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 taught us many of the basic steps in achieving a smooth short clip. With this, we were able to expand and develop on our ideas through the basic knowledge that we were taught within our media lessons. It was a learning experience on how to work the equipment correctly and achieve the best quality leading up to the actual finished product.

From our preliminary task we were able to understand more about the amount of different angle shots required and were able to experiment on the angles which worked well with certain scenes. From our preliminary task, we were also able to eliminate some shots which didn't work to our desired effect.

The preliminary task also enabled us to detect any faults whilst filming some shots. For example, when experimenting a tracking shot, looking back at the footage were able to see more clearly how much movement was caused to the camera when maneuvering it, and whether it was a smooth transition from one side of the scene to the other.

Observing previous captured footage also showed us the quality of the picture, and whether some shots would have to be a closer shot in order to capture full detail to make the opening more clearer to view.

During this task, our group also learnt that in order to achieve continuity editing we needed more than one shot so that we could combine them with corresponding shots to make them look professional so that they appeared to match. Also, when filming we learnt that to make editing simpler, we had to record shots with a gap before and after the actual procedure that we wanted to included.

We explored the different tools available on final cut pro, and were able to look into them in more detail to choose from the variety to decide which one best suited our chosen genre best.

The preliminary task was an opportunity to listen to the sound quality of the camera footage. This gave us more of an incline as to whether it was appropriate to add in our own prerecorded diagetic sound to make the sound more distilled and clearer to understand.

This quality of the camera also had an impact on the different weather atmospheres that we filmed in outside. On our preliminary task, we filmed outside on a sunny day. Looking at the recorded footage showed us the glare on the camera from the intensity of the light, so we were able to adjust the camera to an angle where it wasn't noticeable, this made the the overall shot clearer and the scene more visible for the viewers for when we produced our main task.

Main task production report

We have been filming our footage for the post production for the previous 6 weeks and are close to completing our shots for the main task.

During the filming process our script and shot plan changed so that we could determine which shots were appropriate for the scene being filmed.

A problem features during the filming stage was the weather. On occasions it was sunny and others it was cloudy therefore it affected the general atmosphere and mood of the shot according to the pathetic fallacy which we aimed to achieve. We tried not to let this affect our shots by making sure we filmed important areas and scenes on the same day so that the weather stayed the same for the numerous shots we included.

Also, we had to ensure that no sun glare was on the lens of the camera making the shot look unclear. On cloudy days, we aim to improve the footage by making the lighting in the background brighter to match the weather on the sunny days.
Our group had to be prepared in order of remembering props so that when we did shots they were corresponding and looked as though they were filmed on the same day. We aimed to make our footage in terms of accuracy, look as faultless as possible.

The sounds with the footage were not as clear as we would have liked. Therefore, we aspire to add in the corresponding sound effects to make it sound more clean. For example, the sound effect of a stick snapping will be added, and perhaps the increasing sound of footsteps. The background music was originally Bethan playing the piano, because we felt the improvised music matched nicely with the chosen genre of the film that we decided upon. We found through a survey that without necessarily initially noticing, classical music is particularly effective in captivating the audience.

For example, if you were to play the opening of a film, without the classical music included within it, the viewer feels no connection and easily loses interest because of this. The background music of any film is the main contributor to the desired emotion wanted on the audience by the director.

The main character played by Bethan Syddall was chosen as the group felt it would be an advantage as having a performing arts student act in our group, instead of relying on other actors, we found it more practical to have our own group in our production in order to saved a lot of time.

Likewise, we chose our strengths as in Gareth had the most knowledge to do with the technology included, so he helped a lot with the editing stages on Final Cut Pro 7. We all have a significant input, but in different areas of creating our main task. Working as a group means that we have different responsibilities to contribute to the final product, but still corporate others ideas with our answers.

Detailed Shotlist of main task

This is the final shotlist we have for our main task. These were changed slightly from our original shotlist as we included new ideas which we deemed approriate.

