Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
For the Prelim task, I did not really plan or research, for the task. This meant that the filming was not thought out and the editing was done quickly.
For my product, I pitched the film, so other could give me feedback on the idea for the narrative, telling me what would work, and what may not work. I also researched other horror openings, therefore I could steal ideas and typical horror opening conventions. I also planned the product using storyboards, screenplays, location scouting and shot scheduling. By scouting a location for the film helped me to visualise, my idea, which made the first shoot much easier. When scouting, I could then take pictures of the shots and the compositions that could be in the final cut. I then could create a storyboard for the film, and also a screenplay, which included the dialogue and the different scenes, both of these helped me in the first shoot.
After all the planning and research tasks were complete, I then went onto the first shoot. Using the storyboard and the screenplay, I could then setup the camera and composition, by looking at the storyboard. Using the screenplay, I could get the characters to speak to the dialogue on the screenplay. In the prelim task, there was very minimal planning, and most of the dialogue was all made up on the spot of the characters. The composition was all done when we got to the location, and nothing was planned before the shoot.
The prelim task was all edited very quickly, meaning that not much effort was put into the edit. In my product, most of the time was dedicated to the audio and editing of the project. Because you could not hear some of the audio on the footage, I had to re-record the audio and dialogue of the characters and place it in the edit. This took quite a long time to get the levels right, and to remove the background noise. Before making this product, I had never worked with sound, and editing sound before. Therefore I was experimenting with the sound, trying to make the audio sound as realistic as possible. I think that the audio of the final project turned out really well. Because the sound on the footage, from the prelim was good. I did not work with any sound, until the project. So I have learnt a lot by using Adobe Audition to change the levels of the sound.
Before the project I had done a bit of editing, but I never really used Adobe Premiere properly before. Using the software and experimenting with it, meant that I could cut the film together, using the software.
When creating the production company ident for the film opening. I had to use Adobe After effects and Cinema 4D. Because the prelim task did not require an ident, meant that this was all new. I had experience in both Cinema 4D and After effects before, meaning I could make a really good looking ident for my project. Because I am quite experienced in using AE, I could create some 3D text within C4D, and import the project file into AE to add the effects to it. I had never used the motion tracking in AE before, so I had to research how to do this. When I motion tracked the footage, I had to export the camera into C4D. I have had some experience in C4D but nothing this complicated before, so it was mainly trial and error for the 3D text and cameras. I then added extra effects to the footage and imported text, to make the ident look much better and look really dark and creepy, to apply to those horror conventions.
After all the footage had been cut together, I made some titles within AE to put into the film opening. I have had some experience within AE, therefore I could make some good looking titles that glitch, and dissolve out, for the film. This made the title sequence look much better for the film, which helped to improve it. There were no titles on the prelim task, therefore I had to use previous knowledge of the software to make to good looking titles. I had learnt how to motion track when creating the ident so I just applied that knowledge when creating the titles.
In the prelim, the only audience feedback we got was whether the cut was shot and edited correctly or not. For the main project audience feedback consisted of the narrative, sound, mise-en-scene, camerawork and editing. Therefore the audience feedback was crucial to help me improve the film opening.
As I was working on my own for the main project I did everything from the editing to the filming and the narrative. For the prelim task we did it in groups therefore the roles and jobs were shared out. As I was working on my own, organisation was crucial so I could make sure everything was shot correctly and the sound was good and the editing of the shots were perfect.
In conclusion, I have learnt quite a lot from the progression from the prelim to the main product. I had used cameras before but not to film. So this was all new to me. Also sound recording was also new as I had never made a film before. For the sound recording, I used the camera microphone and an external microphone for recording the dialogue afterwards. This was one of the weaknesses in the opening and took quite a lot of time to get it to what is sounds like in the final cut. If i were to re-do the opening, I would make sure that I recorded sound separately at the same time of the shoot, as some of the sound on the footage was unusable.
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