Evaluation - Question 7

Q7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?


Pre production involves
• Treatment, is the basic stages of the story, brief sentences outlining main events in the story, the equilibriums, new equilibriums etc
• Script, the script of the whole film, outlines scenes characters are in, has stage directions and is used for a guidance for the producer, production team and cast
• Storyboard, with the storyboard we drew out how we visualise the story. It is an accurate drawing of every shot going to be featured in the sequence. The drawings are detailed with Mise en scene elements.
• Photo storyboard, the photo storyboard helps us to visualise what the actual film will look like and how shots will be filmed
• Location recces
• Casting
• Shooting schedule, helps to organise the order of what to film, can help to manage time efficiently, our schedule was very similar to our storyboard, although we scheduled the shots with cast to the very end to give us more time to focus on shots with cast and also keep track of what shots are done and what aren’t.
• And filming rehearsals – rehearsing shots, camera movements and angles, and techniques like focus.


Production
• Filming the shots
• Location
• Continuity sheet
• Director
• Re-takes


Post Production
• Editing, digitized shots, sequenced shots in order of the storyboard, and added soundtrack, titles and transitions effects.
• Getting feedback from audience helped us to understand how other people see our sequence and if they view it the same way as us, feedback helped us to make changes to improve it like the rearrangements of shots and titles.
• Searching for music, we had to find a copyright free music to play in our opening sequence



In the preliminary task we were partnered up into pairs; we were given two casts, Matthew and Norianne. Me and my partner Ester started the first task of pre-production, this including many aspects such as the training of camera/filming equipment as well as sound equipment, deciding on what the film is about, storyboarding, the script, how many shots will there be, the type of angles and camera movement techniques we will use, e.g., high angle shot, close-up shot and panning.

I and Esther managed out tasks in a very organized and equal way, when deciding on what our film would be about, we discussed the shots we would like to include, the techniques we would like to use. I thought the use of close-ups would be useful in our film as it would create an effective impact by allowing the viewers to see the facial expressions of our cast giving our viewers a chance to understand what our actor and actress are going through in the scene.

Esther and I managed our tasks in other ways too; we discussed about ideas and decided on one, we then began to develop on the storyboard, which helped us to understand how we are going to shoot our film, and how we will portray the message of our clip in a way that will let our audience understand. We also discussed the script, what should be in the script etc. The homework of the storyboard and script was done over the weekend by Esther although, through the weekend me and Esther still worked together on it by exchanging numbers so we could communicate over the phone and so we discussed the amount of lines to be put into the scripts, we also discussed the match actions to an shot/reverse shot to use and the 180 degree rule.

I.e. in a few shots, Matthew and Norianne are arguing, we agreed on using an action reaction shot for this, so we can see the facial expressions and emphasize on the importance of this argument in the film, we also remembered that we had to choose were the camera will be filming all this and how it will keep to it’s 180 degree rule. 180 degree rule is for example when there are two characters in a shot and they are having a conversation, and conversations usually involve shot/reverse shot to see each characters as they are talking, when the camera films them it is from an angle that shows a side of the character. The camera has to be filming within 180 degrees of that side and not cross the line. If it crosses the line it will end up filming the other side of the characters face and this would ruin the continuity. Having these skills was useful however it was not needed in our main task.

On the following Monday, I proof read the script and directly apply my feedback to it, by editing it to make it better, basically making a few improvements and adjustments, I included stage directions, I also included directions for the cast, e.g. the high or low level of tone of voice, the sarcasm, tension, or sadness etc in dialogue speech. We also when meeting face to face, went over the storyboard again to make sure it made sense, we made a few adjustments to it too. We cut out some shots that were unnecessary, like shots that had shown the same thing after another and therefore became pointless. This was a very useful skill to have. Especially when it came to the main task as our script had to be very detailed. Outlining everything that will be seen in the sequence and its order of shots, the location, time of day etc.

Unlike the main task in the prelim we failed to ask and look for feedback from audience rather than just ourselves. Therefore, in the main task we made sure we got enough feedback of our storyboard, script and treatment.

From the first pitch of our treatment, storyboard and script this was our feedback. They said;
• the story is too serious
• Fall into the drama genre
• needs to be less complicated
• needs to be more light hearted
• Too much packed in, too much happens, confuses audience.
• Although, it does show the moral theme of jealousy.

Opening sequence
Feedback from Pitch of opening sequence

• Not clear that it’s a fantasy genre
• introduces too many characters
• doesn’t show world of film, not enough hints of narrative.
• does not show world of character enough
• don’t see it being a fantasy genre
• Too much packed in the openings
• doesn’t look like it is for target audience, children.

