A Level Media

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in the process from it to the full product?

 

I feel that in the process from our preliminary task to our final cut of our thriller opening i have a much greater knowledge of camerashots and movements. For our preliminary task we were instructed to include 3 specific camerashots. These were: Match on action, Shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. After we had conducted research into these camerashots on what they were, my group felt comfortble that we knew how to apply them to our preliminary extract. However we also felt that we needed a few more camerashots, so we included shots like a medium close up of the patient walking to the doctors office and a two shot of the doctor and the patient shaking hands. The preliminary task gave me a basic understanding of some of the shots we could include in our opening however i was aware that myself and my group would have to be able to use a wider range of camerashots and camera movements in order for our thriller opening to look professional. A few lessons before my group began our media teacher went over some of the different camerashots and movements we should aim to include in our thriller opening. From this new knowledge my group made our storyboard and made sure we wrote what camerashots we wanted to use for each scene. This made it very helpful for us when we began filming as we knew exactly what camerashots to film and where they would go when we began editing. A few examples of the camerashots we used when filming were: an establishing shot, a long shot, a mid shot, a medium close up, a two shot, a low angle shot and a point of view shot. We also used panning a fair bit in our thriller opening to help build create realism. I felt that my knowledge of camerashots and movements has greatly improved since filming the preliminary task as alot more thought was needed when deciding on the shots for our thriller opening. For example we needed to make sure we shot a medium close up at a point that it was important for the audience to see the characters reaction, in order for us to tell the story correctly and professionally.

 

From our preliminary task to our final product i feel that i have learnt a lot about editing. Especially on Sony Vegas Pro 11, the software in which we edited our film opening on. When it came to editing our preliminary task i felt i knew the basics. Such as how to cut a clip if it is too long, how to delete sound and how to add in a title page at the start. I learnt all of this from a student in the year above me. However when Myself and Grace began editing we found it quite a daunting task as there was a lot more editing techniques we wanted to include however we werent quite sure how to approach them. We started with trial and error, just to familiarise ourselves with the software. We had soon taught ourselves how to add in text and expand clips in order to cut them shorter but there were still many things we werent sure on so we looked online and found many helpful tutorials. From these tutorials myself and Grace learnt; how to delete audio from selected clips, add transitions in between clips (such as fade), create titles and add them over the top of clips, how to add in audio and overlap many different sound effects, how to darken the lighting of the clip if needed and many other editing techniques. All of the above are techniques i had no idea how to apply to a video when making our preliminary task, however i now feel that i could comfortably apply them to any video clip.

 

Another factor i felt that i have learnt a lot about since the preliminary task is background noise and how careful you have to be when filming with a noisey background. During our preliminary task we did not take this into consideration and at 19 seconds in you can hear a ladies voice in the background, however the shot straight after that is in the same setting but it is just shot at a different angle, and there is no sound present at this moment. This is a massive continuity mistake which we discivered when we got into the editing room. However as we did not have knowledge on how to fix this with editing sotware at the time we decided to leave it in. However from this mistake i feel that my group were carefully when filming our thriller opening. To prevent any unwanted noise, we made sure we filmed our thriller opening at an off peak time at the woods. We filmed one night after sixth form so there would not bein any children or runners around and fortunately for us we only had to stop filming twice for a dog walking and some people on their bikes. Once we had finished filming we were happy that we had managed to do so without any unwanted background noise and overall we felt we had accomplished one of our aims. This made it alot easier for us to add in non diegetic soundtrack and diegetic sound effects later on in editing.

 

Another factor i have learnt since our preliminary task is that organisation and time management are key. When starting our preliminary task, my group included:Grace Suiter, Tommy Britton, Rhianna Flett and myself. However Rhianna moved groups when we began planning our thriller opening as she had free periods the same time as another group but not ours which meant that by her moving groups it allowed both groups to all be able to work with all their team members at the same time without any complications. Throughout the preliminary task there was not much planning that needed to be done however for the planning of our thriller opening there was much more information that needed to go into it. Although i felt the treatment and the filming all worked extremely well due to us working as a group successfully. Also at times we split up the research in order to cover more in less time, this was also successfully as our organisation to this was important and overall we all participated well and supported each other with the research we found. Tommy was absent from sixth form for a while so myself and Grace had to continue with the editing by ourselves in order for our final cut to be in on time but overall we successfully completed all of our work meeting our deadlines. However one of the most important things i had learnt since our preliminary task was organisation and time management with people outside of our media group (our actors/actresses). When filming our preliminary task we did not have to consider time management very much as we filmed it within the sixth form which allowed us to ask people who were on free periods if they did not mind participating, however for our thriller opening we had to organise it alot more. As we wanted to film outside of school grounds and at night, we had to find a day in which all 6 of us could make. This was proven quite difficult as most of our actors/actresses had commitments such as part time work or revision. Luckly we had left enough time when organising to get a date that everyone could make and we asked everyone in advance that they kept it free. This was a successful approach as everyone involved turned up. Thereofore i feel that my groups organisation and time managment skills have greatly improved since our preliminary task.

 

Overall I feel that myself and my group have all learnt a lot from our preliminary task to our final cut of our thriller opening. I feel that we have created a successfull final product and that you can see many improvements if you were to compare our preliminary task to our final cut. I also feel that we have worked well to get all of our work in on time and to have produced a high quality final piece. My knowledge of camerashots, editing techniques, organisation skills, team work and how to prevent continutity mistakes has grown since starting AS Media and i believe that is shown in our final cut for our thriller opening,"The Escapist".