Evaluation question 7

When looking back at the perliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to full product?

When looking back at the preliminary task we can see how much we have learnt since the beginning of our project; many of the shots on the preliminary were unsteady as our use of the tripod and camera techniques were a new experience, we did not think through what we were doing with our shots as much as we did when we were filming the final piece. There was no variety of angles or different lengths when shooting the scene, during the preliminary we stuck to middle shots and it was very basic compared to the final piece where there was a whole range of different camera work. When recording the scenes we also filmed each one several times in case something went wrong and so that we also had a selection of clips to choose from, this was not the case in the beginning where we only filmed the shots a couple of times, if not just the one clip on its own.
Lighting also differed in the Preliminary because one angle was a lot more brightly lit than the other, at that stage we wouldn’t have changed it but now we have learnt that continuity is extremely important, without it there would be a huge problem.

Editing on our film opening was done right at the end of the project, because of this we were more experienced and the cuts fitted smoothly together. We had gotten more practice not just with video but with transitions and audio as well. In the beginning editing was rough, clips didn’t run smoothly and it often looked strange when the cuts jumped to different shots. Almost no transitions were used and the sound that accompanied the scenes was patchy. Our use of match on action was basic, it worked and was good since it was our first attempt but the shots did not run as smoothly as desired.
Although it was unsteady, the editing we did do at this stage was good since it gave us practice and let us get to know the programme we would be using, if we had not done this (or other attempts at editing throughout the project) I do not think our film would have turned out very well, Adobe Premiere Pro is at times difficult to use and without previous experience it would not only have taken us a lot longer to complete but would have been frustrating to understand.

Completing the Preliminary task also taught us that we needed to keep in mind the 180 degree rule and shot/reverse shot at all time when filming, this was exceedingly important because otherwise our film would probably have been unclear. We knew when filming to keep the camera one side at all times or else the opening would not have made sense; more than once we reminded ourselves when repositioning the camera to remember what angle the previous shot was set at.