We realised a lot needed to be done and a lot of re evaluating of the story as a whole and the opening sequence was needed. We took this feedback from the pitch and with the help of it, we cut out unnecessary elements and we added in better ones. We understood the audience felt that the genre turned into drama with the family issues, so we cut out the family issues in the story and focused on the relationship between the sisters more, also in a more light hearted approach. Audience said the morals came through quite clear so we kept the elements that suggested the morals in, i.e. the conflict shown between the sisters shows the jealousy.

However, when it came to feedback of the opening sequence we realised our opening sequence would not work. We had the right idea but we needed to show it in a more different way where it shows links to genre and narrative etc. Our original opening sequence had four characters in it, main character, her parents and her step sister. We were told there was too many characters involved and the world of the main character became less emphasized, it also lacked information of the world of this character.
Audience said there was too much packed into the opening sequence which made it hard to follow, needs to be simple and light hearted. We took this feedback and came up with a brand new opening sequence, we done everything the feedback told us to do and we listened to each feedback and adapted it to the new opening sequence.

We made a second pitch to the same audience with the new opening sequence, improved treatment and storyboard.
Our feedback was very good and showed a huge improvement, audience liked the story, liked the opening sequence. The storyboard showed reflection to the narrative and shows it’s a fantasy. We actually had no negative feedback.

Our storyboard was made in the original location we had decided on, the decision we made for our original location was a room in the school that we had to turn into a bedroom, making a fake bed and make it look as real as possible. It needed a lot of work but was possible to create. However, after the pitch we got feedback about our location, many people including the teacher thought that making a fake bedroom wouldn’t work; it would be too unrealistic and made up. We agreed, as there were some elements of a bedroom missing from the room that we could not make, like a window. There were elements that we couldn’t remove like 2 mirrors on the wall, and two doors on the other wall, this meant we had to cover the walls up with large sheets to hide it. This made it look unrealistic also. From feedback we were advised to find a different location, a real bedroom, preferably a girl’s bedroom so it’s more believable to audience and a room with more space. We then started looking for locations to use and were able to find a girls bedroom to use, we learnt as a group that to achieve the most real and professional look was to do it at the actual location then to make it into one.
However, compared to the prelim task I think the choice of location was ok but not that well thought out. As choice of location was limited we could only choose from locations within the school. The classroom was the best location as we could shoot fluently without interruption from other students in the school. It helped avoid students walking into the shots or voices or sounds being herd in the scene.

By using feedback, it enabled my group to work on our storyboard, script, ideas and every aspect to do with our film to bring improvement to it. This was very useful as it helped eliminate the downfalls of the production of our opening sequence. Unlike the preliminary task, we did not get proper feedback, which held us back as we would not know if the clip actually works in terms of the message it’s trying to convey.

How did I manage time?

A few mild issues did come up with our time management; when we began to do the shooting of our scene we went straight into shooting, with little rehearsal. The problem we encountered with this method was that because we did not rehearse enough, when we had problems with the shots we were filming we had to deal with it on the spot, improvise on the issue and resolve it as soon as possible so we wouldn’t loose time. However, In contrast to the main task when it came to the rehearsals we found it partly useful as well as not useful. When rehearsing the shots we found it weak as we couldn’t rehearse filming in the actual location which would have been useful in determining how well it would go and what problems there could be and how to be prepared or solve them before hand. I learnt that to predict success of the film, rehearsals should be very precise and gone through thoroughly by rehearsing all shots and different angles. However, we made our rehearsals accurate by practicing in a room that had similar props like shelves and tables.


We did loose a bit of management and control of timing, when instead, before filming we should have made estimate timings for each shot so it would enable us to work out how long it will take for each shot and the timing of each take within the hour given and the pace we should be working at in that 1 hour. Instead our lack of control of time management caused us to take double the time, which in reality would not be acceptable in a filmmaking industry.

By experiencing this, it has helped me learn what we did wrong and how I can learn from the mistake by choosing a different methods of managing time then I did before, so in the main task, differently to what I done before, I knew to rehearse more of my shots and to manage all timings for my shots and takes within the time period of filming given in order to keep things flowing and to avoid issues like taking too long, giving too much time to filming a shot then having to rush the other shot makes it look messy. From this mistake I knew how to avoid it when it came to the main task. Knowing what to expect and how to overcome possible problems.

