didn’t use all of them. I feel that as a result of our group feeling that the standard and variety of shots for our prelim were not at the level that we believed they could be made us go back and research and explore more in-depth the way individual shots make the audience feel allowing us to progress tremendously when it came to filming our final piece. In addition I believe that my individual knowledge had grown in the process.
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The sound for our preliminary was very poor; we had no non-diegetic sound and the diegetic sound was not a good enough quality. We had no music or sound effects in our prelim. This was as a result of not having the right level of skill to know how to add in music and we also felt that the lack of music would create tension in the audience.
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Though when looking back over our prelim we felt that it although the lack of music may create tension when it comes to specific parts it is not effective at all if it is throughout. When thinking about music for our final piece we felt that it was hugely important that we got the right type of music. This resulted in mixing two different songs to create the background music for our final piece. The music that we used made the opening feel a lot more professional and it built more tension than the silence did as we were able to position certain parts of the song to fit with what was happening in the shot, for example there is a rather loud part of the sing when Charlie opens the barn door, the music alongside this effectively makes the audience feel that whatever is in the barn is bad causing them to suddenly feel fearful of what is going to come. The process that I went through when it came to the music was very eye opening. I feel that I learnt a lot about the power of silence and that different types of music can trigger different emotions and if used correctly can be the element that actually brings a whole film together.
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In addition to sound in our prelim the only sound is diegetic sound, however it is extremely poor quality (some was very quiet, other parts were too quiet). This realisation caused us to be very mindful about the sound quality when it came to filming our opening so we made sure that we were always checking that the sound levels were correct and I taught myself how to change the noise levels of a specific clip so that if we needed to we could make the dialogue louder (however in the end this was not necessary). I believe that I have learnt that sound is hugely important when it comes to creating atmosphere and that without this important element our final piece would come across and very amateur.
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Finally I would like to talk about the process that i went through in relation to the narrative of the story and the script. The narrative of our story changed from our prelim to our final piece as we felt that we could create a more in-depth creative storyline that was better than what we originally had in mind. The idea we had for our prelim had no actual storyline behind it at all. So in thinking this we decided that we needed to come up with an idea that we could develop and turn into a really imaginative and interesting story. To create our final idea we each individually came up with our own idea for a film opening and then we told them to each other as a group and then ad we couldn’t decide which one was better we ended up writing a completely new story using different aspects of each creation. I feel that this was a very effective way to do it as it meant that we were all equally involved in coming up with a story that we were proud of and actually wanted to create. In addition this meant that we were able to change the story slightly throughout the production process as we all knew the narrative very well. As I was in charge of the script writing for both the preliminary task and our final product feel that I have learnt what needs to be in a script to make it effective understandable. The prelim script I created was very basic and had just the words that we wanted our characters to say, three stage directions and a very short undeveloped introduction. After creating this script I went on to looking at how other famous thriller films set out their script and how a typical script is written and I found that when writing the final script I needed to have a lot more detail. So as a group we created the first draft of the script, then looked back over at other previous scripts and added even more detail to it. This allowed the directors to have more of an idea about what they needed to get from specific shots and also helped the actors know what it is they need to do when acting.
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I also believe that I have learnt more about the theory side of media as when we created our preliminary task we had only just started to learn about it. Now I feel that I have improved greatly as I was able to incorporate different aspects of narrative theories into my final piece (such as Toderovs theory of the five stages or Bathes theory of symbolic codes), I have a greater understanding of audiences due to the reception theories and I now see different social groups in film in a different light now I have learnt more in-depth about the Male Gaze theory and the different representation theories. Overall I believe that as a group we have developed our abilities throughout this course, however I believe that personally I have come a very long way since the beginning where I had hardly any knowledge of any of these aspects, to now where I can confidently say that I have an extensive and in-depth understanding of what they all mean and what they bring to a film as a whole.