Evaluation; Question 7

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

Since creating the preliminary task of ‘shooting a conversation’ I feel my understanding of varied shot types and camera angles and the effects they have is a lot more comprehensive. We had a lot more time to create our thriller openings which allowed opportunity to familiarise and experiment with the cameras and what different shot types and angles looked like. Putting the theory into motion has definitely extended by understanding of how it all works. In the preliminary task we stuck to the straight forward establishing shot with the occasional mid shot which makes for a not very stylised or sophisticated piece. Whereas the final piece was more varied, long shots, mid shots, close ups, extreme close ups and over the shoulder shots to convey different emotions and to create enigma and tension at certain points in the thriller.

Preliminary

Final cut

The longer time period meant the planning was a lot more thorough for our thriller than the preliminary task. This meant that the story line was more thought out resulting in it being more in depth and stylised with clear archetypes created by more sophisticated locations and mise en scene. The preliminary task was shot in school, in the clothing the actors had happened to wear that day, it didn’t require much planning or organisation. Our actual thriller required the planning and finding of suitable costumes to portray a corrupt detective and a damsel in distress, glamorous type character and the making of props to make the locations more believable. We also had to find the suitable locations, with a little added creativity to polish them off.  By filming in locations that were not in school it meant the filming schedule was less flexible, this required us to be more time efficient and organised.

Bad organisation - the cups are empty!

More sophisticated props

The use and understanding of the effects of different forms of lighting has also become a lot clearer. In our preliminary task we just used the natural lighting of the study hall, this didn’t require much thought or planning. In our thriller to achieve the perfect film noir style lighting we experimented with the use of single source lighting from a fairly vintage style lamp. This worked perfectly with the costumes and mise en scene to create a film noir style detectives office. It created enigma and cast strong shadows which are both iconic features of film noir.

More advanced editing was required to complete our thriller openings complete with the finding and downloading of sound and fonts most appropriate for our particular style. In the preliminary task, simple editing was used to create a fairly shoddy piece with rough cuts and very poor sound. In the final piece we trawled through several sounds and musical pieces to find the perfect tracks for our thrillers, we then had to download these and edit the footage around the sound, so that it was in time and specific shots would happen at specific points in the sound track, this helped to create tension in certain parts of the thriller. We used diagetic sound in parts along with the music, for example the sound of her footsteps and her trying to open the door. Apart from this we took out the sound from the footage and just had the music, this created a more stylish piece and avoided the cringeyness of poor sound quality. We also had to consider the effect and use of credits; this required us to find a font appropriate for the theme of our film noir style thriller, download the font and judge where the best position would be for them on the shot. All of this meant our understanding of the purpose and the effects editing can have more advanced than in the preliminary task. 

Use of titles

How my skills have developed?

Compared with the preliminary task I now have more confidence and better ability to use the digital camera to film various scenes using a variety of different shot types and camera angles to create enigma and tension. I can now work better with lighting and use it to create strong shadows and connote moral ambiguity which can be seen in this shot. 

I can also edit more efficiently and effectively and find music and fonts that will work well with the footage. I can also find locations and use creativity to make them more appropriate for our chosen film noir theme by constructing props, planning costumes and experimenting with lighting.