Evaluation Question Seven
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Preliminary Brief: Film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character. A couple of lines of dialogue must then exchanged between characters & match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule should be demonstrated.
Main Task: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes (all video and audio material must be original, produced by candidates, with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source)
Pre – production
Preliminary Task
I feel that this task seemed very simple, but to execute it as a group we found it quite difficult as there were many things yet to be learnt. As a group we were satisfied with the idea of a school boy being hit by a car and a school girl helps him. The scene was set in a classroom (school environment). As part of pre- planning, we drew up a storyboard and wrote a script for our cast. We chose to keep the location simple and easy to find, as we easily found a free classroom. However we later found out that the classroom was booked for another purpose and so we had to look for another free room immediately. It caused inconvenience as we had to complete filming but a set deadline. From this I learnt to make sure for definite if it is fully possible to use a place to film through a location recce. But luckily we did not have to re-shoot as the rest of the shots were inside the class room. We did not have many problems with filming in the corridor both as we filmed after school and not many people are about. But when we had to film in the corridor of the classroom we had to look for again, a school event was taking place around the location and therefore there was some disturbance. To solve this we asked them to be quiet for a few minutes as we explained to them it was for a media project. The better solution of this would be to film at a quieter time, but due to limited time we didn’t have the chance. Again I learnt to next time make sure that the location chosen would be available to film.
While deciding how to film each shot, we considered where to keep the camera and the character’s movements but we did however focus on the problems that could occur. As the character’s positioning changed, the 180 degree rule confused us and it wasted time. From this I learnt to think about all the possible pros and cons of each shot and think realistically rather than having a vague idea of executing the shots. We solved this issue by thinking through it and then we finally managed to put the camera at a good angle. I also realised that our pre- production stage for the preliminary task was very similar to our main task pre- production and this helped us a lot as the preliminary task was our first step. For our cast, we didn’t have the chance to look for good actors and we didn’t have time for auditions as each group was told to cast for a group. We had to rehearse a few times for each shot with the cast as they sometimes did not know what to do. From this I learnt that too much rehearsing while filming is time consuming and so in our main task we made sure not to over rehearse. Casting was an important part of our main task although we did not include our main characters in the narrative. This is because we had to show a variation of shots of a teenage gang as the rough location shown suits the type of people that stereotypically live there.
The shooting schedule helped us to make sure how much time we need for every shot. We also had a continuity sheet which enabled us to keep a record of good and bad shots, which came handy when digitizing. As we were making the shooting schedule it did not seem like we needed over 15 minutes to film one shot, but as it came to filming we struggled to stick to the 15 minute time given to each shot. This was because we needed to include some safety shots and try and take each shot from different angles. From this I learnt to realistically set times for each shot and always add a little extra time just in case an issue occurs. As we were filming there were two shots we could not do. We realised that it wouldn’t be possible to film our last shot as it was a reflection shot and the camera would be easily seen. The shot before the final shot was not filmed as well as we realised it was a similar to a shot we had done before. To solve this we replaced them with the girl walking towards the door and a tracking shot of the girl running out of the room. However, when it came to editing and digitising, we discovered that we did not record sound in the first two/three shots. This was our major mistake and we learnt to next time check if the sound is working as well as everything else, because we didn’t really think to check the sound. For the main task we did not want to make the same mistake so we ensured that the sound was working at the beginning of filming every shot.
The pitch for my preliminary task evaluation, to be honest it did not go well. The main reason for this is because I was not prepared and while speaking I was confused and lost of what to actually say. To solve this I tried my best to speak about my opinions about the task and what went well and what didn’t. However I got the feedback that I referred to very good media terminologies and can speak quite confidently. By pitching I did not only learn how to improve on it and the important things to say, but I learnt things that I could apply in future reference and if I had to pitch for anything, especially for a job. I learnt that you have to really present yourself and know what you are talking about and show the audience that you are enthusiastic about it, which makes a good pitch. Skills such as good communication, such as speaking clearly also make a strong pitch. Also I learnt that you need to be prepared and you need to really know your product inside out and this shows in the way you speak. Although I feel that my pitch was the biggest mistake I made, it was also the most important thing I learnt. For the main task I ensured I would not make mistakes in the pitch and I did this by rehearsing the pitch before.
