Evaluation Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

During the progression of editing the two minute opening of my film, I believe that I have definitely developed my filming but also editing techniques as I was able to practice this and work on it a lot.  I believe that my preliminary task especially, helped me developed my skills as it was a great opportunity to try out certain techniques such as the 180 degree rule, match on action and point of view shots in order to see how they would turn out and what I needed to improve on and needed to remember while filming the real two minute opening of my film.  In the preliminary task we also tried out over the shoulder shot, which I believe turned out nicely so we then included it in the opening of my film.  To further, develop my skills and knowledge I watched numerous two-minute openings (especially those within the thriller genre, as I wanted to make sure that elements we included in our film conformed with generic conventions of a thriller) and saw how they used them in order to appeal to audience members.  In addition to this, I think that the preliminary task helped me greatly with editing as I realised that it is very important to have more than enough footage even if you think you are done filming because it may not flow as smoothly as initially thought. In addition I feel like the editing in my final product was more advanced than in the preliminary task as it flowed a lot smoother. 

Although, in my preliminary task I included shot – reverse shot, we did not do this in the two-minute opening, as we did not really include any dialogue. We did however, use over the shoulder shots as previously mentioned to enable the audience to see things from different perspectives. We additionally, used over the shoulder shots to see what the focused character was seeing/doing, allowing the audience to feel like they are a part of the storyline. For example, from the over the shoulder shot we used in the car, I think it is successful as it makes the audience feel like they are in the back seat of the car and are witnessing everything the character is doing through their own eyes.

Furthermore, I think that my match on action skills have improved a lot mainly because in the preliminary task it was a little bit jumpy, whereas, in the two minute opening of our film it turned out a lot smoother. In my preliminary task, I used match on action to make the scene where Seth opens the door (walks through) and closes it, it was helpful as it made the two different shots once edited flow very smoothly as if shot in one attempt. The preliminary task also helped with trying to get the duration of the footage right in order for it to flow again smoothly once edited (slow it down or even make it faster).  For the two -minute opening of my film however, I used my knowledge of match on action to make it more advanced, using two different examples of match on action shots.  I think, that the examples of match on action were much more effective than those in the preliminary task as we also included extreme close ups, close ups and loose frames within them to give it a more creative and interesting element.

In the two-minute opening of our film, we also tried out point of view shots as we thought it would not only allow the audience to see thing s from different perspective but also to feel puzzled and try and develop the storyline further and emphasise the fear, as they will empathise with the characters.  I feel that as a whole, looking back at my preliminary task it helped me a lot with seeing things that I needed to improve in order to bring a more professional element to it but also attract the audience. I’m glad I was able to carry out the preliminary task as I feel that if I didn’t do it the quality of my work would not have improved in the right ways.