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

Key skills

·         180* rule

·         Shot-reverse-shot

·         Match on action

·         Editing skills

·         Use shots/angles to create meanings

·         Sticking to the story

·         Appropriate shots

·         Continuity  

·         How we would put the film together

·         What it was that we were trying to achieve

·         How the camera work was going to effect the editing process

·         What shots we could do not make it so complicated  but make it look effective

As a filmmaker I feel that I have developed my knowledge of the planning process and began to understand in more detail what it takes to make a film of a high standard. Looking at other peoples thrillers made me realise what the expectations were to make something that was of a high quality. I feel that I have developed my practical skills as I had never really done a lot of filming before we started doing this unit of work. I can see that my technical skills have developed because I have had some more experience in shooting things with a handheld camera.

 

Strengths of my prelim

·         I thought that we had good continuity in the shots that we used as we kept it in the same time frame so that it wouldn’t get darker/lighter as we started and finished filming

·         Good match on action shots

·         Editing was okay

Weakness of my prelim

·         Some shaky shots

·         Broke the 180* rule on a number of occasions

·         Didn’t use any music to make our prelim effective

·         Didn’t really make much sense. Because we didn’t really have a good storyline to go on.

Skills I have developed

·         Filming- made sure that I had the shots as steady as possible

·         Editing- being able to use the MAC’s to edit and develop shots to make it into a film that flows smoothly. For example when Courtney is walking down the corridor and the camera is cutting back to me the shots are joined together smoothly and have no odd shots where it diverts from the storyline.  

·         Continuity- I made sure that my continuity was good because if it wasn’t then it would disorientate the audience and make them feel very confused. For example there is a big window when Courtney walks through the doors and into the corridor. It’s very light. The continuity would have been bad if it was suddenly dark when she walked past the window before she went into the room.

·         180* rule- I broke the 180* rule as I didn’t consider it when planning my shots in my shot list

·         Shot-reverse-shot- I didn’t use any shot reverse shots because I didn’t feel that it needed it at the time of filming and I couldn’t really see where it would fit in with my thriller. 

·         Match on action- I didn’t use and match on action shots as I felt that it wouldn’t really fit however I can see where it could have gone to make my thriller more interesting.

 

 

When learning that we were doing a thriller, I started to think more about what I was going to do and why I was going to do it. For example I had an idea of someone being chased in a forest but then I realised that it was very cliché and not the best idea to do. I then moved onto planning the ideas that I had. Planning was difficult because I had to have reasons for why I was doing things and why certain shots were relevant. However I thought about the shots that I was going to use and what meaning they had to the thriller so I changed some of them around when I started filming. For example I wanted to do a shot where I pan around the house and make Kieran look like he was in a dream state however I figured that this wasn’t the best shot to do as it wouldn’t look good and it would be difficult to pull off as I didn’t have the right equipment. I wanted to get as much planning done as possible before I started filming so that when I started I wouldn’t be wasting time trying to figure things out and mess up the continuity. I found that in some films the continuity was off and it was really noticeable so I decided to do it all at night as I felt that it was a creepier way of showing a ghost.  I already had a plan for the editing and this would be helpful when doing the editing after I finished the film as I already knew what I wanted to do. This would help me as it meant that whilst I was filming I could remember what shots I wanted and where throughout the film.

 

How successful is my opening?

I think that my opening was successful because it had the desired effect on the audience. I wanted people to feel uncomfortable when watching it and from other people’s reactions I would say that I successfully did this. I feel that it was a good try for my first film production and I feel that I could have improved a lot as I could have done a lot better. I could have improved my steadiness of my shots and also making the editing sharper as it wasn’t very well executed. This is apparent when looking at my audience feedback because they said that it was good and it gave them the thrill that they wanted. They stated that they thought that it was really good and made them feel on edge and this is what I wanted to create so in my mind that means that It was successful.