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

The first and most important aspect I think we have learnt from our preliminary task was the importance of planning. For our main task we made sure we had everything planned down to the last detail and stuck to the plan we had created on our story board before going ahead with filming. Doing this allowed everyone involved in the filming to know exactly what was happening and when, ensuring nothing vital was missed out. This resulted in our final piece including a wider variety of shots such as the following; match on action, shot reverse shot, an establishing shot, panning, close ups using zoom, over the shoulder shot, high and low angles. By including a wider variety of shots we have proved we know how to use the filming equipment adequately and with good skill, aswell as vastly increasing the quality and professionalism of our work.

In our preliminary task we made major errors that significantly degraded the quality of our piece. These were things like the boom falling into shot and actors having to squeeze past the camera to move out of the shot. In our main task we ensured none of these mistakes were to be repeated and there was only one minor error similar to this that may decrease the quality of our work. This was the shaking of the camera at the beginning due to the camera being zoomed in so much despite using a tripod. An example where we had to specifically ensure we made no errors at all was the over the shoulder shot

High angle establishing shot.

Shot reverse shot.

of our main character getting ready in the mirror. Whilst filming this shot we had to make sure we only got the actress in the mirror and none of the filming cast or equipment. We did this by moving the camera to the left and putting it on a slight angle.

Another area we have improved on due to our detailed planning is timing. In our preliminary task we had multiple issues with the timing of our filming.

When it came to our main task we ensured all actors were available, the location was accessible, and the filming equipment was obtainable for a specific date. We also allocated a whole day; with other possible dates if needed, for filming rather than just an hour we allowed for the filming of our preliminary task. This released the pressure of having enough time to film, allowing us to perform several attempts at filming specific shots to ensure we got them exactly how they were intended to be rather than just rushing them and being left with a poor quality piece of footage to work with in the editing process.

Furthermore, the actress we used in our main task for the main character was much more willing to participate and was a lot more professional in comparison to the actors we used in our preliminary task. By this I mean she was willing to retake shot after shot after shot if they did not go exactly how we wanted them to and she did not laugh whilst she was acting. By having a better actress the overall piece was improved.

One positive thing from our preliminary task we learned and carried on through to our main task was the accuracy of mis-en-scene. The mis-en-scene of our preliminary task was a very convincing masculine environment which fit well with the story line. The asset of a convincing and accurate mis-en-scene was relayed on to our main task and developed further by in cooperating specific features of a morning routine such as the bed, the clock, closed curtains and a shower. I feel by developing this further we made our piece more interesting and relatable to our target audience because the features were everyday objects that you would expect to see in a morning environment.

A screen shot of the boom falling into shot in our preliminary piece.

A screen shot showing an over the shoulder shot of our actress getting ready in the mirror

without any filming cast or equipment falling into shot.

Similar to our preliminary task we inserted a blank title before and after the filming material as we have learned these are the conventions of filming. We also used the same font throughout keeping a consistent theme. In spite of following the conventions of title scenes we decided to fit the text into the setting of the scene, change the colour of the titles, add more titles to the piece and animate the titles rather than just having three still, blank, title scenes. We did this to make our piece more intricate and interesting but also to relay to the audience the quirkiness of the main character, so by making our titles different we are suggesting she too is different.

A screen shot showing a developed mis-en-scene using everyday objects whilst in-cooperating the text into these objects.

A screen shot showing the titles used in our preliminary task.