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

Preliminary task
Brief: continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing the room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.


The preliminary task provided me with skills and knowledge that I could develop and transfer for use with the main task. Although the story and structure of the preliminary task my group created is completely different to my film opening, the basic techniques are still there.

Film opening
Brief: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or sound effects from a copyright-free source.


Pre-production

To plan the preliminary task we first wrote the script, then made a storyboard to decide what shots we wanted. The pre-production stage was fairly basic as the aim of the task was to gain an understanding of the importance of continuity and the 180-degree rule.

Storyboard and Shootboard

We needed a lot more in-depth planning for our film opening, as although this task also needed to incorporate the same techniques as the prelim, it also relied more heavily on creativity. Our stages of planning for the film opening included:

• A storyboard

• A script, which we re-wrote several times until we were happy with it

  

  The final draft of our script

• A shootboard
  

We had a lot more time for planning our film opening, which meant we were able to do a location reccie to ensure that it was suitable for filming, and have a test shoot to solve any problems we might encounter on the final shoot, and to see if planned shots wee viable. Both of these were useful fro contributing to the success of the final product.

Production

Filming the preliminary task:

• Was a chance to practice camerawork
• Made me realise the importance of sticking to a shootboard and shooting schedule
• Taught me to think about how different shots can be achieved
• Allowed me to practice communicating with actors/sound operator/etc

I carried all these skills over and applied them to filming our film opening. As half of our group were acting most of the time, it left most of the filming to me and Ellie, and because I had also worked the camera for my preliminary task, I readily approached this role.

As we had two locations for our filming and the setting had to look continuous, it was important that we made sure we filmed our shots in the order on the shootboard.

To work effectively as a group, it was crucial that we were able to communicate with each other, not just while filming but throughout the entire shoot day. This was easy for us as we have been working in groups to plan and to film since the preliminary task.

Post-production 
The post-production stage of the preliminary task gave me the opportunity to practice editing a continuity sequence by using match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. However, as this was the main focus of the task, my group didn't pay too much attention to the creativity of our sequence. Examples of this are shown below.

Limited range of shots

Match on action

Shot/reverse shot

For the main task, I progressed in terms of creativity while still using the basic techniques learned from the preliminary task. 

Tried to be creative with shots, using a range of different angles and distances

Shot/reverse shot

Match on action

• A huge improvement from the preliminary task to the main task came from the technical skills that I learned and developed in the process of editing the film opening.
• The preliminary task wasn't graded, so didn't look as finished or professional as our film opening had potential to look.
• We were able to add in titles and music, and edit sound for the film opening, which all added to the look of the sequence. This wasn't possible for the preliminary task as we had time restrictions and, personally, I wasn't confident enough in my editing skills at the time of the preliminary task.

Working as a group
I felt that teamwork was an extremely important part of producing both the preliminary task and the film opening sequence. The good dynamics of my group for the film opening allowed us to work quickly and productively, and we were all comfortable with contributing and constructively criticising ideas as this was the same procedure used for the preliminary task, which helped the project to run smoothly.

Our group 'working' together on the final shoot