Evaluation Activity 7

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

Looking back now at my preliminary task I think I have come such a long way! I have improved on things such as panning my work, filming and editing it, and are now really comfortable doing them. Analyzing the preliminary task I have realised just how much I didn't know back then. I think for our preliminary task it was rushed and we just jumped straight into it, we didn't understand just how important the planning really is. In contrast now in the filming of Chapel Lane we panned everything out, from the storyline, script ,camera angles, setting, costume, and music. These are all things we either rushed to we could get on with the filming or didn't even think about at all. So when it came to filming for our preliminary task we we found that we were still planning while holding the camera in our hands and the actors waiting for instructions on what to do. For our film opening we had this all figured out and were ready to go once we got to our location, on which we thought a lot about, as everything ran so much more smoothly and we could actually focus on filming and getting the camera angles right. I've learnt that planning of time is crucial because you need to get everything done, but you don't want to rush it or miss anything out.

For my camera work I am so much more confident and really understand what angles need to be used where and why. For my preliminary task we just filmed in only a few camera angles, didn't really experiment to see what would look best we just lest it thinking it would be okay, we mainly used mid shots and long shots. But now for Chapel Lane we used a wide range of camera angles from, close-up, establishing shot, high and low angle and an extreme close-up. We used them because now we understood what they meant and what a difference they could make to the final product. We also now understood that the camera angles can set a mood and help get the genre across. I am much more comfortable holding the camera because I now know how to achieve really good shots such as the high angle shot to show power over someone.

As for the editing I think this  is the thing that has come along the most. When editing our preliminary task I had no clue what I was doing! I found it really difficult because I had never used iMovie before so it was really daunting to have this new software in front of you with all theses different buttons that I had no idea what they where for. I t was really difficult just to upload our footage onto iMovie, and once it was on there I had to have lots of help! It took me a while to get use to iMovie and how it works, so for our preliminary task all we did was edit the clips together and that was it. But now for the editing for Chapel Lane I grew more confident, the editing got more and more easier the more you do it. For this we edited the clips together, changed the colour to black and white, add sound, slowed down the footage and managed to put text in. As a result of this our film opening compared to our preliminary task looked to much better, professional and more interesting for the viewer.

Overall I think that research and planning is key, and the more practice you get the better the outcome.