Evaluation question 7

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

Looking back at our preliminary task I now see that we were very basic with our video as we had used very basic simple techniques. There was very basic camera movement in the short film as we put the camera on a skate board to create a panning shot of feet walking. This is similar to our final film opening however we made a panning shot by keeping the camera hand held. Although there was little camera movement we did consider camera angles well as we included close ups,shot reverse shot structure, wide angle shots and side angle shots. These were also included in our film opening but we had put more thought into them and why we were using them at the time unlike the preliminary task. Instead of using shot reverse structure in our film opening we used over the shoulder shots. This meant that the conversation included the audience more as it didn’t look like it was from a characters point of view allowing the audience to create their own opinion and thoughts on whats going on which encourages creativity and the imagination of the audience which is what we wanted.

We put great thought and effort into present our characters through mise en scene in our film opening however in our preliminary task costume was only slightly thought through and the setting for our short task could have been better thought out. Also use of lighting was highly considered throughout our preliminary task however a lot of concentration was put towards lighting in our film opening as it was a main point in our film opening especially in the villains scenes in the film opening. Body language and facial expression was also presented well in our film opening as we had to concentrate on making our hero and villain completely opposite in every way. However in our preliminary task body language is only mildly demonstrated as we see slight facial expressions and some sort of pacing.

The editing was only very basic in our preliminary task and I think we have advanced greatly from this and have learned so much and developed important skills such as adding real soundtracks to our film opening learning how to allow the music to fade and fade out and also do the same with scenes. Our action matching is more fluent and seems more realistic as we took more care and generated more experience in the film opening. We learned how to play with effects such as adding titles and creating scenes that were slow motion or sped up but all these effects add to the plot and help create an atmosphere and helps build up and represent tension and make our plot clear where as in the preliminary video we relied mostly on script for this.

In the preliminary task the sound was mainly dialogue with only small sounds added in. We relied mainly on dialogue to help with the understanding of our plot and make it clear however in the film opening we chose not to rely on this and this made things more difficult for us but created a better quality film opening. We also managed to edit in full sound tracks and scores of music this gave our film opening a real professional effect and was also an important aspect in our film opening as it helped us represent moods and character throughout the film opening.

From the preliminary task we see immediately from the plot that we were interested un the comic book genre as we made the short task about an evil villain and a sidekick. This shows that we already and some idea if what we wanted to do and what genre we would like to do our film opening in. This made it easier for us all to come together work as a team and choose a plot for our film opening.

Overall I think we have developed immensely and have learned and gained skills from making the film opening by playing with more advanced techniques to create a better quality video for an audience in our film opening. We really thought through each sector of presenting a film and I think this shows in our film as we played with steretypes,connotations and codes and conventions. I hope you enjoyed our film opening.