EVALUATION QUESTION 8- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

PRELIM first time filming with the techniques that we were taught

FINAL FILM after a 2week period of filming our opening sequence

(PASSWORD= Student)

TITLES

This is the title for our prelim film, it is directly in the middle on a black background with a faint red font. This was created on Live Type as one of the first titles we made. We loved it at the time then as we gradually learnt about titles and how they should be readable we realised that it wasn't such a good idea. However the way it is titled slightly is very disorientated and may pass as connotations for the film.

This is the title for our Final thriller. I downloaded it from a website called dafont.com. i really liked that it was bold and stood out, It held some connotations of the film as we placed it next to the London eye that is a circle attraction. Referring to the name THE CYCLE that means rotation/circle. This showed how i have progressed and learnt how to download different fonts that are much more suited to my thriller sequence.

MISE EN SCENE

Props used in these two images are a tesco carrier bag which was used as  a way to kill one of the characters, initial we thought this was a good idea but as we continued research we realised that it didn't look realistic and in a way was comical. Obviously it was suppose to be suspenseful and i didn't think that particular shot suited the genre. We also used a 'hazard' type to barricade the door to indicate that something dangerous is inside the room. This however was a good idea and kind of showed the audience that it may be a thriller.

We learnt for our final film that were had to think about mise en scene carefully and that they are used to create part of the actual storyline. In the first image you can see a girl holding a flower, looking deeply at the petals. In a way an innocent girl can be perceived and the flower is used to indicate her persona and what type of character she is. The other shot is of a woman carrying heavy shopping. The audience can already tell that she has been on a journey and it creates background idea about the character for instance, that she had to go food shopping for the household. This mise en scene was much better suited for the story we were trying to get across.

EDITING

The first shot with the two circles is from our prelim film. We can see that i used a cross dissolve transition which shows the same shot in two different  perspectives. One is from the killers and the other is from the victims, i thought this was a good example to use as it shows that we did try and use the information we learnt from films and audience perspective. The second image is from our final film  we decided to be much more challenging and creative as we incorporated two scenes into one using a transition called 'fade in' this allowed two scenes to merge together. It in a way introduces a new scene while one is finishing. This was useful as we were stuck for time and only had a 2 mins Maxim title sequence.

                                                            

LIGHTING
The first shot is from our prelim task, as you can see the shot of Sheri is extremely dark, allowing the audience not to see her face. This is very bad as facial expressions are often important to portray a successful piece of work. As the shot is also far away (long shot) we are even more at a disadvantage to see who she is. I brought this knowledge and mistake with me along to my final thriller as i remembered that lighting is important and it should be clear who characters are. The JVC cameras helped me with lighting issues (the GAIN button) increased the light tensity and made shots brighter if we didn't have any natural light at that particular shot.

CAMERA

These two shots are from my prelim film, They are actually really bad shots. One of the characters are practically cut out of the shot, this is bad as i later learnt that if this was shown on a big screen for example in the cinema it wouldn't fit in the frame and that part of the shot will be cut off. The second shot has allot of space at the side. Allowing the audience to be distracted and it doesn't look really professional. The over the shoulder shot should have been much more closer and really captured the three actors involved rather than getting the chairs, computer and bags in the background.

These two shots are taken from our Final film. These shots are much better and do fit the content more. They show that i have learnt skills and my progression has been clearly stated. The first shot is the over the shoulder shot and it is clear as to who is the victim. It is very close and it feels as if we are directly behind the guy looking at the young woman. The second shot i would describe as an extreme close up. We can see his eyebrows, one eye and nose. This really does capture his appearance slightly and get an idea of the actor. We would easily be able to identify him in the rest of the film. A variety of shots were used to really show off our skills and knowledge.

SOUND
Our sound in the Preliminary task was BORING it was just one consistent sound and had no excitement. We used the programme Sound Track Pro to add in a scream of when the killer suffocated the victim, even then it sounded rather fake and artificial. I then decided that for the final film we had to make sure that the soundtrack was very tense and suspenseful to create the mood. We ended up creating very unique and catching sound sequence from using the programme sound track pro. From all our audience feedback they all mention that our sound really did fit with our sequence, pace and titles, this allowed me to believe that it was an effective and successful piece

EXPERIENCES

During my time i have also learnt that team work is extremely important. My group consisted of 4 people, at times we had some difficulties were we didn't agree on particular ideas and decisions however we always tried to incorporate our ideas together. Meeting up to film in the mornings were hassle and there was always a group member late, but once we all were together we actively started participating and giving feedback on shots that we liked and didn't like so it was a productive filming experience. one thing that i liked about our group is that we always helped one another, constantly reminding each other about blogs that were due or planning that was needed. We usually allocated specific roles to our group members, for example Elias did soundtracks, Mariama and Myself done editing and Sheri focused on the titles and credits.

Being organised is sensual as you have to be very prepared to make sacrifices for example spend time filming out of college hours rather than going out with friends. We had to be on time when we were asked to collect equipment because of the simple reason that time slots were allocated and there are not enough cameras for every single group. This resulted in many people realising our responsibilities and recognising we had to work as a team in order to have a successful film at the end of the course.

I learnt that you had to be very careful with the equipment as they were very expensive and needed allot of care when handling. JVC camera, still cameras, memory cards, Tripod and flip cameras were the basics that i used throughout my filming process.
Overall my experience was great and i would do it all over again, i have some really nice memories and have learnt so much about technology and how to use Apple Mac computers.
There were a lot of differences between the two sequences, and in watching them, we could really see the differences and development in our editing and production techniques over time.My skills with editing have improved massively since the beginning of the course: initially, there were just lots of jump cuts and a various range of shots that didn't particularly flow together. Now i have learnt to use different techniques such as over layering shots and merging shots to create am overall effect that is more suspenseful for a physchological thriller.

Finally i have learnt that planning before you go our filming is very important as you have to organise who is bringing in particular props for that shooting day. Location for the setting, what time of day you are going to meet because when my group filmed at London Eye (Waterloo) we had decided to go in the morning as it is a tourist attraction so it often gets busy during the afternoon. You also have to do research so you know exactly what elements a thriller holds.