Prelim - Self Evaluation.

Self-evaluation

Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?

I worked with Melanie Woodward and Jack Beeson. Jack took on the role of filming all the shots that was included in our clip. Melanie was the secondary actor, where she played an interviewer and a dead women. We were assigned a genre where i had to pick out a random genre from a hat. Our chosen genre was thriller, which my group was all content with but we all knew it would be a challenge to film and make sure it is not being perceived as too horror; which for that we could not include blood. We all discussed the basic outline of our story and made sure we kept with our theme to the fullest throughout the whole clip, the key was not to be too over the top and in your face and to create a tense atmosphere so we could make it clear to the audience that our theme was thriller. 

How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take into account?

To initially plan our sequence, we made a storyboard in which we made a variety of different scenes and discussed where we would put the shots that were given to us to make the scene more effective, we also made a script to make sure we all knew what we had to say and at what particular part of the scene to say it at. We had to think about what we would do throughout the prelim task to make sure that our thriller did not come across as horror at all, as we was told previously told before that it was easy to convert into a thriller into a horror. We thought about lighting and the location of where we would do the filming as it had to be relating to our genre all the way through. We also used a Prezzi presentation to document the filming and the storyline to show how we had planned and used a time in the preparation process.

What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?

We used the school video cameras and tripods to film and complete our task that we was given. To create a tense and shocked atmosphere in the final scene where Mel is lying dead on the floor and i am sitting next to her rocking back and fourth which already creates an uneasy atmosphere but myself and my group wanted to create a even scarier atmosphere that I came up with the idea of using strobe lighting from our phone to create this atmosphere effectively which i think was a success. Finally we edited it on computers and premier to finalise and perfect the last scene.We added in some sound effects and video from YouTube, which enhanced the original footage and made it seem more like a thriller.

What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?

We needed to make a tense and dramatic atmosphere which was very challenging thing to do because a lot of our shots consisted it being outdoors and as we was limited with time, we had to film during the day and most days it was bright and sunny and not overcast which we hoped it would of been. We had to find the perfect places to film too as we had to be in the right setting to convey our genre. When we was shooting, we had to find good lighting while filming the interior scenes and where about it was and where would be best to film, we had to shoot many scene more than once for multiple reasons like something did not look right or we started to laugh; but once we took the roles more seriously, we got it done with ease and it was also easier to film. When editing, i found it extremely difficult as when i had previously used premier, the scenes was already ready, whereas this time i had to find the correct scenes we wanted to use in the final product and also i did not have to use any effects before whereas this time i had to because without the effects, then we would not of been able to create the genre we was aiming for.

How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently? What did others say about your production?

Overall i think the final product worked well. I was content with the end result and most of the feedback we received from our peers was positive when presented our work to the class. If we had more time, i would have liked to film in a different location and i would of preferred for all of our group including myself to commit to filming in the evenings when it was dark, as that was the main aim of our group, for it to be dark. Also i would of made the script much better and full in content because we had written a basic script and the rest was improvised, which now looking back was a bad idea as it took a lot of time to decide what we should say as i did not know which therefore wasted a lot of time and then resulted in us losing out on crucial scenes. I also found that it was hard to truly understand the plot of our sequence was, as our dialogue was limited and people that viewed it, did not understand what it was about. We assumed blindly that everybody would understand but it resulted in being in confusion. I think our group worked well together and we could easily select roles in the task. I was pleased with the shots we achieved to get however although we did not capture all of the shots required, i was happy with the ones we did film.

What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?

I learnt a lot from doing this task as it really showed me how difficult it is to film the perfect shot and how many details and aspects need to be thought about and included in the sequence. It has definitely helped me feel much more confident and comfortable with using the premier software which will be useful for future references when being tasked with using this software again. It also made me realise that i need to use my time more wisely when filming, editing and when we was in the preparation stage. Instead of messing around and not keeping on task, i need to be on top of everything and make sure i take all of it more seriously, and also to jump right in with planning as we did not do much planning. Although in saying all of this i really enjoyed making the video and was happy with the outcome.