Evaluation 7:Looking back at my preliminary task, what have I learnt in the progression from it to the product?

(Preliminary Task)




(Sent)

There are many similarities and differences between our preliminary task and the film. However even though there are differences and similarities I have learnt many things from this process. During each similarity I will be taking about how we have improved the task to make our film better and to show how much progress we have done over the coursework.


Sent Title





Preliminary Task Title

I have learnt how to use many other software's to make our credit's and title's on. During our preliminary task our titles where stationary, with a boring font and in a yellow colour. In our film we we did them in Live type. This gave us much more variety and choice over what styles, fonts and motions we could in our film. We chose to have it types across the screen as it would relate to the laptop/Facebook theme. Also by having it moving in a chilling way it created an atmosphere for the audience and visually looked much better than stationary text, which was done in our first Sent draft.



Louise looking through a window in Sent



Billy looking through a window in the Preliminary Task

I have also leant how to use different camera angles and movements. In both of these stills they are shot in a mid camera angle at eye level with both of the actors looking straight into the camera at the audience. However the camera movements in the preliminary task are very rough and jolty whereas the film’s camera movements are very smooth and flowing which shows how we progressed the skills and technics of using the digital cameras and how to manipulate them to getting the best shots possible.


Billy and Shelby talking to each other in Sent



Myles and Billy talking to each other in the Preliminary Task



Also in both of these stills above they are in a mid-shot. However the camera angle in the Sent film is shown from a slightly high angle shot looking down which shows how vulnerable and powerful and naive the characters are going to be during the film without giving too much away to the audience. Whereas the preliminary task was shown in a mid camera angle too. This shows how we as a group have developed different skills with the camera which can convey different message to the audience without giving too much away.

I have also learnt how to use sound. In the preliminary task we used no sound effects or music and the only sound we have was on screen diegetic dialogue. Whereas in our Sent film we used three songs which were played over the film as non-diegetic sound and sound effects when Louise’s character hits both Billy and Shelby over the head with a trophy. I also learnt through the process about sound bridges and how to use them and how to build up suspense, which is a key convention of the thriller genre, to increase and decrease the volume of the music playing. In addition how to link two songs together when the scenes changed by using a cross fade which I found particularly hard while editing the film.

Finally I have learnt how to use the editing software and different techniques that I could use. In the preliminary task our editing was very jagged and stopped and started. This is particularly obvious when Billy and Myles are talking to each other as it does not flow from one person to another person when they are talking. In Sent I have learnt how to edit smoothly and make it flow from one scene to another using straight cuts. Also in the Sent film we used many effects like dissolves and cross fades to go from one scene to another which makes the film look more effective.



Cross fade from Billy's eye to Billy's face





Cross fade from the laptop to the Facebook message