Question 7

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

Preliminary task

    

Opening sequence

Our preliminary task was an exercise we did before we started preparing for our opening sequence, it was the first time i had used a video camera and it helped to help us get used to the camera and the angle shots that we would have had to use. For the Prelim task we used shot reverse shot which was a conversation between two people. We did this by filming the conversation twice and then edited them together on Adobe Premier Pro by cutting different parts to make them fit. In order for this to make sense, we had to use the 180 degree rule, this meant that we could only film each person from the same side as we had filmed the other one, making sure that we do not cross the other side of the 180 line. 

From looking at the two screen shots from the preliminary task and the opening sequence, both images are from when they were about to walk through the door. As you can clearly see we have improved on our filming. The prelim is just a basic shot where as the opening sequence is edited in colour, shot from a better angle and shows more of the person walking through. There is clear evidence that my skills have improved throughout the learning from the prelim task, as the shots are better.

During the preliminary task we encountered a few problems such as speaking too quickly, this made the editing very tough as it sometimes felt as if it didnt fit properly. We also didnt have that many shots to chose from when choosing the correct ones to put in which fitted better. Another problem that we encountered was that the film seems to jump a little bit when the camera angle changes. However i did find the filming of the passing through the door very well done. 


We improved on this from our set goals after making the preliminary task by making sure we had plenty of shots to chose from. In the final product we had lots of choice, making sure we had shots from different  angles also. Another thing we worked on was leaving time at the beginning and ending of each shot so that it was easier to edit, because we could just crop the videos on the Adobe Premier Pro software anyway. 


I feel that the skills i have definitely improved on most is the editing and learning of the camera and editing software itself. I did most of the editing and i really improved on this. I learnt many different things such as changing color of clips, adding text; text color and text transition, cropping, adding music and sound effects. 


Overall during the progression of making my final product i learnt different uses of the camera, i found that larger wide angles didn't really work for our video and unless you use a tri-pod you get camera shake on the film! (I TRIED IT). My editing skills definitely improved a lot in the progression of making the final opening sequence as this is what i spent most of my time on. My organisation skills were lagging, making the opening sequence and having deadlines definitely pushed me to be a more organised person instead of leaving things until last minute. I find that with plenty of time it saves the stress and also gives a better quality final product. I learnt how to create effects (such as making it look like the moon light) during my learning of filming, however, my group and i used natural light as none of it was filmed at night time. There wasn't a lot of dialogue in 'concealed', however there was small dialogue during the phone call. I learnt how to record in the studio and record using the camera to have voice overs during the phone call. 

After making my preliminary task video, i set my self three targets which were:

• Talk slower during filming
• Think about potential problems and resolve them
• Ensure that the clips are filmed longer so that it is easier to edit

I think that during the dialogue with the spy, he spoke a little too fast, however this was okay as it fitted in because he had just had a nightmare. We definitely thought about potential problems - such as bad/good weather because there was a lot of filming outside, we solved this by making sure we didnt film on a bad day! Also, i feel that we achieved the last target as we made sure that all the clips had enough space at the beginning and end to crop and fit into the video. Overall i am overly pleased with the final outcome of my opening sequence, i didnt expect that i could pull this through as well as i did.