I think a good strength of mine in the prelim task was in pre production, when it came to discussing the script and proof reading it I felt quite comfortable and confident in doing that task, along with going over the storyboard, rearranging shots in different orders, matching the storyboard up with the script and seeing if it goes well with the script. This skill I had again had an advantage on the main task as the method of pre production is the same so I would need the same skills in this part of production.

Other aspects of pre production like deciding on types of shots, angles and camera movements, I felt confident in deciding which ones to use in the filming, as I feel familiar with the effects of these types of shots and how, where and when to use them in filming, i.e. a close up used to show the Norianne’s angry facial expression and a panning camera movement to show Matthew walking from down a corridor and through a door. Similarly with the main task, with the skills and knowledge of shots and meanings they can convey. We used certain shots to show and convey different things. We used a close up of a fairytale book Cinderella to show a hint of narrative and emphasize the importance of this book and our film and the link between the two.

What I learnt.

In my task I used cannon XHA1, DV (digital video) camcorder. This camera is mostly directed to independent filmmakers, broadcasters, documentary filmmakers and journalists etc. At first we was given basic training of how to use the camera, we were taught how to set the camera and tripod up, i.e. when setting up the tripod it is important to adjust the level to your neck, so when placing the camcorder on top, the camcorder will be levelled to your eye, therefore making it comfortable for the cameraman to use the camera.

I then learnt how to set up the camera on the tripod, when setting up the camera on the tripod I learnt how to lock it into position on the tripod so it is securely placed, for the safety of the camera basic checks to ensure it was on the tripod correctly was simply by holding the camera from the top and to gently push it in a few directions to make sure it wont move or fall off. To make sure the camera is levelled, we had to adjust the spirit level, this is important when using the camera because if you fail to check or adjust the spirit level, then when filming everything in the frame it won’t be levelled in the shot, but tilted and uneven. We also learnt other basic things like inserting the battery into the camcorder and inserting a tape in the camcorder. These basic skills came as an advantage in the main task helping me to set-up quickly and properly, saving time.

Also, I learnt other interesting things in using the actual camera, i.e. for effects of zooming in and out, you can also make adjustments to the speed of the zoom and control how fast or slow it is in your filming. I felt using a digital camera was very convenient. It made things quite simple and straightforward rather then complex. With film, it becomes more fidgety and time consuming when you have to convert the film onto a tape and go through numerous processes, whereas digital is pretty much straight, you film it, it goes on tape, you upload it, edit it through your computer, and your done. Filming on the other hand extends the process. In the main task we used digital camera to film as well. From previous experience using digital camera and its effects in it enabled me to use the camera effectively and without problems, I had enough practice and learnt the basic techniques of a camera before. Therefore I felt confident in using it in the main task.


What factors did I have to consider

I had to consider many factors when planning the scene, I had make sure that the ideas for what our scene will be about and that what we came up with wouldn’t be too complex as if it was, it might cause confusion for us and then consequently the audience. Especially because our scene had to be very short (2-3 minutes), and filmed within an hour.

For example, if I was to come up with an idea, that involved countless props and action parts like fights etc, then it would be very unrealistic to produce within an hour. So I had to make sure that the idea we were to come up with would be convenient, suitable and realistic to the time set for us. When planning, I made a shooting schedule. Arranging all the shots in order, I arranged them by setting/location. So which ever shots were featured in the same room, I shot them all together. This saved time because if I done it in a way that one shot was in a classroom and the next shot was outside, then the next shot is back in a classroom and done it in that order of the story board, it would consume more time, by having to move around continuously and set up again causes loss of time which interrupts the management of time. In the main task we arranged our shots similarly. We followed this method on as it helped us to organise and mark off shots filmed and also arrange them to save time.

Another factor I had to consider was when filming was two takes is needed for every shot. Sometimes we found it hard to get the shot right and some shots had numerous takes, so a factor we had to then consider was just before filming each shot, to practice it and briefly rehearse it. In editing factors that we know now to consider was shooting shots of different angles, we realised that some shots did not look good at angles we thought did at the time of filming and we had no other shots of different angles to pick from as a back up. From this lesson we learnt, in the main task, to remember to feature shots from many angles and movements and to include variety all the time as a back up just in case the first choice shots don’t work out.

From the prelim tasks I have learnt for myself through this experience about what filmmaking is the difference between film and digital and how digital has developed in the technology world by making it so easy to use for even people like me, a young student, to use and produce a film with. From completing my task I have learnt from the ways I ordered my task, what I done wrong, i.e. not thoroughly rehearsing the shots before filming it, yet I have learnt from the things I done right in my task, like constantly communicating with my partner about the pre production work, the script, storyboard and schedule and discussing about it to her. From this experience I took into account the flaws of the preliminary task of not rehearsing the scene thoroughly.

