Sarah Warren AS Media Studies: Evaluation 7

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

In between the process of shooting and editing our preliminary task to then shooting and editing our thriller opening we were able to improve our skills quite drastically. This can be seen in our progress with planning, filming and editing.

While making our preliminary task.
When starting our course we were blank slates we had no previous knowledge about the processes that went into filming and editing a piece of footage. As a result we had to learn from experience making mistakes and noting them in hopes to rectify them in future.This meant that when making our preliminary task we did not have very many skills and as a result our preliminary task was not of that high a quality.

When planning for our preliminary task we did not really put much effort into the plot, setting, props etc. because of this our preliminary task was very simple and put together. We also had to figure out the whole filming process for ourselves like where to position the camera and how to execute techniques like match on action/eyeline match/ shot-reverse-shot. This also meant that our preliminary task was lacking in quality as we did not know to think about things like backlighting which can be seen when I walk through the door in the preliminary task. Also the eyeline matches and shot reverse shots in the preliminary task are pretty badly executed.

Then when it came to editing we were not all tat familiar with the software and as such it was a process of trial and error in order for us to find out what worked and what didn't. This also allowed us to experiment with various different effects, transitions and the effects of fast and slow editing on the sequence. We decided to keep the preliminary task simple with minimal transitions. When it came to exporting we didn't really know the difference between the different formats to which we could export our footage, because of this we did not export it at a very high quality. All together our preliminary task is of quite a poor quality as we didn't really know what we were doing, this task was for us to experiment and make mistakes which we would be able to learn from in future.

What I learned from preliminary
That the planning process is important when making a successful
sequence.
How to effectively use an eyeline match and shot-reverse-shot.
Upload, edit and export footage in premiere pro.
How to use Youtube to upload my videos onto the internet.

Skills I gained from the preliminary

The ability to use film equipment: camera, tripod, mic and boom pole.
The ability to make decisions about camera placement.
The ability to edit footage on premiere pro by cutting footage and adding transitions.
The ability to render footage on premier pro.
The ability to export footage from premiere pro.
The ability to upload footage to youtube.

Preliminary task video

Eyeline match looking of screen at Shelby

Image of Shelby which for eyeline match

Shot reverse shot (1)

Shot reverse shot (2)

Backlighting

Shot reverse shot (3)

Our actual thriller is of a higher quality than our preliminary task. This is because we made detailed plans about what we were going to include in our sequence. Then when it came to filming the thriller we had better knowledge about the process of filming and how to do it successfully. Finally when it came to the editing process we made vast improvements to the basic editing that can be seen in our preliminary task. We also gave more time for the editing process of our thriller opening as we realised this was the area that would make the biggest difference to the overall quality of the final film. Due to the lessons that we learned during the preliminary task it can be seen that there is none of the backlighting problem or the problems with eyeline matches and shot-reverse-shots. Also as we learned from our preliminary task the importance of what format you export your sequence to our thriller opening is of a much higher visual quality.