Evaluation Question 7

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

When comparing our preliminary task to our final draft of our opening sequence, I can clearly recognise the skills that we have learnt along the way. We have come from producing really basic shots and editing skills to producing a very successful psychological thriller opening sequence that conforms to the codes and conventions of a mainstream thriller opening. I would argue that we have progressed purely down to research and practice.

Our understanding of mise-en-scene elements such as costume, voice/tone, lighting and so on has widened as the course has gone on. Within our preliminary task we merely focused on meeting the brief and including all the shots that we needed to, such as a shot reverse shot. In contrast, we put a lot of editing when location scouting, designing costume mood boards, finding props with connotational value, finding appropriate actors, finding light sources and the overall appearance of our film in general. This is a product of the research on the Thriller genre and film openings. Completing textual analysis' on thrillers such as Psycho, The Secret Window, and Shutter Island ,focusing on mise-en-scene and cinematography really helped us to further our knowledge an understand how to express the genre.

We used Final Cut Pro to edit our preliminary task as we did for our opening sequence. However the editing skills within the two extremely contrast . Within our preliminary task we used very basic transitions, which we believed appeared interesting. However when it came to editing our title sequence we learnt that we could do a lot more with our editing in terms of transitions and framing. . The editing software was relatively easy to use, once you'd had some practice.

The only shot sthat we used within our preliminary task were the 180degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot. We did not experiment with over shots as it wasn't on the brief. However, within our final opening sequence, we used a variety of shots which we had discovered when researching, including; extreme clos up shots, panning shots, worms eye views, shot reverse shot as we enjoyed this shot in our prelim and believed it would look effective in our office scene, and many more. Our cinematography skills have intensely improved since completing our preliminary task.

Sound within our preliminary tasks was extremely limited. The only sound included was diegetic sound of our dialog, footsteps ant the slam of the door, we did not experiment with sound effects or music, as we focused on cinematography. Whereas within our opening sequence we included soundtracks, sound effects of the door opening, footsteps, voice overs and the diegetic sound of dialog, and the pill dropping into the water. Our final opening sequence reveals the skills that we have developed with music and sound effects.

 Our dialogue within our preliminary task was very basic and not exactly encapsulating, whereas the dialogue within our final draft of the opening scene was intriguing and has the effect of the audience wanting to know more.

We only used one location within our preliminary task. However, in our final film opening we used multiple locations , Holly Wood Forest, King Georges Park, my bedroom , and the office. We learnt that in order to keep the audience interested, a variety of locations must be utilised, as they would become easily bored looking at the same location throughout the opening.

Overall, I would argue that my group and I have come extremely far, and have developed a much deeper understanding of the aspects of film such as editing, cinematography and mise-en-scene. I would also argue that our final draft is an extreme improvement from our first draft. For every draft we set up a focus group, where would ask for feedback and what we could improve in order to achieve best results. One big mistake in our first draft was that we gave away too much information, and it was much like a trailer. Since our first draft we have added locations, scene, cut out scenes and made some small alterations to our opening. We invested much more time and effort into our film opening in comparison to our preliminary task, and took the opening much more seriously.