Q7: Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Product?

 

I personally think that I as a filmmaker have adapted to the complex and innovative software and tool required to make effective films such as our thriller opening “HUNTED”.  I also think that I know what ideas go well with what at the right time, I.e. us using the treeline shot along with the watch pop to almost as if get the message to the audience that time is running out, increasing tension and achieving the effect that both I and my teammates wanted to achieve. I also think that I can effectively tell what environments would be good for certain shots through improvisation, such as what is the best place to position the camera. I overall think that the good experience of filming films outside the school premises has help my knowledge and skills of filmmaking advance.

The strengths of our prelim task was mainly its visual and directional style, such as several different camera angles like pan-shots, extreme close ups and high-angle shots at the appropriate times to signify people emotions and dominance, such as the zombies feet scraping across the floor and an extreme close-up of Me and Peter.

However, our first film as it was, there was far more shortcomings than there was strengths, such as our transitions between shot to shot, (continuity issues) and dialogue not being correctly or as perfectly timed as they should have been. An example of this is me tuning around after Conor and another zombie actor have come round the corner. I also think that some of our acting was not as believable as it could have been, such as Pete looking a lot more happy than you would be in a situation like the one we were portraying. We built on these mistakes by not included any dialogue as intended and used more comprehensive camera angles and shots. The most probable reason why our prelim was far worse than our thriller opening was most probably due to the fact that we did not have a HD camera, we did not have any decent props since we could not bring things such as gun magazines and bullet onto the school property. Our mise-en-scene was also far more believable for a thriller than a secondary school due to it being a run-down, post-apocalyptic looking environment so it made our final thriller far more realistic.

The specific skills that I have developed personally is the ability to make use of the resources and mise-en-scene’s I have and plan them to make the most out of them in order to make the most effective films possible. I also think that my initiative and understanding of editing software has also vastly improved, such as me being able to use the comprehensive and sometimes difficult tools contained within the Apple iMovie software.

To be specific, we had to be aware of the 180 degree rule and we followed it due to the shots having a full view of the relevant props or items of interest whilst not breaking the rule by leaving the background out or moving the camera left or right to the point that the background or a prop is eliminated from the scene. Also our continuity was perfect for the shots we had and I made sure that there was no errors to the point that it would disrupt the flow and pacing of our thriller opening. Match on action was used when I was seen loading the gun magazine with the bullets being clearly loaded in one at a time due to them being loaded diagonally side by side left and right. These shots were useful when editing our thriller to increase tension, for example we had one quick shot of me loading one round into the magazine and then it would be interrupted with other shots and then there would quickly be another shot of me loading another bullet two more times, representing seconds counting down one by one, as if somebody is going to be killed.

The way that I and my groups approached planning and shots was done careful and well thought over in regards to the effect it would create and if it was appropriate the thriller genre. An example of some props we got rid of was ammo boxes. The reason why is because, even though we wanted some gun related items, having ammo boxes makes it look to army looking and little to no thrillers use military themes as a background, so it just would have ruined the believability of our thriller opening.  When this is compared to our preliminary task, it is far more realistic and believable in terms of props that were used and our rather to forward and elaborate ideas such as the ammo box idea were abandoned in favour of yet again more believable and realistic props.

Overall, I think that our thriller opening “HUNTED” was a huge success for me and my group. The reason why is because we carefully tuned every aspect of the opening once filming was completed. There are however some aspects of our thriller that could have been improved, an example was the shot of the mysterious character in the brush line, instead of just standing there, If I actually moved, it could give the impression that somebody is searching for somebody in the woods, creating more effective and scary tension. I overall improved this aspect due to the fact I research and planned what would happen and where and how our shots would be positioned.

I personally feel in terms of me and my group’s progression to a full media product was very positive in terms of the new skills that we learnt. For the camerawork, our shots were far more innovative and sophisticated than the ones we used for the likes of our prelim task. Example of this is the pan shot of the dark woods on the horizon compared to our pan shot of the schools Year 10 yard, which is far less sophisticated and detailed due to an inferior Sony Camera compared to a Nikon HD camera. This was done to try to replicate a CCTV camera for our prelim task. These two shots both follow the 180 degree rule due to the line of focus and perspective is never broken during this time. 

Examples:

Prelim Task

 

 

 

 

 

“HUNTED” Thriller Opening

For our editing, we used Comprehensive and complex editing software from Apples iMovie editor and made the most out of its wide range of editing tools. Our editing in our prelim task was very much so flawed compared to our thriller opening. This was due to the overly done saturation effect that ruined the films look and in my opinion made it look to unrealistic and dream-like. In contrast to this, our thriller opening looked far more plausible and realistic compared to our prelim, with a dark periphery to represent drug addiction or withdrawal effects. This was done by applying desaturation effects to our film adjusting ambient lighting effects to make it look more dull than it would be in reality, similar to Saving Private Ryan.

Examples:

Prelim Task

"HUNTED" Thriller Opening