Task 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Task 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Planning and preproduction

When we were doing our preliminary task we were given a storyboard to follow. We also had one hour to shot it and there were only a couple of different shots in it so the production of shooting script and shotlist was not necessary. Also we did not need to plan anything location wise (lighting, camera positions, etc) because we were filming in a studio, where we had a lot of space and controlled conditions. The actors we have chosen were random male and female who were free at that time.

Our main task preproduction was much more complex, because of several factors. First of all we needed specific actors. We also needed to create storyboards, because the story was created by ourselves. During our storyboarding process we needed not only to think about the storytelling aspect but also about technical things such as lighting and camera position, because we have chosen to film on the location, which meant that conditions could not be controlled as much as in the studio setting. Also, we were filming for the whole day and had much more shots, including the more complex ones, which meant that we produced additional materials such as a shotlist and a shooting script to be more organized during the actual shooting day.

Development of film-making skills and use of camera

One of the main differences and challenges in our main task production was the fact that we had no dialogues between the characters, therefore our goal was to tell the story and show feelings and emotions through action on the screen, different shots and editing. We created storyboards to help us do this. Also we significantly increased our confidence in using the camera for doing different shots and our shot quality increased a lot

This is an example of over the shoulder shot we had in our preliminary task.
We can see that it is not framed properly, the object of the shot is too far on the left of the screen and the right top hot corner is completely empty.

This is an over the shoulder shot from our main task sequence, it is framed much better, we can actually see the girl in the sequence, not only the shoulder like in the first shot. Also the screen is filled with information, we reveal a bit more of her and we can also see the stairs which indicates where she is going towards.

This is a wide shot from our preliminary task. Again, we can see that three of the hot spots are empty (especially top and b ottom right ones), there is not a lot of detail in this shot, we cant see who she is talking too. Also the blue screen in the window looks very fake.

This is an example of a wide shot from our main task. We can see that it is framed better, the killer occupies the left part of the screen, while the victim is on the right. The space is filled much better, there are more little details in the shot (such as a jock jacket, which relates to the victim)

Overall I think we were much confident while filming our main task, we were sure about the shots we needed to do and how to make them look good and professional. I think it was a bit of a challenge to make sure that our shots tell the narrative in a way that is understandable to the audience. But In my opinion our shot choices were right, so it was quite easy to make sure that the audience understands the story without the actors interacting between each other as they were in our preliminary task. It was also a bit harder to make sure that we don’t cross 180 degree line, because we had so much more action and movement, which means that we needed to position our camera more carefully

Sound

The sound work in these two assignments was very different. The main difference is of course that in the preliminary task we had dialogues, therefore we made sure that the ambience sound is kept to minimum so the dialogues can be heard. Also we did not need any music or special sound effects, because again, it was a dialogue scene, and also we didn’t know how to do it.

In our main task we used much more sound processing and recording. First of all we recorded the ambient sound (shower sound in the changing room, and ambient room tone in the corridor). We then emphasized some of the sounds, to make them more prominent and add some realism to the sequence, such as adding additional ambient noises and footstep sounds when the killer is walking through the corridor. We also added some non diegetic sound to emphasize the action on screen when she takes out the knife. We used some high pitched sounds, manipulated them to change the pitch and envelopes. Then we added some low pitched ‘boom’ sounds to emphasize the stabbing scene. We added some effects such as delay and some compression to make sure that the sounds do not clip. Overall our use of sound was much more sophisticated and complex in our main task compared to our preliminary task.


After effects

We tried to make our finished sequence look as professional as possible as opposed to our preliminary task where the main goal was to learn how to use camera and follow storyboards. We have achieved it by using after effects. Applying after effects is like using photoshop for a moving image – we can manipulate the color and add effects such as extra brightness or contrast. Basically, it can help to fix some of the mistakes that were made during the filming process or enhance the video to make it look better. We used after effects in Final Cut Pro to make our video look as if it was captured on film. We also added some color changes to make sure that the lighting in the shower room is not too warm for the scene. We also used after effects to do the titles for our distributor and movie title.