Question 7

Question 7 Looking back on your preliminary task – What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Full Product

We started our preliminary task with no camera or editing experience, so the whole task was a learning curve for the both of us. The hardest part of filming our preliminary task was filming in the dark. As amateurs to filming, we threw ourselves into the deep end as getting the right light for the camera to pick up was extremely difficult. However, we used the lights from camera phones and torches which were enough light for the camera to pick up whilst creating a spooky atmosphere to go with the horror genre of our preliminary task. The editing of our preliminary task was tricky as the criteria for the task was very specific, for example, we had to match a door opening exactly to fulfil the match on action section of the task. As fist time editors also, this was extremely hard to master due to the complexity of the editing software and getting to grips with the preciseness of the film editing itself.  The researching stage was much simpler, we knew what we wanted to find and what we wanted to base our task around so the planning and the visualising our idea was straightforward. We then had to put our idea into writing by making a storyboard. This was a lot harder than we imagined as it was hard for other people to visualise our idea due to some drawings being very poor and inaccurate.

Our film opening now was much easier for us to get to grips with. We understood how to work the cameras now and we knew what the best shots to use and how long the shots had to be to keep the film interesting. The planning was much easier also; making the storyboards simpler and the research more in depth helped us, as a group understand what our film would look like. The final editing was simpler as we knew what we were doing and where shots and music should go. We used a range of camera equipment, such as tripods. This was to help us gain a good static shot and also help us to stable the camera for the clearest and steadiest shots. However, the hardest part of the making of our film opening was the titles and the making of the production logo. The titles were difficult because we had to find the perfect place for the titles to fit. Also we had to make sure that the names we were using weren’t too long or they would take up half the shot. The production logo was extremely challenging as Adobe After-effects was very hard to use and understand. We used a website called videocopilot.net to help us with making the logo. After one failed attempt we got to grips with the software and made a logo that was simple yet effective. The logo also represented the genre and the logo is Egyptian style and represents action and adventure.

What have you learnt from your Preliminary Task