Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The preliminary task taught me about the basic skills and knowledge of media production from pre to post production. Throughout the duration of the main project I was allowed to build upon these skills and widen my technical abilities.

Preliminary Task Video

When doing the preliminary task I worked with three other students, Harry Kettins, Juliette Wileman and Abiramy Logeswaran. The brief we were given was very simple; we were to make a continuity sequence depicting a character opening a door, crossing the room, sitting opposite another character with whom they have an exchange of dialogue. With us demonstrating our understanding of techniques like shot/reverse shot, the 180 degree rule and the 30 degree rule. Although both tasks had their differences, the skills that I acquired from the preliminary task were easily transferred and applied to the main project.

Opening a door:                                                                               Crossing a room:

  Sitting down:                                                                                      Dialogue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original Location
Much smaller room, yellow/cream walls cause a 
slightly yellow tinge to it.

Pre-production:

   

Script for Pre-production video

Storyboard with Animatic photos
Clearly shows shot numbers and details about
shot including content.

Revised Location
The room is much larger, giving us
 much more space for the camera 
and allows greater shot diversity.

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Production:

Demonstration of us blocking shots
so that actors have specific information on
what we want to happen in shot

 

Script for Production video

 

 

 

Post Production:

Even though the preliminary task and film opening were on completely different levels in terms of complexity, the continuity editing was essentially the same:

One difference between the prelim and the film opening is that we didn't grade the prelim- This meant that we had to spend quite a while on getting the right look for our sequence as we were less experienced in that side of post production.

Another is that music was added to our film opening, a lot of discussion went into deciding where the most appropriate moment for the music to be introduced was. This wasn't an issue in the prelim as it wasn't necessary in the task, which added an extra challenge to post production. We chose to have a piece composed specifically for our piece as it meant we were able to control what the music conveyed.

The entire process of making our film opening has been such a great learning curve for me and has broadened my abilities dramatically. When making the Prelim I had a general idea of what each stage would entail, but didn't actually realise the amount of input needed just to complete the task on a simplistic level until I had completed the entire film opening. At the start I would say that I was an amateur at best when it came to everything from pre-production to Distribution and Marketing; but now thanks to both the Preliminary task and the creation of our film opening, I now feel like the sky is the limit as to what I can do. There is still obviously a large amount for me to learn, but I 100% look forward to it and cannot wait to get another opportunity to make a media product on this scale or possibly bigger.