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

Our preliminary task was really helpful because it gave us experience of the process we would follow come our film opening. In this post I have detailed the specifics of how it helped us. 

This was the preliminary task brief:

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

Planning for Preliminary Task (Prelim)
Below I have run through what we did to plan our sequence for the preliminary task:

Identified constant : The media block Why: Permission on short notice, control of noise level

Picked genre: Chick flick Why: Appropriate to a classroom setting and 4 girls actresses.It is also easy to quickly demonstrate this genre to an audience through use of stereotypes. 

Analysed abilities and developing skills: Alicia and Rakhi filming/directing, Ella and Alice acting Why: Alicia wanted to gain camera experience, worked to qualities of the group

Chose audience and appeal: Young Females, comedy/relatability Why: Conventional chick flick audience and appeal

Brainstormed general storyline ideas: Two girls fancy the same boy

Refined our ideas: Beginning – greeting, middle – gossip, end – shock/diary drop.

Wrote a script

Made a storyboard

Wrote a shot list

Made shot order, Why: to save time

Our prelim ran smoothly, thanks to our planning. We learnt:

• That organisation is key! It saves time on the actual shoot
• The importance shot orders according to set ups: this saves time and effort especially when there are multiple set ups, actors, and lighting set ups etc.
• The Importance of location: must be able to re-shoot (not everything goes to plan)
• To play to the strengths of the group, we have a range of talents that will make everything more efficient and better if we play to them
• The usefulness of master shots (can always cut back to them for continuity purposes), pick up shots and cutaways (help to prevent a sequence from becoming dull)

This was our main task 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 audio effects from a copyright free source.

Planning for the Real Shoot

Following the success of the planning structure of our prelim, we followed a similar basic structure (did everything that we had done for the prelim but spent a lot more time working out in detail each of these aspects). This worked out well for us. For example, below is a diagram of the story ideas that we brainstormed. 

We needed to shoot at a location that we would have permission to use for test shoots, real shoots, and for any re-shoots (lots of shoots!). For this reason, and the fact that we wanted to shoot indoors, we decided to shoot in one of our homes. Initially we decided to use my cellar. We decided against that for reasons found here. We then decided that we would use Alice's house. 

These handouts (1) (2) for our proposal demonstrate some more of the planning we did. 
We also made a storyboard, script, props and costume lists and a shot list. These really helped things run smoothly on the day because both the actors and us knew what we were doing. 

Click here for the post on the filter tests we carried out. And click here for the set up and location plans (1) (2).

The video above is the animatic we created to identify any possible errors. We did not do this for our prelim because there was no time. The animatic helped us to identify any potential continuity errors, including bad framing and composition as well as missing shots. It also forced us identify the specific composition of each shot, and change this where there were problems. It helped us to work out which bits of the narrative were clear and which parts needed refining and clarification. 

We had one test shoot, and two planning shoots, which again checked that everything would run smoothly. However, we did not check the lighting well enough, resulting in the grain problem that I have explained further down the page. 

We checked the the time of sunset to make sure the shot outside was correctly lit. 

We put a lot more time into editing, to be sure we would get it done in time. We used a digital camera (Canon 550D). This was so that we could film in 50 frames per second. Our choice in camera also meant that we did not have to capture footage; the 550D saves each video file individually. 

We used many different timelines so that people could edit what the group had done without deleting it, and as a group we could then decide whether or not to use it. 

We got feedback from teachers and our target audience along the way so that we could address any issues and make improvements. 

Problems on the Preliminary Task

At the time of doing the prelim our group identified problems so that we could act on them and have a more successful opening sequence.

Problem in preliminary task	What we did for our main task
Poor acting	Used friends that we knew could act reliably, and made a more detailed script, with highly defined characters so people knew more about their character and how to portray that role.
Boring/weird conversation	We researched appropriate films, got feedback from friends and asked our actors their opinions on the script and dialogue
More precise editing	We spent longer on our editing, and planed the shots in greater detail to make the editing process easier
Unhelpful storyboard	We drew our storyboard out in more detail, and stuck pictures taken for our animatic onto another storyboard to further identify errors. The animatic and test shoots also helped with this.
Poor lighting	We decided to shoot inside as lighting would be more controllable. We researched lighting techniques and watched tutorials and spoke to Chris (the media technician ) about how to go about lighting certain difficult shots.

The prelim really helped us to identify any possible errors or hurdles that we may encounter. It enabled us to avoid these where possible, and spent less time worrying about problem solving and more time devoted to creating a film opening of quality.

Problems on the Real Shoot
However, that's not to say we were without any problems on our real shoot. Firstly, we did not check our equipment in great enough detail. Although we had two batteries for our camera, one was not charged and we had forgotten to bring a charger. We realised this and were able to shoot the essential shots, but it meant that we were unable to be fully creative and get a range of angles and framing. We did fortunately capture all of the footage we needed. 
Secondly, we did not test the lighting in great enough detail on our test shoot. The original POV shot was very grainy, especially in contrast to the well lit shots further on. We would have had to re shoot had it not been for After Effects, on which we removed grain at the cost of slight blur. This was an excellent compromise for us, because we intended on having a blurred and echoed effect anyway, to connote the drug taking and to fit in with the psychedelic effect. The only thing was that this took a very long time to render!
Thirdly, some individual shots were badly lit. One CU of Hannah's face could not be used, because there was a very odd shadow caused by the angle of light from her nose. From this we learnt more about lighting, and for the shots of Eve leaving light was bounced off walls and ceilings instead of shone directly at the subject. 

Specifics

The prelim also allowed us to put continuity techniques into practice. 

The images above are a comparison of our two match on actions. The prelim was useful for this because we had already learnt how to execute them so we were able to focus on getting interesting shots with good lighting. 

These images demonstrate the contrasts between the shot/reverse shots demonstrating the 180 degree rule. The camera set-up was a lot less confusing in the real shoot because thanks to the prelim, we were well trained on how to set them up. This meant that we did not have a need for a re-shoot, which could have had worse acting and would have taken up a lot of time. 

In summary, the preliminary task really prepared us as a group for the film opening. Whilst there were still some problems that could not be foreseen, this is to be expected, and without the preliminary task we would have encountered many more basic and unnecessary problems.