Main Task
The pre-production stage for the main task I think was immense. A lot of work had to be put in for just planning and this made the execution and filming a lot easier. The initial decision made for the task was to make a story for our film out of song lyrics. As a class we came across many varieties of possible ways to create our story, and we chose that making a story from song lyrics would be a good idea. Individually we then researched about 8 – 10 song lyrics and think of a narrative and characters for each song. Personally I enjoyed this part of the pre-production as the idea of having song lyrics opened up many different creative ideas and concepts that could be used to make a film narrative. We were then put into our groups and discussed each other’s story ideas. At the time one person in our group was not with us to discuss with us, however we informed them later and he was satisfied with the decision. We decided that our film will be of the crime drama genre. As a group we had one main idea, but as we thought about things like location and cast we kept changing some ideas. We spent a lot of time together as a group to think about our narrative. The main issue we had after pitching our final story was that we were told that the ending of our film was too complicated and not simple. We struggled because we had gone through many ideas before and it was hard to think of another one. We even came to a solution of changing the whole story but we knew that would not be possible so to solve this we spent a lot of time thinking about a creative and simple ending. We finally came up with a good ending and then moved on to creating a storyboard. To identify the themes of our film we individually created a mood board. By doing this I discovered all the possible themes such as “death” and “gang crime” which were important to include as our genre is crime drama.
I feel my group and I performed well while pitching for our treatment, as I think it was better than my individual pitch in the preliminary task. This is because we worked well as a team by splitting the topics like target audience between ourselves. However, I personally thought we were well prepared but when it came to executing the pitch a lot of mistakes were made. For example, while we were talking we got lost for words which made us seem like we were not sure about our own film. Also we went into a little too much detail and the pitch was quite long as it was supposed to be quite short and simple. From this I learnt that next time rehearse over and over again until I am fully sure about what I am going to say and my team members.
We created three storyboard ideas before our final storyboard. I learnt that we had to keep our opening short, interesting, creative and simple and so we decided not to introduce the main characters and just introduce the location. We did not need a script as there was no dialogue. As our storyboard ideas changed, it made it a lot easier for us as a group to search and film in a certain area. As for our pre-lim task, we stuck to one storyboard. This was because in our main task we were aware about all factors more than our pre lim task as we had little knowledge. I also learnt that I was thinking of too many advanced ways in terms of our narrative and filming, which were too complicated. So I then started to think in simple and realistic ways which helped us find the perfect location for our film opening. We did a location recce which helped a lot with the storyboard. Such as, we took the shots of the location like we would film and this linked to our photo storyboard as well. This shows progression as we did not use a photo storyboard for our pre lim task and in our main task it helped. We had no problems once we found our location. This is because for each part of our location we made a list of the possible problems and risk assessments. This prepared and made us think in advance about our decision to film there. This also shows major progression as we did not think ahead in our pre- lim task which caused problems.
Whilst we did our photo storyboard, it was the chance for our cast to rehearse and they were told what they will be required to do on the shooting day. We have some cast as we wanted to show gangsters in the area, but they are not the main characters. The issues we had with this was that one of the cast members could not make it and therefore we had to look for someone else to replace her for just two photos. We found a replacement as the task was done successfully. As there was no dialogue, it made it easier for me to explain to the real cast member of what has to be done. I learnt that having no dialogue made our opening sequence a lot easier to film and it was a good decision. The shooting schedule also helped and the timings were kept for a good length as I learnt from the preliminary task to add some extra time to each shot. This was effective because it gave us time to film safety shots so we did not run out of a variety of shots while editing.
Production:
Preliminary Task:
For the production of our short film, props were not needed. The equipment we did need such as some paper and pens were already in the classroom so we just used them. There were no issues with the camera however the reason our sound was not monitored was because our sound person was not available on the filming day. This caused a lot of inconvenience to the other person and I as we had to share out his responsibilities between just the two of us. However I think personally we did quite well and we were organised which helped us to accomplish our filming. We shot a variety of shots but not many safety shots as we only had a limited time to finish our filming. This task set the basis of the start of building our production skills in many ways. For example, we had to make sure we are keeping continuity in our shots. We did this by making sure no extra props have been added in the shots and also the positioning of the characters. It is important to keep continuity as it makes more sense to the audience of what is going on. It also helped us gain creativity skills, such as keeping to the story board and trying to make our shots as effective as possible. We did this by making sure our characters did exactly what we drew in the storyboard. However sometimes we had difficulty executing some shots as I have said before, we did not think about the shots realistically enough. We had trouble using the equipment, especially the camera as it was the first time we had ever used it. For example, we did not know how to rewind the tape, and to solve this we asked for help and were shown a demonstration. This enabled us to increase our knowledge on the equipment which we can as a team and individually use in our main task. Also in our main task we had gained a lot more practice with using the equipment which shows the progression from the little knowledge we knew, to using the equipment confidently.
