Question 7- What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from the preliminary task to the full product?

In the preliminary task we had to plan and prepare for filming our task, we had to storyboard our film, organize costumes, actors and locations however because this task was only to film a short interview it did not take much planning, however it was good practice for filming angles and different shots. Compared to the main task however, the organisation of props, costumes, actors and locations in addition to the initial storyboarding and target audience research, this was crucial in order for the film to have been created how we wanted it to, if we had not organised these things the film would not have fitted with our genre and our target audience would not want to watch it. In addition to this organisation of time helped us achieve our goal, by using our blogs to set target dates for when certain areas of planning or filming would be complete we managed to stick to a schedual.
When filming our sequence I took what I learned from the preliminary task and developed it for example using hand held shots to show panic and filming close ups by placing the camera on a tripod and zooming, as well as filming from different angles and including match on action. In addition to this the way we edited our sequence made the whole product look professional whereas our preliminary task looked amature, this is evidence of how much we have developed our skills. We added titles in suitable fonts and sizes, cropped and cut out shots, added jump cuts to ensure the audience knew the genre was horror, also added sound which was unusual music adding to the horror effect. When we planned the preliminary task we did not take into as much consideration the target audience and their opinions however for this final product we needed to make sure the film was suitable for our audience and that they would like our ideas so as we could make money from the film. We did this by setting up a focus group on a website that is easily accessible and popular in our target audience ages range. The biggest thing I have learned from undertaking this project is probably how to organise the actual production of a company and how much planning and time it actually takes. In addition to this I thoroughly learned how to use new technology such as the filming cameras and editing software such as Premiere pro. When editing the final sequence, we formed jump cuts by trimming and moving clips, also added music where appropriate and titles in suitable styles. Also I have learnt filming techniques such as the importance of holding a shot steady hand-held and using a tripod so there is a clear clip where appropriate, plus framing a shot including things we want the audience to see and how much of the frame this fills and excluding elements we do not wish the audience to see, for example when filming in college we did not wish for the audience to see other students or signs or posters that would make the film look unprofessional. We used a variety of shot distances to keep the audience attention and to build up tension. Selecting suitable mise en scene was vital to ensure the genre of our opening sequence fitted with the storyline, so we chose colours, costume and locations etc very carefully however one downfall was due to transport issues we could not film in our desired location so we had to film on college site. We edited the sequence so that elements of a horror genre were included however we created enigma codes to make the audience want to watch the rest of the film and find our what happens. The music we used was slow with fast shocks of sound which fitted with our genre and jump cuts with regards to editing in our sequence. We also created the titles in colours that are usually associated with horror films or gruesome things (red and black).