Task 7

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


Filming our main task was a completely different experience filming our main task was a completely different experience from filming our prelim. task. The planning of the prelim task was a very easy process as we were given a set storyboard and script, which we had to adhere to. We were also given help with technical aspects of setting up the tripod and camera, such as bubbling the tripod and the colour bars on the camera. Whereas in the main task all of the planning was done by us. We had to make up the storyline and also create a storyboard, prop list, location list, actor list, shot list, shot sketches and other lists of what we would need. We also had to sketch out each shot and where we would locate the red heads in order to create he desired lighting. Another difference with the preliminary and main task was the filming time; in the preliminary task we only filmed for an hour, whereas on the main task we filmed for a whole day with a lunch break.

My knowledge of shots has widened broadly since filming the preliminary task. In the preliminary task we used a range of 3 shots, a wide shot, a close up, and an extreme close up. When we were filming this we just ran through the action in all 3 shots so we could choose what stance we wanted to put on the action. Whereas in the main task we had planned exactly which shot we would include in each specific location and how long the shot would last for. We used a range of tracking shots, long shots, close ups and extreme close up. When filming these shots we had to think about how we would edit them in Final Cut Pro and also edit things out in AfterEffects. In our main task we used a lot of additive dissolves in order to re-enforce our narrative, and to maintain suspense and realism.

Sound was also a very dramatically change aspect. In our preliminary task we only used diegetic sound that was recorded with the camera microphone. The sound recorded was most dialogue or ambient sound and there was no sound effects or music in it. Whereas in our main task the sound used was far more sophisticated, we used a mixture of non-diegetic sounds and diegetic a range of effects in order to re-enforce our narrative. We used sound effects such as drone during the ghost world and tweeting birds in order to create a sense of realism. The tweeting birds are a diegetic sound which varied sounds in the sequence. We got these sounds from Soundtrack pro and overlaid them to the different worlds in order to make the change “hyper-realistic”.

The editing is another aspect of film making I have improved in. With the preliminary task we just did straight cuts in between shots with no overlaid music and very limited understanding of what we were actually doing. It was a bit “hit-and-miss” as this was our first real experience with this editing software. Whereas with our main task we had to have a very sophisticated understanding of what we were doing, we also had to use special effects between our cuts as opposed to our straight cuts in our prelim task. This knowledge of Final Cut Server and Final Cut Pro has made the editing process much easier and has progressed my editing skills immensely

As you can see in the two photos below the vast difference in shots between the preliminary task and the main task.