1. Close up of sitting down and placing book on the stand.

2. Extreme close up of pressing button on the Piano.

3. Close up of playing keys.

4. High angle shot of legs walking down the road

5. Long shot of Bethan walking down the road.

6. Wide angle shot of walking by the wall.

7. Wide angle shot of sitting by the wall drinking alcohol.

8. Medium panning shot of Bethan and Chris entering the park gates.

9. Medium shot of Bethan walking towards the bench.

10. Medium shot of Bethan sitting on bench.

11. Wide angle shot of Bethan on bench.

12. Close up of Bethan crying.

13. Point of view shot of looking from a tree at Bethan.

14. Close up of Bethan looking confused.

15. Medium shot of Tom approaching Bethan.

16. Extreme close up of Bethan being scared.

17. Medium shot of Bethan shouting

18. Title

Production Treatment

For our main task, we have been assigned to create the opening of a short film, with a duration of ideally two minutes long.

Title: Him
We chose a short, snappy heading, so that it would strike the viewer, in the sense that it was mysterious as to who 'him' actually is within the film.

Genre: Psychological thriller
We felt this was a good genre to portray from the numerous openings of films that we studied in particular with the same genre to help us give the theme of a psychological thriller.

Duration:
The duration has to be two minutes long as an aim but can be 1:50-2:15 maximum.
When planning our film we had to make sure that we did not exceed this time limit, as to remind ourselves that this is only an opening of a film, and not a full short film, so therefore we are not meant to give a lot of the plot away so soon.

Audience:
We believe the audience that this film would appeal to people who would enjoy psychological films, and similar films such as 'Girl, Interrupted'.
However, teenagers are our main audience as the main character is a teenager, so we felt that the viewers would have an instant connection being a similar age.
Overall, for the opening of our film we deem it suitable for all ages, and do not find it too disturbing for younger viewers, however, if we were to continue filming for the rest of the film, we would make the footage suitable for persons 15+, because we feel that some scenes in relation to other psychological thrillers include some unsettling thriller aspects, and possibly bad language and violence not suitable for children.

Résumé:
The main plot of our film, involves a young psychotic girl who due to her paranoia ultimately becomes increasingly insane. Her imagination is abrupt; making her believe that there is a person trying to destroy her life and ruin her musical aspiration which is considered her most important thing in her life currently.

Costumes:
The main character's appearance of the young girl, should instantly give the impression that she is not necessarily in the correct frame of mind, due to her untidy appearance.
Wearing dark, unclean clothes such as black track-suit bottoms and a dark, denim jacket accompanied with a plain T-shirt, portrays the idea of her not following the current fashion trends that the majority of young girls similar to her age do. This would suggest that she is already cut off from society and doesn't fit in, whilst at the same time contributing to the idea of her perhaps due to her abrupt, difficult lifestyle means that she does not have the money to dress according to typical social group.

Props:
Some props were essential within our production as they were symbolic and helped in achieving our story line. For example, the large back-pack that she carried around with her for the majority of the opening was symbolic, in which it shows that perhaps all her belongings are located within the bag and that she has no set, stable place to live, therefore carries it around with her.
Furthermore, the beer can was also used to help represent her age, and to further enforce the idea that she is unstable, leading to her drinking alcohol in public alone, representing her as having a troubled lifestyle, ultimately making her appear unsociable.

Locations for filming:
We chose to film a lot of our footage at Alexandra Park, close to college. Partly because it was practical for the group as it was close to college, and a lot easier to be organised with time, but also it was due to it already being one of our original ideas to have the main character segregated even in a public place such as a park.
Within the park, we found a lonely bench, which would be appropriate in establishing the main character as being alone and vulnerable, and away from the crowd in the actual playground.

We also filmed in college, in the music practice room when she was performing on the piano. However, there was no shots that confirmed to the viewer that this was a college environment, so indeed they may have been mislead into thinking that it perhaps may have been her actual home. Being an opening of a film, we were able to be ambiguous with the props and set, to keep the audience's anticipated as to the true meaning behind these symbolic elements used.

Recording days:
After thoroughly checking over our plan to make sure that we were fully prepared for filming, we filmed mainly during the lessons that we had media, when the whole group was available, so that there was more help by everybody doing their assigned roles that we decided upon. Although, one main concern about filming in exterior shots is that the weather is unreliable so we cannot be sure if the weather will be the same for the next day of filming because it will look unprofessional. Therefore, we tried to film important scenes that appear in the same area, on the same day to try and avoid this from happening.