Main task:
For the main task we used an extra piece of equipment which was the microphone on the boom pole for sound. We did not encounter any issues with the equipment on our filming day. We were filming outside and luckily the weather was dry. However because it was quite a sunny day (and we wanted a gloomy atmosphere to go with the cinematography to link with our genre of crime drama) we had to re shoot some shots to avoid the bright light from interfering with what we were filming. To solve this we came back a later time during the day and the shots came out like we wanted them to. Like in the preliminary task I kept a record of the good and bad takes. This was because when it came to editing we have a record to refer to and it saves time so we did not have to watch the useless takes. I also kept referring to the photo story board which helped in reminding the cast what they need to do and also to remind camera how to film the shots. This was different to the pre-lim task because we only referred to the storyboard, and I think this inhibited the quality of our shots as the shots did not look realistic enough. But in our main task we were confident with the decision of the shots as we knew they were simple to film. While filming we also took some safety shots for the shots that could be possible to film another way, but as it came to editing we realised that we did not take as many as we think we did. From this we learnt not to limit the amount of safety shots as most of them could be needed.
The shooting schedule once again helped a lot as we grouped all the shots together with each part of the location. For example, for all the gangster shots, although on our storyboard the shots are all separately shown, we filmed them together. We did this because we learnt that it saves time and truthfully speaking it did. We also recorded the sound of everything you could hear in the area such as the cars and trains, so that if we wanted to include the diegetic sound with the soundtrack we had that option. This kept our options open about the sound while editing.
Post production & Feedback
Preliminary Task:
I had the role of a Director in this task and the main task. Personally I feel that I tried my best in fulfilling the role especially the first time as the main responsibilities are on the Director. The main issue I had with this task was time as we were running over schedule and started to cause panic. But this issue was later solved as we were given some extra time. I think we were given more feedback individually than as a group, especially when filming. This is because we were being taught the basics on how to take on the roles, and in our main task we had to incorporate the basics we personally know with the group. I think the preliminary task was very helpful as it was our first time and the more mistakes I have made I have learnt from.
As we were editing we were again given a lot of feedback from teachers and other students. We incorporated this feedback into our short film so that we could improve on it and make the changes we needed to. For example, we asked for some advice on which shot was better to use than another one. By doing this I learnt that from constantly asking for feedback will increase the quality of the film as they would look at it from an audience’s perspective. We also learnt how to create a title page and we included it at the beginning of our short film. Also as we were editing we realised that there was no sound in the first few shots. This was another major mistake we learnt from and made sure that a mistake like that would never happen in our main task. I wasn’t very familiar with the software either but to solve this I asked or help. For example I didn’t know how to “fade” the beginning of a shot and when I was shown, I knew that this effect had to definitely be used in my main task. We also received more feedback in our main task than the preliminary task which helped us improve our opening. I also gained the basic skills of digitizing our rushes and applying shots onto our timeline.
Main Task:
I was happy with the role of Director given to me again as I am familiar and confident with the roles and responsibilities the director takes on. My responsibilities increased in the main task as it was a larger task and I had to make sure everything went according to plan. Truthfully speaking, I did my best not to repeat the mistakes I made in my preliminary task. I did this by making sure the sound was working with the sound person and I directed the cast in a more professional manner. However in the process of the post production I learnt many new technical skills regarding the software “Adobe Premier Pro”. I used my previous knowledge which was quite basic and made it more advanced by experimenting with the effects and other functions. Personally I think post production is the best part of the whole project as everything is planned, filmed and now all is left to do is just putting it all together. As a group we gave each other feedback including other students and teachers, which helped us incredibly. Our storyboard is now a little different as we decided to re order some shots and add a few more titles for effectiveness. We did this to include creativity and to make our opening sequence really interesting.
We already had a choice of what soundtrack we were going to use, but while editing we made our final choice. This is because we wanted to keep an open choice so we could match the pace of our sequence with the soundtrack. This helped us make sure that our sound suited the whole sequence. A problem we had with the soundtrack and the sound effects of gunshots was that every time we disconnected the
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