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

Here is the list of my previous targets:

1.      I need more detailed analysis in my evaluation about how I constructed my sequence using the program.
2. I need to be more organised when it comes to updating my blog as I struggled to keep putting up posts throughout the whole process.
3 .I need more consistency of sound during the editing process. (working with Adobe Premiere Pro)

I felt that I have met these targets as I have certainly improved in terms of organisation and the post production side of my main task. This is partly due to my confidence levels that have helped me in producing a higher level piece of work than before.

editing my piece

Certainly I feel that the consistency of my editing has become more fluent as I have learnt how to use the program Adobe Premiere Pro with the help of video tutorials and more practise than I had when I did my preliminary task. When undertaking my preliminary task, I felt quite panicked and rushed to get something in rather than creating a decent looking clip, which I learnt from and planned my time more effectively as not to rush, or miss certain key deadlines.

my google calendar for January

Planning and preparation was the most important part of this task as without it, my piece would have not been as good as it is now. Without the whole process of storyboarding, shot lists and a real script it would have not been possible to edit to make it look fluent and natural. Locations and actors were probably the most crucial part to this as it took a while to find willing actors and gain permission for a location. Originally we wanted to film it in some sort of bar location as it would be more realistic. We also were going to include dialogue in the bar as well as background chatter but due to various technical problems we had to redraft scripts, shot lists and re organise dates of filming to make up footage. This actually worked out far better than we had originally hoped.

Like I have said earlier, organisation of timing played a key role in aiding us through the process as during college time and the holidays, everyone had a lot to do in terms of coursework and spending time with family so it was hard to not only organise my time, but everyone else’s time to finish the filming process.

Luckily, I have some friends who study media studies at A-level and above and was able to get further knowledge from them regarding appropriate framing and technical skills that would help me during my main task. Certainly other blogs from various filmmakers on the internet made it easy for me to learn about the film style of Noirs and help replicate a similar feel to my piece by incorporating key shots I had also found during research such as the shots of feet. I invested in a large tripod and a portable 500 watt halogen light to help my film look professional and more authentic as a film noir.

I think that this task gave me a chance to become more creative with my editing as I had more time to do the process as well as being able to experiment with various ideas like brightness and contrast. Since it was a film opening and the conventions were completely different to the preliminary task to demonstrate continuity editing, I had to use more features of Adobe Premiere Pro in order to make titles appear on different frames and stay for a certain length of time. This wasn’t too hard but as always, things take a little bit of experimenting to get right. What I probably found most difficult about the post production stage was the addition of a soundtrack to my piece and a voiceover. It was a lot harder to edit in audio after I had unlinked the original audio and put in music or a voiceover to fit accordingly to the footage I already had. We also experimented with video transitions which often didn’t work the way we had expected to and made the opening look slightly ‘cheesy’. We eventually decided on a simple fade over as it fitted quite well with the conventions of film noirs where frames were blended into each other by kind of overlapping the frames whilst changing the opacity of each one.

 

the media group I set up on facebook

Another thing I had to consider whilst producing my film opening was having my target audience constantly in my mind. One thing I did to kind of combat making mistakes or being unsure about how things work was by posting up different versions and tester clips of my opening during the editing process. By doing this I was able to gain instant feedback to suit my audience’s needs more and improve my piece. Any comments they made were taken into consideration and ultimately changed how parts of my film turned out as it determined the outcomes of my decisions.

different version of my piece I posted onto youtube

I would have to say that the biggest thing I have learnt from this task is the importance of planning as during my previous task, my organisation was quite poor and this heavily affected how my piece turned out. By creating new and improved versions of the research and planning part and posting it onto my blog, I was able to keep on top of what needed to be done and felt more confident when it came to filming the actual piece. I utilised the blog more often than I did before which I would say definitely helped me feel more confident with organisation and planning towards my piece.