Evaluation task 7 - Looking back at my preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the product?

The difference between our preliminary task and our thriller is definitely noticeable. Looking at different Thrillers and representations of social groups in TV-dramas helped me to improve my skills in the key areas Planning and Research, Mise-en-Scene, Camera and Editing and to have a satisfactory result.

Planning and Research
One main difference between the planning for the preliminary and for the film was the time it took to plan. We had 60 minutes to plan and shoot our preliminary task, whereas we spent about 10 weeks planning and making our thriller. This vast distinction was from the lack of starting material we were provided with from our teachers, and thus gathered anything we could find. Similarly, a lot of the planning for the preliminary was already done for us as we were given a storyboard sheet which was made by our teacher. Overall, in the progress of our product, I learned how to plan the shots of our thriller, write them into a storyboard, write a shot by shot guide, and how to film the shots.

Furthermore, we had a very sufficient amount of time to complete our research into thrillers that were similar to ours, as well as past events and crimes that has happened and were similar to the ones hat took place in our thriller. This therefore allowed us to understand what sounds and shots we should have in our thriller as we wanted it to be made in the same style as other similar films, such as "The Sixth Sense".

Mise-en-Scene

As we invested more time into our product, this caused a huge distinction between the use and effect of Mise-En-Scene in the final product.

The biggest difference with our Mise-En-Scene was the setting. For our preliminary task, we were restricted to different areas of our school, and as there were many different groups recording their preliminary tasks at the same time as us, we had to make do with the area which was not already in use and this was a corridor. However, for our film, we researched many different locations that would be appropriate for our thriller and found that they were mainly either outside in dangerous areas at night, such as parks or even in the victims own houses. We also researched into crime investigations in real life and found real cases of people being murdered in forests, parks, on the street and in their own homes. With this, we learned how to use setting to affect the audience and its response on our thriller.

Additionally, the actors in my preliminary task and film were different. Firstly, there was a different group of us who shot and made the preliminary task to the thriller. My preliminary group included Gabriel, Aaron and Sam, whereas my thriller group included Gabriel, Cesare and Michel. Secondly, Gabriel and I acted in the preliminary task whilst Sam and Aaron filmed it, whereas the actors in the thriller included my father, sister and friend. For our thriller, we thought about who of the actors, that were available, would suit the role best and how much acting experience they already had. Therefore, unlike the preliminary task, we actually cast actors who also attracted our target audience. Through this process, I learned how stressful it is to cast and research into actors for a film and that things can change last minute as we had to change our location from a park to my garden. I also learned how to use costumes, professional lighting, and props to create effect and meaning. For our preliminary task, we used the natural lighting that was in the corridor, no props, and our own clothes that we were wearing that day. For our thriller, we used professional camera equipment and a range of different props, including a briefcase, crime scene tape, and costumes.

Camera

Over the year I have learned a lot about the use and effects of cameras and different shots. We used a Cannon XF305 camera for both the main task and preliminary. However the way in which we used the camera has changed vast amounts. This is proven in our preliminary task as we used basic shots, such as wide-Shots, mid-Shots and close-ups, which didn't really create the feeling of suspense and tension we wanted to create.

For our thriller, we used a much wider range of shots, including mid-close-ups, close-ups, extreme close-ups and many more variations of the basic shots. This lack of creativity in our prelim was not just because of our poor ability at this time, but because we were also limited in our shots through the storyboard that had been prepared for us in advance. For our thriller, we made our own storyboard and were able to add in extra shots on the shooting day if we had to change a few things. 

  Furthermore, as our preliminary task was simple and we had nothing to restrict us in terms of shots, it did not take us very long. However, with our thriller, a lot of the shots we used were improvised as we realised that we could see the reflection of the camera filming on the window and so were forced to change the angles in which we were filming from. This helped me to learn how to react with the camera very quickly and how to make decisions under the pressure. 

Editing

The main difference between how we edited our preliminary task and thriller was the amount of shots we had. For our preliminary task, we had around 10 shots with a total length of about 7 minutes, whereas for our thriller, we had over 50 shots, which produced around an hours worth of footage. As our preliminary task was only supposed to be around 10 seconds long and our thriller 2 minutes, this caused the difference between the two.
Another difference between the tasks was editing the shots together and making them flow and only over the past 3 months did we actually learn how to properly edit our thriller. For example in our thriller we used editing conventions of real media products such as match-on-action and cross-fade transitions. This made the thriller look much more professional and attractive in comparison to the preliminary task which looked basic and amateurish. 

Furthermore,  when organizing and discarding the shots, we found this was easy as all we had to do was remember the order of the shots that we decided on and think about what shots would make sense in what place. The only thing we found quite difficult was working out how to put transitions in and titles, and generally making it flow as this was the only thing we didn't do in our preliminary. We added extra sounds into our thriller, including sinister music to create a serious atmosphere and whispering noises to reinforce the tension. For our opening titles, we managed to add in effects of a spider crawling and a ghost walking through the title. Overall, we learned how to make our film extremely effective and managed to produce a "very good" thriller.

Sound

For our preliminary task, we did not include any non-diegetic sound as it was just dialogue. Therefore, we were not skilled at all at this part of the year in creating sounds. However, for our thriller, we included various different sounds such as mysterious music and eerie whispering sound effects. I feel that I have learned a lot in terms of sound as with the preliminary task, I did not even know how to download sound, let alone edit it. From the progression of editing the thriller, I learned how to crop sounds, make the volume fade in and out, overlap different sounds on top of each other and alter the volume of the sound. I also learned how to write the dialogue for the script and I learned that in order to avoid background wind, one should record dialogue with an extra microphone.