Task 7

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

After re-watching our prelim task I now realise how much we have learnt and progressed from it. The prelim task was only shot in one hour, and we had never used the camera before. We had a short briefing on how to use the camera before we filmed, but had not had any other experience before. Whereas in the main task we had a whole day to shoot and had more experience with using the camera. In the prelim we had no preparation and where just given a story board to follow. However in our main task, we spent weeks preparing and writing our sequence. We drew our own story boards, made prop lists, and where each title would be placed. This was much more complicated than the prelim task because it was entirely our idea and if we wanted something in our video, we had to sort it out and make it possible. I liked the responsibility that we where given to do this task and it was a great contrast to the prelim task.

The shots that we took in the prelim task where very basic and simple. This consisted of a wide shot, over the shoulder and a close-up, which is not very many at all. However in our main task we took many more shots than this. We took about 15 shots overall, and they where much more exciting, e.g. tracking shots and extreme close-ups.
The storyboarding that we did to help prepare us towards our main task was a new experience. At first it was hard to get our ideas down in drawing form rather than writing it. But eventually we started drawing out all the shots that we wanted, in order then deciding where each title comes in. During which shot and how it will be incorporated etc.

Our knowledge of Media studies and using cameras has grown since the prelim task, which shows in our opening sequence. When filming the main task we where constantly thinking about the shot and how it will look on screen. Making sure that everything that needs to be in the shot, was in the frame. Checking for continuity issues was also important because we wanted it to look as professional as possible.
We wanted to vary our range of shots and make it look as interesting as possible. We added a few interesting shots that really contrasted to our prelim. There is a shot when Catrina is reading, and we take a 180 degree close-up tracking shot of her face.

When shooting our prelim task, we did not have the microphone turned on and therefore did not have any sound or dialogue. So afterwards we had to re record the dialogue and lay it over the top. We learnt a valuable lesson from this mistake and it taught us to always double check that everything is working and plugged in. When we filmed out main task, we made sure that we hadn’t made this mistake again. The sound that we used in out main task was much more interesting that the prelim task. We used ambient sounds such as the feet walking on the wooden floor and the books slamming onto the table. We also had music included into our sequence, which we did afterwards by adding it into final cut pro. First we put the original music into sound track pro and edited it to make it our own.

Using final cut pro was a new experience for me this year because I had never used it before, and it was exciting to learn a new skill. I very much wanted to explore the things that we could do with our video. In our prelim task all we did in the editing process was, to put the shots together and cut them where necessary. However in our main task, it was much more complicated than that. We had to put all our shots together, and then cut them down in size dramatically. We also had to think about the speed of the shot and with some of them, sped them up. We also used After Effects, which I have never used before and it was great to learn how to use it, and develop new skills. We used after effects to highlight certain titles in our sequence and also create interesting ones.