Final Note

Dear Examiner,

All the posts are labelled as one of these; Brief, Creating My First Short Film, Evaluation, intro, making, planning, Preliminary, research. You can find all of the posts on the right>

Question 7

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

I did do this on http://www.my-diary.org/ but I cant seem to create a working link to the page, so I've copied it onto here:

Mise-en-scene

For our preliminary task, the mise en scene was simple and make-do. We did not really think about the setting other than have a vague idea of using a classroom. We only happened across the room we used and were merely lucky in the respect that it wasn't being used during our lesson time. For the film opening however, this improved greatly as we had to plan our filming spots and carefully choose our two settings. For example me and Brad actively sought out a place to film in the wood.

Props and costumes in the preliminary were also just by chance. The clothing we wore was not thought about other than we dressed the same for the next couple of days in case of re-filming. The teddy bear we used we just happened to find in the classroom we used, and we couldn't resist not using it. The same applies for the coin, which one of us happened to have with us. None the less, the film opening had a great deal more preparation. We actually thought about what props and costumes we wanted, and discussed who would bring what to the filming. We even created our own costumes by pouring fake blood over some T-shirts. However, we did still use elements of our environment as the camp site was just made up of things that we found at the site.

Storyboards

For our preliminary we made a storyboard vaguely detailing what we wanted. We stuck to this when filming but tweaked some shots according to our environment and ideas we had at the time. We also added in shots that we thought we needed. On top of this we had to come back to film extra shots such as the clock-shot too. The film opening hardly differed from this. Our storyboard outlined what we wanted but did not take into account the environment or lighting. Therefore, the storyboard is not an accurate representation of what shots we ended up using. I do not believe that there was much improvement here.

We made the storyboard for the preliminary together, making only one board but with multiple drafts. For the film opening I had the idea to each do our own storyboard and then combine the best parts of them into one. This was how our story was developed. This process, I believe, was an improvement from the preliminary as it allowed for more variation and ideology.

Organization & Time Management

The preliminary was largely organized for us by our teacher. We had a couple of lessons to plan, more lessons dedicated to filming, and then a set amount of lesson time to edit and re-film if needed. We also had a rough idea of what our story had to be about, and what shots to include. This meant that we were actually quite organized. For the film opening however, we were alone. Thrown in at the deep end. Though me and my team were a bit slow to start, we eventually got together and organized dates for filming. Filming itself was a bit disorganized, but we did it in the end. I believe, that considering me and my team generally dislike teamwork, we did quite well. However, admittedly we found ways of working around re-filming as a pose to having to reorganize another date. I can't really say whether we improved at organization or not, as the preliminary was basically spoon fed to us.

Editing

Doing the preliminary meant that I had experience at editing when I came to making my film opening, so I naturally improved at this. From the preliminary I learned the basics about cutting and positioning clips in Premier Pro CS6. I also learnt about titles in the programme and got to grips with the Audition programme too. By the end of editing my film opening I had improved at all these and was becoming confident with the After Effects programme as well. Though many of my titles are similar to the preliminary, the main title; RDO was done on After Effects.

Camera Work

We used a variety of camera shots in the preliminary which included different angles and positions. I believe we used a wider variety in the film opening as there were more shots and we used dolly shots as well. In the preliminary we were told to include certain shots whilst the film opening was entirely down to us. Therefore, I think we improved in our camera work from the preliminary to film opening.

Other

Other things I have learned from the transition include knowledge about genres and conventions, there was no genre or objective for the preliminary. Therefore, to make the film opening, I had to learn about how to attract audiences and conform to genres.

Conclusion

Ultimately,I think there was a general pattern of improvement from the transition from preliminary to film opening, and the preliminary prepared me for many aspects of the later. I was forced to learn from the preliminary and to learn for the film opening. 

Question 6

 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I used Windows Live Movie Maker and websites such as Google, YouTube, and youtube-mp3.org

Windows Movie Maker is terrible: I couldn't get the music to stop at a good time. I wish I had technologies such as premier pro, or audition at home. :)

Question 5

 How did you attract/address your audience?

I did these on Pixton. (Drag across to see more)
Part 1:
http://Pixton.com/ic:8bhg1uxb

Part 2:
http://Pixton.com/ic:is5tqp5y