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

The following demonstrates the relevance of our prelim to the final project:

This is an example of a match on action which we practised in our continuity sequence and took forward into our opening

 From our prelim, the most important things we discovered were:

• use easy, accessible locations, for flexibility with timing and re-shoots
• lighting is very important and makes shots much sharper - visible in the difference between shots from the prelim and final piece.
• setting up and framing shots must be done very carefully - in the prelim pictures below, there is too much space next to the girls' faces
• use actors who are confident in front of a camera to avoid giggling as we did in our prelim
• film several distances of most shots to have choice of variety when editing and to allow for continuity errors - in our prelim we differed from the storyboard in some shots because it looked much better on screen so it was good to have options. This is also useful because master shots of most shots are always helpful to create a seamless narrative when editing, if some shots don't work next to each other, you can cut to a master shot without losing story
• we planned our shoot schedule and shot list meticulously, taking a long time over it, however, this made the actual shooting much easier and we finished very quickly



These are stills exemplifying our use of the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot (final shot not pictured) from our prelim and final piece

With this in mind we made careful decisions about every aspect of the project, most importantly:

• location: originally, we were going to use Ella's cellar for the claustraphobic feel it would provide, however, though it might have looked good, it would have been to difficult to fit all our actors in and navigate around safety with lighting and camera kit. In the end we went for Alice's, we emptied out the room so we effectively had a blank canvas to create the exact effect we wanted and since it was one of our houses we knew it would be available whenever we needed it.

• planning:
• we alotted a whole day to testing and positioning our lighting for the shoot since we wanted to get it exactly perfect
• we created a storyboard with post-its and later with pictures so that we could refer to it for framing shots
• we enlisted friends who do drama to act in the opening as we thought it would be a beneficial experience to them as well as us
• we made diagrams mapping each scene and transferred this to our location so we knew exactly how to direct actors on the day
• we sent actors costumes and directions for the shoot in advance so they had plenty of time to prepare
• we made detailed scripts, shot lists and shoot schedules for ease on the day of the shoot

• the shoot:
• we asked the actors to arrive an hour before the shoot started to allow time for lateness, makeup, food and perusal of the script, with the group arriving an hour before
• we shot several distances of several shots like that of the unconcerned smoker, and master shots from many angles - this was good because we ended up using more mastershots than we originally planned
• we shot any pieces of action all the way through from every angle even if we planned to change perspective. This was particularly useful for the 'get over here' scene as we planned to cutaway there but discovered this would not work in the edit suite

• editing and technology:
• although we planned to film most of our opening on the Canon Legria DV-30 camera, we ended up using the Canon 550D for all our shots instead as we liked the way we were able to focus and found it more effective than on the Canon Legria DV-30 that our prelim was shot on. You can tell the difference clearly in the comparative pictures above.
• we used individual sequences when we were editing without the whole group and only made changes when everyone was present so we were all happy with the opening at all times
• as in our prelim, accepting changes to the original plan, and sacrificing shots no matter how much we liked them was important to maintain a clear narrative

• evaluating the piece:
• we tried to feedback to each other all the way along, politely discussing any disagreements
• we also got audience feedback at several stages before and after the final piece was finished to make sure were on the right track with our editing, narrative and general style

• the team: as we are all friends, working in a team was very easy, we were respectful of each others opinions and managed to avoid major disagreements. From the prelim, when none of us wanted to be in front of the camera, we learnt we had to compromise, for example I agreed to be the overdosee since it made the most sense as I know how to put in contact lenses and nobody else did.

• improvements: although the prelim was very helpful, we did make some mistakes in the production process for example...
• we did not check to make sure we had a spare battery and charger for our camera and it ran out of battery before we had finished filming. Luckily, however, we managed to get all the shots we needed of actors outside the group so it was not a major problem
• we did not leave enough time on our second shoot and had to leave before we got a usable shot of Eve smiling, causing us to have to reshoot