Budget estimate:
Because this is a college film it will not have a budget.

Preliminary Task Video

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Gareth Morris
Bethan Syddall
Tom Squires
Chris Mitchell

During the preliminary task our group learnt numerous techniques including how to edit and shoot a short video using the software Final Cut Professional 7 to help us with our understanding and improve our current media skills.



During media lessons, our group filmed and edited a short piece as part of our preliminary task. It was purposely basic as it was mainly a practice exercise in preparation for our main task.

Therefore, we filmed within the college grounds, outside and inside of the ball building. The storyline for this assignment consisted of a student meeting a friend in college after receiving a text from them.


Preliminary Task Evaluation


As a group, we believe that the preliminary task was overall quite successful, yet some minor problems occurred, but very rarely noticeable according to the footage.

Before filming, as a group we created a shot list in preparation for the actual filming process. After filming and editing the captured footage that we recorded we realised that some more extra shots were required in order to make the transitions flow and look more smooth to achieve continuity editing.

To avoid any mishaps like this happening in the future, such as in our main task, we would draw out shot list of the overall sequence to make a clearer diagram, making it easier to detect any faults that we could then solve.

Even though the shot list was not as accurate as we would have liked, we included some adequate shots which we felt were successful. For example, the medium shot of Gareth walking up the stairs. This may of mimicked a shot from that of a CCTV camera, as thought he is being looked over from above upon his every move., like in many private buildings. However, during this shot a student was noticed on the side of the screen which slightly disturbed the filming process and the shot which was only meant to include Gareth himself. Despite this, the person was in it for a split second so it was not very noticeable and therefore did not affect our overall editing and filming process.

Other shots that we deemed to be successful was the close up of Gareth opening the door. Although, the filming footage is a little bit shaky. This could not be prevented as when pressing the button on the camera it caused it to move slightly. Despite this, we consider this to be our best close up shot throughout the task, along with the tight editing which made it look even more effective as it corresponded with the previous shot.

A key element that was required in our task was the shot reverse shot of the two characters having a conversation. We used the 180 degree rule in order to make this shot look as smooth and professional as you would expect from something off the television. To do this, we shot the camera over Chris' right shoulder when he was speaking, and then followed by over Gareth's left shoulder during Chris' dialogue. Due to editing skills, we were able to make this seem like a smooth conversation between two cameras, giving the effect that it was filmed using two separate cameras, yet we were limited to only one camera. The over the shoulder shot was a good element to include due to it still revealing the person who isn't speaking, and a shot of the face of the current speaker.

Another key element also used during our task was a match shot. We included this during the medium shot of Gareth opening the door, followed by the extreme close up of Gareth's hand on the handle of the door. This gave the effect the viewer that it was a smooth transition to the next shot and therefore matched the previous shot, yet a closer more detailed view.

Another example of a match shot in our film was the opening of our video; the close up of Gareth's phone, followed by a medium shot including Gareth and the phone. Again, this match shot linked together through our editing, giving the impression that it ran smoothly and overall made the shots successful because of this.

All of the group contributed to the editing process of this task, although, Gareth had the most input because he had more experience than some of us. We had some problems with continuity editing towards the end. We stuck with the 180 degree rule, which made our task appear more professional as we used as many different shots as we could and edited as neatly as possible for the best viewing.

From our experience, we also learnt how to set up the scratch disk. We saved this to Macintosh HD 2, and then further saved into our own area where it would be easier to locate all our work that we have done.

Preliminary Task - Shot List

1. Close up shot of mobile phone.

2. Medium shot of mobile phone.

3. Medium shot of pupil walking towards building (outside)

4. Medium shot of pupil entering through the fire door (inside)

5. Front view high angle shot of pupil climbing the ground floor of stairs.

6. Back view low angle shot of pupil climbing 1st floor of stairs.

7. Medium shot of pupil's hand approaching the handle of the door.

8. Extreme close up shot pupil's hand on the handle opening the door.

9. Wide angle, medium shot of pupil entering through the door, approaching friend.

SHOT REVERSE SHOT SEQUENCE

10. Over the shoulder shot of person 1.

11. Over the shoulder shot of pupil.

12. Over the shoulder shot of person 1.