Preliminary Task Evaluation.

The camera which we used to film our preliminary task 

The brief that we were given for our task was simple and we had to make our own story line . As well as creating a basic story line, we had to include three important types of camera movement/angles. These were match on action, the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot. Adapting these elements in to our preliminary task was not as straight forward as it seemed, but eventually we figured out how to do it.

In terms of planning, our group was fairly organised in ensuring that we had all props and costume ready in order to film. We filmed our preliminary task in our own time and we made sure that we had recorded all footage that we needed before the deadline. As a group we came up with  idea's together and brainstormed them on to paper. However, our idea's were too complex for the task  we had been set so we had to change our ideas quickly to something more simple- an interview. We created a script for the scene of dialogue in order to know what to exactly say for the scene.

Our storyboard was not very effective in terms of helping us with the filming. This was because the storyboard did not match up to the way we ended up filming. So, what we did was create the storyboard after we had filmed the footage so we knew exactly what to draw and write on to our storyboard.

The camera was easy to use once we had figured out how to use it. In order to create steady shots we used the tripod for certain parts of the filming, however most of the shots were filmed without the tripod. We could have used the microphone for filming the dialogue scene to have created a clearer sound.

Whilst filming, we did not come up with many problems. The only problem was that the room which we filmed the interview in was extremely small so it was difficult to film properly. To overcome this we had to re arrange the chairs and other furniture in the room.

The different camera lenses

From using the Apple Macs Final Cut Pro for editing our film, I learnt that creating a continuous fragment of film takes a lot of editing, cutting and a lot of time. Every lesson we worked on a specific part of our footage. I learnt how to insert transitions where appropriate in our film, we used dissolve and a blackout frame. We used transitions to create more effect in our film and to make the most of the editing software. Final Cut Pro allowed us to remove certain sounds that we didn't want in our footage and then we were able to overlap the visual footage that we used on to the sound that we did want. Something that I struggled with, was making some cuts able to flow but eventually I figured it out. We needed to 'shrink time' in our film, so in order to do that, we added a fade effect to show the passing of time. We did this to ensure that our film did not drag on too much. I found that it is better to have a short perfected film rather than a long, poorly edited film.

Editing on the Apple Macs- Final Cut Pro

Overall, on a scale of 1-10, I am a 7 in terms of happiness of the finished product. I think that the most effective shots are the shots which build up to the interview: showing the feet walking to the interview. This is because it will add curiosity to audiences as to what is happening, where is she going? why can't we see her face? who is she? Also, the shot reverse shot scene was effective because it just flowed so well and it is clear that two people are having a conversation with each other.

If I were to do this task again, I would have spent more time in planning everything out exactly how I want it to be in order to save time in the long run and therefore film effectively in the way I intended. I would also spend more time editing the film, like staying after schools or lunchtimes if needed. I would also make sure I have lots of footage to work with so it is not so difficult to cut and I wouldn't be wasting time by re filming parts.

I think that our group worked quite well together as a whole particularly in planning and organisation. In the team, I acted in the film yet did not film anything and I helped edit the film. At the beginning we all contributed our ideas and then decided as a group what we wanted for our film. We managed our time well and ensured that we met up outside of lesson time to film and discuss anything that we needed to go over.