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

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

Throughout this task, our group felt very stressed from deadlines and work amounts at the beginning, however by the end we were really happy with our final product and the effort paid off.  I feel like I have learnt many camera skills throughout this process, and compared to our preliminary I can now pull focus on a camera. Not only this, but I have also learnt how to use IMovie and use Photoshop in more depth.

Our group also feels like we have improved working together as a team, and managing one another to make sure no deadlines are missed. Planning skills were key during this task, however our group made sure that all planning was finished before we even went out to film. This made the process a lot less stressful then it was going to be and more enjoyable.

I learnt some specific skills in my production. This includes being able to work in a team well and contribute with confidence, not feeling embarrassed of sharing certain ideas. Also, my camera skills have rapidly grown, since George and Matt have shown me how to use certain effects on the camera, and how to pull focus a camera shot. This will help me in the future if ever I have to film again, since I will know how to work a camera and IMovie to edit the shots on. We used a Nikon D800 for this task, which gave our group the opportunity  to film at 60fps in full HD too. 

I feel like my confidence has grown during this task too because I had to act in it as one of the characters. I would defiantly not class myself as an actress but it was interesting to see how our group managed with it. Furthermore, our group stuck to the 180-degree rule throughout filming our thriller opening sequence, and had to re-shoot some of the shots because many went wrong because of it. Additionally, because we re-shot the scenes that didn’t follow the rule, it has made our overall production look more professional and exciting to watch.

Continuity was also very important when filming our opening sequence because if any one of the characters was not wearing what they were wearing from their last shot taken, then it would confuse the audience on how that happened since you would not see them getting changed or moving anything about. A good example of this is when George was walking out of the house to get into the car, however it had to be re-shot because I noticed he was wearing his sixth form lanyard. It wasn’t that obvious, although any continuity errors could’ve made our production piece a lot worse.

I personally think that out thriller opening sequence is very successful. I think this because it uses short, fast paced editing which entices the audience and makes it more exciting. Also the music works really well with it and is perfectly in synch. If our group could improve on anything though, I would suggest that it would be making sure our planning was more sufficient and organized, because we couldn’t think of an idea to end our opening with so we had to re-shot a number of times and we wasted a lot of time doing it. I also like our project because it is different to the stereotypical thriller openings, and doesn’t incorporate dark woods, high-pitched string instruments and a typical chase scene. Our ideas for the sequence remained sinister and dark, yet funny and witty, which makes it more uplifting to watch.