Question 7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Since the completion of my preliminary task, my knowledge has advanced and I have learned a variety of new skills which have enabled me to apply them to my thriller. When we first began the preliminary task, I had little knowledge in gaining research, planning, editing and shooting for a film. With little experience in editing and shooting, only little experience from taking stills. When we began the preliminary task, we were put into groups. Working in a group was something we had to adapt to due to not knowing each other, and different opinions.

Research

With our preliminary task, research wasn't much of an important factor because of the preliminary task not having a genre to it. This meant that the research involved researching camera angles and shots, and also specific rules when shooting. For example, I learned that close up shots are used to show the emotions upon a characters face, to engage with the audience. And that a high angle shot is used to show that the character or object is vulnerable, and has a lower status than the other characters. With the help of research I learned what the 180 degree rule was and why its used and shouldn't be broken, it's a crucial part of filming when filming a conversation which is there so that you don't confuse the audience. Furthermore, other terms i had learnt through the preliminary task and research were shot reverse shot; a film technique where on character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. I had also learnt the film technique of match on action as well. The progress I've made with research from the preliminary task has been very efficient, allowing me to add the knowledge of what i've learnt about planning from the preliminary task and apply that to the research into the thriller genre. The research I've done for the thriller has allowed me to gain the knowledge I now know about the genre which is vital; as well as watching thriller films I never would have watched unless particpating within the subject of media. Through researching films of the thriller genre, we learned and were able to notify the importance of conventions with the genre, meaning that we could apply this knowledge we've researched to our media product, the thriller opening. My research included films such as 'Witness', 'Animal Kingdom' and 'Heavenly Creatures'. As well as researching films, I researched into other texts such as 'The Lady in the Lake' a novel. For any media product, research is vital as this is how you are able to gain knowledge in that specific area, for us being the thriller genre. By analyzing real media products such as 'Animal Kingdom' our group was able to take generic aspects of that thriller and apply references to our own.

Planning

For any media product, planning is essential. With the preliminary task, aspects of planning such as costume were not taken into consideration, so we just went along with what we were wearing on that day, noting that if we didn't complete filming in the time given in the lesson then continuity would be an issue. For the production of our thriller as a group we took note of costume and used it as a way of conveying the representation of social groups, race and gender. Through planning other aspects such as which intertextual references we were going to include were important and this type of knowledge would have only been acquired through research. For example when planning intertextuality, we used the 2 wide open car doors and added this to make a reference to our thriller when using the white van and having both of the vans doors wide open.

Camera angles and shots

An example of a tracking shot used

This is an important factor to take into consideration. With the preliminary task, we explored a variety of camera angles and shots which were gained from researching them. For the preliminary task the way we planned our camera angels and shots were through the use of storyboards. The progress that I have made with my knowledge of camera angels and shots, is that I have greater understanding of why certain shots are used, for example a low angle shot is used to express the authority, or importance of an object or character. For the thriller opening, we made a shot list which included the camera angles and shots, and as a group preferred using a shot list instead of a storyboard because we found it easier to add a new shot if we needed to.Another reason why we favored a shot list was because the shot list was done electronically on Microsoft Word, so when had lost a copy of the shot list we could just print off another copy, this would have been much harder with  a storyboard because we had hand-drawn our storyboards. Although as a group we found it effective to have a detailed shot list as well as a basic storyboard because we found it a lot easier to visualize, so knew what we were doing. 

Additionally, when shooting our preliminary task I had less knowledge in camera angles, so the perlimanry task included limited camera angles. However since then, my knowledge has increased in camera angles and their uses, so a greater variety of angles and shots were used in our thriller opening 'Transit'. This is another way how I have progressed into becoming much more confident in both using the camera angles as well understanding them as well.

Tutor Feedback

Tutor feedback played an important role in producing our thriller. Tutor feed back allowed us to make improvement upon editing, planning, and research as well as ways to improve our evaluation drafts. When we received feedback on a bit of work, we are notified by blogger in emails as well as it saying that there is '1 comment' on the selected piece of work. Once I read the feedback I could apply it and improve that bit of work. For example for my question 4 of the evaluation, my tutor had told me what i had done well, and then informed me on how i could strengthen my work. After reading the advice I then applied it to that question, a successful way of making progress on work.This is an effective way of feedback partly because of how easy and quick it is.

An example of the feedback my tutor gave me on quesion 4

Audience Feedback

The questionnaire

Audience feedback, like tutor feedback, is very important in seeing what your peers thought of the media product. Once we had completed the final cut for our thriller opening, I electronically sent a questionnaire to both males and females so that I could get some feedback. I sent the questionnaire to people between the ages of 16-21, because this is our demographic. The questionnaire asked several questions such as 'does the soundtrack effectively reflect and enhance the mood & action?' so that i could gather what people thought the negative and positive parts were of the opening. I collected a small sample of questionnaires and overall received a positive response to the thriller. One participant said that the soundtrack 'reflects the grittiness well' however the same participant noted that it 'took them a time to find the link between the watch and the girl'. This is an improvement we would make as a group, if given the chance to do the thriller opening again.

Colour grading

Sound and Editing

The preliminary task enabled us to give us a chance at editing using Adobe Premier Pro. This was a first time using this software for many of us, including myself. Prior to this, i had never used editing software before, so was all completely new to me. The preliminary task allowed us to experiment with Adobe Premier Pro, giving me the knowledge to do basic edits and effects. The things i learned included: Inserting in and out points in video points to cut the clips making them shortened, I learned how to use video transitions as well such as fade to black, and also how to include titles. These few lessons when editing proved vital when it came to editing our final thriller production. However gained a lot more progress when editing the final production. With the help of the members in our group I made a lot more progress in editing and for example learnt how to use colour grading, which alters the look of the footage.

The effect of changing the colour

Within  the preliminary task we weren't made known of diegetic and non-diegetic sound so therefore didn't know its importance within a media product. So for the preliminary task when editing we left all the diegetic sound in. This gave the effect of making the situation unrealistic but made the mise-en-scene realistic. Nevertheless when doing research and planning into soundtracks with my group for the thriller production, we learnt that sound was extremely important. When shooting and editing our thriller opening we made it top priority to keep an even balance between diegetic and non-diegetic sound so that we could get that realism from the mise-en-scene as well as to build tension. Another way in which I have progressed since the preliminary task.

Working Within a Group

Working within a group allows for greater creativity. When working with my group when producing the thriller, one of us would come up with an idea, then another one of us would improve upon that making it more creative. What this meant is that it improved our teamwork together, making us more comfortable within the group through sharing ideas and suggesting for improvements. Working within my thriller production group allowed us to come up with ways to establish the genre in our film, as well as allowing several responsibilities to us as individuals so that we were more efficient as working as a group. The result of this meant that we could come up with a wide variety of ideas, and also we could come up with ideas fairly quickly due to our individual roles. Another advantage of working within a group means that we can help each other understand certain factors within the thriller genre. We all carried out individual research into media texts so that we could distinguish things such as: the type of thriller, character roles and location advantages. This also meant that we could do the shooting process very quickly and come back to shoot another day if we needed to, which we did. One do the best advantages of having assigned roles within a group and working with a group means that we can help each other and reduce stress, making me feel much more comfortable working in a group since the preliminary task, therefore making progression