Evaluation Task 7 - Prelim : Main Film

Comparison of Prelim task to main film:

When filming our prelim task, my group and I were unaware of how to use the camera, as it was the first time using a proper camera rather than our phones. When we were looking over at the storyboard at first, we thought we just had to film it all from one shot. We didn't know we had to shot it from all different angles.  As well as this, we were given a story board which was simple and easy to follow for our prelim task. On the other hand, we had to write our own script for the film which was challenging and took a lot of time. Another thing, we had to do which was different to our prelim was we has to come up with our own storyboard with a variety of different shots and how we would actually shoot our film. 

In our Prelim task their where 3 main shots: a close up shot, wide shot and a medium close up. These are 3 very simple and effective shots people use. But, it won't make the film be as good as it good be as it isn't as sophisticated as it good be. However in our film there were a variety of shots including an establishing shot and even a bird’s eye view shot, which we used a drone for. The camera we used for our prelim task and our actually film where different. In our film, the school invested in newer cameras. Therefore, we were fortunate enough to use them as well as being able to use the camera on the drone. We filmed most of our film in a car which was awkward and challenging as there wasn't much room. Therefore, we had to be creative and film from the boot, over the shoulder shots and standing outside the car with the door ad window open. 

One of the most challenging thing and what we spent most of are time doing was editing our movie. This was done on software called Premier pro. We began looking over all our shots we filmed, which was around 94 different clips and started to discard the ones which were poorly filmed for example a shot in the car was moving around due to the bumpy roads. The ones we needed to keep for our final piece we put them in a labeled folder, which made it easier for us to look at again, and made it more organised. After we gathered all the shots needed we started putting them onto the timeline to begin creating a narrative for our film. Looking at the footage we had, we have slightly changed the narrative by starting with a flashback, which we hadn't thought of during our planning. We learnt many different things from this software for example: that we can zoom in on premier pro. This meant we were able to zoom in and crop out additional things in the picture that was not needed. When editing the prelim task, I struggled, as it was my first time ever using this software so I was new to it, which meant I wasn’t sure what all the options meant. However, after editing my film, I felt more confident using this software and editing clips as I spent so much time on it, I learnt how to change loads of different things.

The mise en scene in our main task was planned in advance. We created a storyboard of how we wanted to set it out. As well as this, we created blog posts based on location, set and props. The location of our thriller was in a variety of paces. It started outside a pub in Kingsbury called J.J. Moons, and then it is located in our actor’s car, which was used as a taxi. Our actor wore all black to symbolize violence and darkness. We used many different props such as, water bottle, a car, a gun, black leather gloves and ID cards. These props all played a huge part in film and created suspense in the film.   The mise en scene in our prelim consisted of corridor and some lockers for the set. We only had one prop, which was a pair of locker keys. Due to the lack of substantial costumes, props or set, which are all contributing factors to a successful film, we produced an ineffective piece, which was in deprivation of emotion and suspense.  The mise en scene in our film was more effective than in our prelim task, as we spent more time making sure that everything was correct and had key factors of making a good thriller movie.

In a thriller movie, sound is the most dominant feature for an effective film. Therefore, we made sure it played a massive part in our film to make it a lot more effective. Throughout our film, we added non-digeitc and digetic sound onto our timeline to create suspense, tension and mystery. We used sound effects, such as a heart beat when our actress in panicking in car. This was because, it enhances fear for the viewers. As well as this, we used non-digetic spooky music which is playing throughout the sequence where there is no dialogue. We have done this because it creates a build up in tension ready for something to happen. In our prelim, we did not use any sound or sound effects. This was because we were unaware of how to use the software confidently, which withheld us from making an effective prelim. Sound is an important factor in a film as it creates suspense and tension with a film. In a thriller stereotypically the audience are meant to be on the ‘edge of their seats’ and have their eyes ‘glued to the screen’ if the film is effective.