Evaluation \ Question 7

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

Due to the shorter amount of time we had, we were much quicker making the preliminary than the thriller. Mainly because we knew the Thriller had to be done to the best of our ability and we couldn't re-do it, where as the preliminary was a warm up for what to come.
By that point we had learnt how to use the tripod but we took a while getting all the shots done which slowed the process down a tad. The camera we used was the JVC Pro HD GY-HM100 which we all knew how to use as it was very easy to film and portable.

Production
We had some dialog in the prelim but it was very basic, unlike the Thriller intro where we had none. This meant we could focus more on the shots, editing and sound rather than worrying about how realistic our script was, and in the case of our prelim, was very basic. We shot everything in the classroom which also brought the 'drug deal' scene down because it didn't look realistic at all, compared to our thriller where we tried very hard to get the best possible locations, resulting in us filming in St Pancras. In our thriller we have music that was created via Soundtrack Pro, but in the prelim we used foley sound which didn't add anything to the shots and certain sounds where slightly out of time.

Post Production
During this process for the prelim we had to quickly find a substitute for drugs which we managed to get, sugar. For the thriller we had time to plan our props which resulted in us getting sunglasses so the characters looked more suspicious, 2 bags for the bag swap and a newspaper. All that tied into the character, making it more realistic and believable, therefore catering for the audiences needs of mystery and suspicion.

Camera Skills
We used a range of shots in our prelim but we were advised to focus on close ups as that was important for the audience to follow along with detail.

These are our opening shots, a mid shot and close up.











We show her moving into the classroom through more mid and close ups

This exchange is filmed in a close up and i quite like it








Lighting
We filmed all the shots in mid afternoon, inside the college. There are a lot of windows so we had quite a lot of natural light coming in as well as lights from the classrooms, however, this did make some of the shots look weak as we had lots of light coming into one area whereas some areas of the shot had very little light at all.

The yellow arrow shows the natural light coming in from the large windows. Our framing clearly shows that whilst the character walks into a corridor with dim lighting and little natural light. This moves the focus off the character and onto the background which is something we didn't want.





For our thriller intro we framed this shot so she's walking away from the light but is still clearly visible and at the center focus of the frame.






Summary
For both productions I have learnt much more about the importance of a tri pod and how to make the best out of shots without it. I've learnt that planning ahead is very handy and persistence can pay off when i comes to getting permission to film in certain places. I've learnt that making a good thriller intro requires a good group where everyone gets stuck in to have the best possible outcome.