Preliminary Task- Evaluation

Evaluation for the Preliminary Task

Finally the planning, filming and editing is completed, and I am very happy with the finished clip. I feel as though the planning went well, and because of this, the filming went smoothly, despite the camera cutting out on the first day of filming, which meant re-filming the next day. This however, acted as a good lesson because it has taught my group and I to ensure the camera is fully charged and that we have spare batteries just in case. As well as this, costume is essential for the final task so that if we do need to re-film any parts that go wrong, the costume will not be too complex to recreate. I am also now confident at using a camera to film footage, as well as using the lighting and other equipment responsibly.

 

Some of the problems I had to overcome when editing (I have never edited before) was working out how to use Adobe Pro as a whole, as it is quite a complex software for a first time editor. However, by doing this preliminary task, I am now able to edit confidently, by adding transitions, trimming the material, adding sound effects and adjusting the sound levels, which are amongst just a few of the skills I acquired during this task. Another problem was that some of the footage we filmed didn't completely link together which made the editing slightly more complicated, but this has taught my group to get as much footage as we possibly can, so we have more choice on which footage we would like to use for the final thriller task.



Preliminary Task-Final Edit

Final Edit for the Preliminary Task

The final edit can be found via YouTube:

 

Preliminary Task- Editing

Editing the footage for the Preliminary Task



Adobe Pro was used for editing.

After filming, we edited the footage in order to put all the clips together by carrying out editing such as: adding effects, trimming the clips, adjusting the sound levels, adding sound effects and adding non-diegetic sound where appropriate. We also added straight cuts and transitions to make the final footage look as professional and sleek as possible.
 
This was my first attempt at editing, and so one of the problems that I had to over come first, was actually working out how to use the editing software. I did this by getting help and advice from the teacher, as well as fellow students who were familiar with the editing process. Learning to edit for the preliminary task will hopefully make the final task much more straight forward

I can be seen here editing the footage.

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I found editing the sound levels the hardest, as finding how to fade sound in and out, without making it sound un natural was actually a lot harder than expected however I soon managed to work out the best ways to edit this aspect. As well as this, we found that some of the footage was slightly blurred, and so naturally this had to be deleted. Also, some of the footage wasn't continuous which posed as a slight problem, however this was easily solved by using the 'trim' tool on Adobe Pro. This however acted as a lesson for the final task, as we would need to gather more footage and repeat scenes twice in order to get successful and continuous shots to make the narrative flow.



 

Preliminary Task- Filming

Filming the Thriller opening for our Preliminary Task



On the day of filming, we decided the location to which we wanted to film our thriller opening, and all the equipment required. However, half way through filming, the camera battery died, and so we only had half the footage. We also had a limited time frame to film on that day, and so we thought it would be logical to film the next day.
However, the next day we all had different outfits, and so we had to completely re film due the footage not looking consistent. This worked in our favour, as we realised the footage would look more professional with studio lighting with a black curtain behind the actors, to really emphasise the thriller genre.

The location, with the lighting and camera in position.

Due to having to re-film, we had to be even more efficient with our extremely limited time frame, as we were already eating into our editing time. So, we allocated different roles to the members in the group. I was one of the actresses in the film, along with Amy, whilst Harriet and Chloe filmed. We all had a go at filming eventually, and learnt how to use the studio lighting. We worked well as a group, deciding which camera angles would be the most appropriate as well as using the equipment responsibly.

Here I am focusing the camera.

As we had thoroughly planned what we wanted to film, this made the process sleek and enjoyable, as we had a strong direction of exactly what we wanted the film to look like which avoided and conflict within the group. Naturally, there were aspects of filming which we could only sort on the day, such as choosing how much lighting we wanted, the appropriate back drop and setting up the 'interview table'. In the long run, this saved us time as we were very well organised and flexible if something didn't quite look right or work. Another thing to note is as we were filming, we changed the dialogue slightly and some of the camera angles we had written down on the story board were adapted, as when filming we thought of camera angles which would be more appropriate for the storyline.

To conclude, after the first day of filming, the second day went well, and we were able to film multiple parts of one scene, to enable us to choose the best footage when editing that had the best lighting, or wasn't out of focus, making the editing task much easier. The only problem we faced was sometimes the camera wouldn't focus, but this was easily resolved when we got used to filming and refocusing on objects.

Preliminary Task- Planning

Planning for the Preliminary Task

As a group, we decided that the best way to start thinking about what to include in the thriller opening for our preliminary task, would be to mind map our ideas. By doing this, we were able to establish a brief story line, whilst also considering which techniques and appropriate conventions of a thriller would be best to include in our short narrative, for example the type of sound, editing, camera angles and elements of mise en scene which would be included in our footage.

Here is our mind map of ideas.

Originally, my group wanted to create a complex storyline, with a beginning, middle and end. However, we soon realised that this wouldn't be appropriate for the task in hand, as the while point was to create an opening which would portray the genre of a thriller, whilst including a narrative enigma, so that if this were to be an actual film, the audience would want to carry on watching to find out more.



After deciding that we couldn't add anymore to the mind map, we decided we were confident with our idea and the storyline we wanted to portray. So, we went ahead and produced a detailed storyboard of the camera angles and which characters would appear in each frame, enabling us to visualise what the final footage should look like and to make sure we all agreed and had the same vision with what was to be included.

 

These first 3 shots, quickly sketched onto a mind map allow the audience to realise who the narrative will resolve around.

 The next frames sketched on the mind map show the close up shots, presenting the audience with the character opening the door.

Here the characters will meet and sit opposite each other, separated by a table.

 This part of the mind map is when Character 1 will meet Character 2, they then exchange 4 lines of dialogue.

 The exchanging of dialogue is continued whilst incorporating extreme close up shots and close up shots.

 

The whole point of this task was to put into practice the skills which will be required to go into planning the actual task of creating a opening sequence to a thriller.