Evaluation : Question 1

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

From the preliminary task to the finished production of my opening sequence I have learnt many things and one of those things is Time management. At the beginning of the preliminary task I knew it was fairly important to keep track of time, but wasn’t fully aware of time management until actually filming the preliminary task. Once I had started to edit the prelim I could see that time would be very important once creating the opening sequence to make it more effective and professional as I could see that if I had had longer to film the prelim a wider variety of shots could have been taken, and a better prelim could have been produced.

 I now knew that time would be very important during the whole process of making the opening sequence looking back on the preliminary task. To make a quality opening sequence the time we had needed to be managed carefully to fit many thing in such as research, filming and editing so as a production group we devised a diary for when where filming. The filming diary was very effective as it helped to organise each of us, and made us aware of what we actually needed to do in the time we had, as now we could structure what we needed to film efficiently. When filming we stuck to the diary quite a bit, even though we spent an extra lesson just getting some final shots. A filming diary would have been very helpful for when I was filming the preliminary task, as it helped to organise the work that I did, as well as knowing I had to stick to a certain deadline just like a director would in the filming industry.

 Time was very important whilst editing as well. During the prelim we had several lessons just to put the footage together into an actual video on iMovie whereas editing the opening sequence was slightly different as we created it on final cut. A lesson had to be used to learn how to use final cut compared to the prelim where I already knew how to use iMovie, this meant it was more time consuming. Selecting footage also took a longer time, as what we selected to put into the opening sequence needed to be really effective, clear and precise otherwise it wouldn’t look as professional when finished. Another thing that took quite a bit of time was using other software to add into final cut such as Live Type and Garage Band, as these were also new pieces of software in which I hadn’t used before, but needed to be used otherwise the opening sequence wouldn’t be as effective.

Toward the end of creating the opening sequence I could see that using different pieces of software was time consuming, so staying back for intervention sessions was needed, just to gain a bit of time to make It look more professional by including titles, a voice over and soundtrack, these wouldn’t have been completed, or would have been completed to a poorer quality as the time wasn’t there to do them in lessons as it was a bit of a rush.

 From the preliminary task to the completion of the opening sequence I can see that time was one of the biggest issues in actually completing a high quality piece of film and that steps such as creating a filming diary were actually needed to stay organised and on track of the whole process other wise time would have been lost and a less effective opening sequence would have been produced.

Another thing that I have learnt from the preliminary task to the completion of the opening sequence is the range of editing and technologies that need to be used to create a professional, high quality piece of film. For the preliminary task my production group simply used a handheld camera to film, and when looking back at the footage we chose some of it is rather jumpy, compared to in the opening sequence, we used a handheld camera as well as a tripod. The use of the tripod was effective as I could see the footage was sturdier and cleaner to watch adding to the level of professionalism. I also learnt that different types of software needed to be used to make a more effective piece of film. For the prelim our production group only used iMovie to edit the whole thing compared to the opening sequence where we used Final Cut to edit the opening sequence together along with Live Type to create effective title screens, and Garage Band to create a sufficient soundtrack to go with the opening sequence. By having a wider range of software I can see that it makes the film look more professional even though learning how to use each one was rather time consuming.

The camera was also rather important in terms of quality when filming. As mentioned for the prelim our group only used a camera. This made the footage look rather jumpy in places, and at times could even blur some of the footage; it wasn’t really of high quality. Compared to the opening sequence where we used a tripod. The use of the tripod meant that the quality of our footage improved as it was clearer and sturdier apart from when we used the camera free hand. I realised that the positioning of the camera also added to the level of effectiveness. When editing some of the footage we had used had a really good angle or shot but had thumb shots over the lense making the footage look rather blurry, not making it look professional.

The prelim was also rather hard to film, in terms of the location that we had actually chosen. The lighting was quite bad in some shots as the camera was facing outside, this meant that Sonny was seen as a silhouette, and his features weren't shown as well as they could have been, as shown in the screen grab below.

Looking back at the prelim I could see that, lighting was an issue, and that lighting when filming needed to be thought of. To change this as a production group we sat down and thought about all the places that we would like to film that had a range of natural and processed lighting, to create a better effect when editing the footage together, as well as being more aware of natural lighting making footage either look to dark or too light, so we mainly went against where the sun was showing. By learning from the prelim, my opening sequence was more effective in terms of lighting as shown below. Both characters were able to be seen clearly throughout the happy flashbacks, and the natural lighting was quite effective as it helped towards creating an atmosphere through pathetic fallacy, as the mood is being portrayed through the use of happy, sunny weather.

Overal from the prelim task to the opening sequence I think that i've mainly learnt how to develop techniques needed and recognise what needs to be changed. For instance changing the lighting, as it would have been less effective and professional to add in footage of silhouetted figures, as features and emotions wouldn't have been shown as effectively. I have also learnt that a quality level of professionalism is need when filming, for example, by using more effective technology such as a tripod it helps to produce clearer footage, which is needed to make a higher quality piece of film.