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

Preliminary task brief:

"Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he exchanges a couple lines of dialog. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse/shot and the 180 degree rule."  

Finished Prelim:                                



Main Task brief:

The titles and opening of a new fiction film to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright free source.

Pre Production 

Applied from Prelim: 

Continuity

From our Prelim we learnt to importance of the continuity principles in telling the narrative of the film and in order to suspend audiences' disbelief. We applied our knowledge of the these principles when planning the shoot board for "Growing Pains". For example the use of the "over the shoulder shot" in conversations to establishing character relations.

Over the shoulder

In our prelim, we used the over the shoulder technique to establish the teacher/ pupil relationship. The pupil looks a lot smaller that the teacher.






Our opening establishes that the relationship between the two girls are friends, their relationship is balanced, thus the sizing of the characters is kept equal.







When preparing for the prelim shoot we had to arrange actors, costume, props, setting and script. this process also applied to our film opening.

Learnt: 

Structure

However when forming the narrative of our film and film opening we considered a larger range of theories; Todorov's equilibrium theory and Enigma codes.

Todorov

Before we had taken Todorov's equilibrium theory into consideration, we were going to start our film with the two characters already in a relationship. This would mean the film begins with the disequilibrium, it is possible to do things in that order however in our case the films' narrative would not stand for itself, as once the disequilibrium is resolved the film would be over. Hence the decided structure of our film opening where the camera cuts between the two characters and ends with them meeting.  

We also had to decide on a genre and target audience for the film, an aspect of film making.

Thinking up genre ideas

Genre

The decision on film genre was largely based on what we thought was achievable with our resources. One of the main factors that led us to decided on the urban drama genre was that Louis (a member of the group) could skateboard.

Target Audience

We wanted to chose a target audience we understood so we could meet their needs, the final decisions was teenagers (16-24)

Production

Equiptment- We used the same basic equipment as in the Prelim- Camera (Cannon DVB3), head phones, Microphone and tripod. However for our main task we also learnt how to use the GoPro.

GoPro

As using this technology was new for all of us, we researched on You Tube how to attach it to skateboards, and videos made using GoPro, to see the effects on audience. As well as learning how to use it, I learnt how to fit it into the films narrative; where it looks best and is most effective.

Go Pro Footage

Post Production

We used the same editing soft ware as in the Prelim- Adobe Premier Pro, and the same tools when cutting the sequence.

Adobe Premier Pro

Razor Tool

However for our main task we also learnt how to grade, edit sound and create and design a title sequence using Live Type.

Title Sequence

Live Type Logo

Film openings all include title sequences, therefore it was demanded in our brief. We learnt how the look, movement and placement of titles can tell their own narrative, and how to knit them into our opening sequence, to enhance the impact of our opening. For us, we wanted static, subtle titles however this too required thought and careful design.






Design: How to create the right amount of subtlety

Our first titles were large, spaced out but thin

Tester Title

Our final titles were smaller and close together but bold. Also we used capitals to highlight names (we spotted this technique in the opening sequence of Somers Town, and thought it would be effective in our sequence)

Final Title

Placement of Titles

The main priority was that they could be seen, therefore the background would need to be a color that contrasted the white font.

We also decided that every title should be in either the bottom left or right of the page, by doing the same thing repeatedly, audiences would begin to know what to expect, and would therefore not distract from the action but still be noticed.

Timing of Titles

In order to increase impact, timing the titles in with the action was vital.
E.g. When the skateboard hits the ground, the title appears.