Evaluation: Question 7

Question 7

Looking back at your prelim, what have you learnt from the progression of it to the full product??

During the preproduction stage of the prelim task, we came across many problems. First, we learnt that a good script is very important for the film, as if the actors do not say and act exactly the same every time during filming, it creates problems with continuity. As we didn't have a very solid script, it was harder to get the same sort of reactions and dialogue every time we re-shot. We also learnt that it's best to keep the dialogue to a minimum during the filming, especially in short films, as complex, long dialogue makes it harder for the actors to get the lines right every time, and make the process more complex then need be. It also makes the film work better as if you allow dialogue to tell the story too much, then you focus less on the other aspects of the film and it becomes less interesting to watch. Therefore, by using less dialogue, you can create meaning through different shots or a specific prop or bit of mise en scene. When it came to the main ask, our group made sure there was minimal dialogue during the sequence, which meant that the script could be more detailed with the actions and movements rather then words. This means we also got to concentrate more on the actual story telling, which improved our film greatly. Another problem was the location recce. I realized during the prelim that many locations will have obstructions that create problems while filming. Locations are also unlikely to fit into the exact picture of what you thought you’d be filming, so I learnt that it's best to do more then one location recce of various places and pick on that fits the situation for filming, and not the picture you had in your head, This is why we picked the location we did during the main filming- although it had a few obstructions and didn’t quite fit the image we had in mind, it was out of the way and in a place where we'd get minimal interference. It was also in a place where we could freely move about and there weren’t any obstructions to the sun which would have disrupted the lighting during filming and therefore ideal for our film. We also realized during the prelim that the actual date and times for taking the film is key to when you can take shots,. Because of this, before filming the main task, we divided up the shots into groups, which were all taken in the same area or involved the same props and characters, so that when filming, if anything came up and we weren't able to get the correct items for those shots, we still had others we could take.

During our prelim's production, there were many instances when the equipment was either broken or malfunctioning. The worst part was during the production, our camera wasn't picking up sound, and thus the prelim had no sound. There were also instances of missing components and broken tripods, which meant we weren't able to film and had to push back the filming dates, which had repercussion on the rest of the production and the locations and actors we had asked for since we had to reschedule with them too. Therefore, when we got to the main task we made sure that all the equipment was functional before setting out for filming, and because of this, all our equipment was fine during all of the filming. Furthermore, because in the prelim task, our dates changed so many times, we learnt that it's best to always keep tabs on your location, book it weeks before, so that if the day changes suddenly, there's plenty of time to reschedule and make sure there's something available. This is why we made sure the indoor location for the main task was secured weeks before we actually filmed, and then went back and secured them whenever the schedule changed. We also made sure that more then one teacher in the department knew about our filming and that they had it put on their facilities timetable so we were ensured a place. Continuity was also a key part of the production and during the filming there were instances where the dialogue or the actions weren't the same take to take, and this meant that we had less choices when editing. This is why during the filming we kept continuity sheets which kept track of the smaller details so our continuity didn't have any problems.

Post-production in the prelim task was okay with time, as we did have enough time to edit our film and then go back and change things. Because of this, time management during out main task wasn’t much of an issue as we were able to complete our editing in time and then ask for feedback and then rework everything that was wrong. Sound and music was also a big problem during our prelim as our sound wasn't captured properly and this disrupted the film, because of this, we decided to make our main task only have a soundtrack over it. We came across a couple of problems trying to find the best possible soundtrack, but we eventually found one that was perfect and we were able to cut it down to the right length and make it fit our film. In the prelim, we didn't save multiple copies of our film and because of this we weren't able to go back and make changes as easily. Although this wasn't much of a problem since we didn’t have to make many changes, however this would have been a problem in the main task. This is why we saved multiple versions of our film so that we always had versions before the edits we recently made to go back on. We also constantly saved so that if there was a problem wit our editing software, we could easily close the program and get our data back when we re-opened it.