Question 7

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

The learning curve I have experienced in media has been huge. All of the aspects have been large factors to apply or treat as a rule to the edit, the shoot, and the planning.

To start, maybe one of the most important rules is the 180 degree rule. This was enforced during the filming of the preliminary task and all three shoots of the thriller opening. When finished filming the preliminary task and got onto editing, we had realised that we needed to shoot some more footage because we had broken the 180 degree rule. Continuity was then therefore an issue. We had to wear exactly the same clothes, and have everything exactly how it was the day before.

Leading on from this, shot reverse shot and camera angles were of utmost importance in media. If you don't plan the shots by either creating a shot list or a story board then you are gambling your shoot and the time you have used may have been. wasted completely. The importance of a range of camera shots, is to show your ability and skill when using the camera. It also improves the look of your film because it highlights different aspects of your film, whether it be the dominance of a character through a low angle shot or a facial feature via an extreme close up.

The importance of a cliffhanger was noted when we were editing the preliminary task. We had a clear cliffhanger, and it was memorable. However in the thriller opening, we had a choice as to what our cliffhanger was. It could have been the girl taking the money out of the till, or the man locking her in the fridge. I think it was good to have been able to have that choice of cliffhangers, rather than having one and not be happy with it. I am happy with our final cliffhanger, we have involved 3 major moments in the film; Adrian entering the cafe, Agnes stealing the money from the till, Agnes getting locked in the freezer by Adrian.

Appropriate titles are also important. To have silly titles would have made our efforts look poor and make them look amateur, however by having professional consistent titles, this sharpens the film and gives it an edge. Involving titles like 'Produced by...' 'a film by...' 'sounds by...' and the actors name, makes it professional. The titles are a feature that complete the final cut. Without them, it would look a little empty and unprofessional.

One thing I did find challenging was shooting the footage with three people (including myself) and editing with it being just Alex and I. I found helping each other out frustrating because our edits were very similar and therefore needed to avoid repeating what I had already done to my footage to Lauren's. Our thrillers are independent and quite different but it was still a personal challenge.

This is the footage we didn't use. FOOTAGE

We didn't use this, because of several reasons; The male actor, the location, the lighting, the camera angles/shots.

The male actor was to young for the kind of character we were going for. He was also to slim. We realised this when we tried to edit our material, instead of using shots of both the male actors, we only used one, we completely disregarded this material.

The location was too small. Despite generic thriller having enclosed small spaces involved in them, this space was not at all big enough. We struggled to fit the tripod into the room. This affected the quality of our camera shots and limited us to very few spaces to place the tripod.

As mentioned before in previous questions, lighting was a huge issue in the first thriller shoot. It was winter, so it got dark early, we were not in a well lit area, which meant we had to somehow create non-ambient lighting which was impossible. So filming inside was our only option. When we filmed our other shots for the second and third times, it was January/early February and therefore it was lighter in the evenings, we also were at a different location, the area was well lit as we were in the middle of a town and we had access to reflectors and a powerful torch.

The strengths of my production are specifically the camera shots chosen in the final edit. We chose a great range of filmed shots, ranging from low angle, close up, tracking, etc. I think the choice to put the film in Black & White and make it a noir thriller was one of the best ideas. It washes out the unwanted colour of the mise-en-scene. After asking a few people their opinion on Noir or colour, a majority of the vote was noir, so we went with our target audience's opinion.

The weaknesses of my production are the focus of the camera in some of the shots. In some shots we zoomed in, instead of moving the camera closer which means that the shots are a little blurry.

The most important factor I have learnt about film making is the importance of planning. If I'd have planned the shoot properly the first time around, we wouldn't have had to have filmed 3 times, maybe only 2. It came down to not posting about the cast and changing the location on the second shoot. Also we had to travel quite a long way to reach our locations which meant they were harder to get to. A thorough plan means that your shoot will run smoothly and to plan. If i was to repeat this then I would set the location first and the actors and build my project around those factors. Changing the location and the actors half way through the filming was hard to adapt to.

I have learnt so much from this project and hope to continue to learn more and more for the rest of the course.