Although we did not manage our time well, as we should have made time limits for each shots in order to get everything done on time, we also physically learnt from the experience, and by actually going through it, we can actually see what went wrong, why it went wrong and how we can solve it, how we can manage our time in a better and more professional way next time. I think a strength I had was when using the clapperboard when filming, I was familiar with how I can communicate to the cameraman and the cast, when to begin there roles, my role was to indicate at every take, the shot that is being filmed, and the take number, I had to allow few seconds after clapping the board before saying action and beginning the shot. My job was important as it helps the shot to flow the way it is supposed to and I think I done a reasonably good job of it. As this experience was positive, we followed the same process in the main task. This enabled us to avoid any possible problems.

In the editing process. We used adobe premiere pro, and it was quite easy and swift to use, it was easy to drag and drop, capture and cut shots. Digitalizing was easy doing, which was basically capturing all the best shots we would like to use. In the Preliminary task I learnt many things about the editing process, I have learnt how to capture images onto the computer, and digitalize them. I have basically learnt the order to go through to edit shots and arrange it into a film/clip. I learnt how to go over shots and cut off excess filming parts and keep the necessary parts to make our clip. After cutting clips I learnt how to drag it into the timeline and place the shots in the right places so it makes the clip flow. I covered how to add on effects which was simply dragging an effect onto a shot.
From these skills of editing I became confident in how to edit. When it came to the main task however, it was not exactly the same and some parts of editing were more complex and there were also more things we had to consider and include in the main task than the prelim task. In contrast to the prelim task this is the journey of editing in the main task. But the basic skills and practice of using the software came to use in the main task making it easy.



• Firstly we had to search for music, we had to find a copyright free music to play in our opening sequence and this took quite some time as a lot of music tracks did not flow or keep up or generally suit the sequence.
• The process of editing was digitized shots which were basically capturing the footage from tape to the computer; we then had to sequence shots by dragging them onto the timeline and all in order of the storyboard.
• We then made the titles, designing them with the theme of colour Blue, we changed gradients and colours of the titles and customised background colours etc.
• Finally we imported the soundtrack on the timeline, we found the track did not last long enough so we had to edit the track by extended it through repeating the last sounds
• We then added effects, after going through all effects; the most suited ones were the dissolves. The two dissolves we used was cross dissolve and additive dissolve
• Getting feedback from audience helped us to understand how other people see our sequence and if they view it the same way as us, feedback helped us to make changes to improve it like the rearrangements of shots and titles.
• We had few minor problems when it came to doing simple things like changing the colour of the background for the titles as we did not know how to and did not have practice in designing titles, we only had practice in making basic titles. The reason for not having practice in designing titles in the preliminary task was because we filmed a scene of a film and not an opening sequence of a film
• I would have preferred a more creative fairytale like font, we wanted to have the times new roman style kind of font but with patterns around the capital letters like we see in fairytale books, we found a font for this however, the font would not actually come out when typing it so it didn’t work. So we had to stick to the font without the patterns though.

Making decisions in editing sometimes came easy and sometimes not. As I was editing with my partner Esther, it meant we both had to agree on how these shots were edited, and in truth, we did disagree on a lot of things, like where to place a certain shot on the timeline, what take we preferred, for instance I might have preferred ‘shot 1 take 1’ whereas ester might have preferred ‘shot 1 take 2’ instead, this meant we somehow had to come to some agreement which shot to use, this also showed that we saw our story in different views which is beneficial as it brings ideas but also not beneficial as it meant we could not understand each other about how we wanted to view the clip. However, when it came to the main task I found it went very swift the communication between the members in my group helped us to work together swiftly and in a fluent manner. It enabled us to follow and keep up with the task and what was happening. We discussed issues, ideas, how to manage our time, down sides and upsides of our decisions etc. we understood how we wanted to make our opening sequence and understood the films narrative, meaning, codes and conventions to use. Therefore when it came to editing, we agreed on most of the same shots to add into the timeline, the order and if we felt it worked. We analysed as a group the strengths and weaknesses of each shots and picked out the best shots to use.

Other issues in making decisions was also in little things like how long the shot should last for etc. although there were disagreements we did agree on many things too, like some shots we agreed to use and where to place it on the timeline, we also agreed on the effect we wanted to use and on what shot to place it in. We did not plan our time to complete the task as this was the first time we have done editing, we had to experience the ‘do’s and not to do’s’ in the task first hand in order to actually know what to do next time to save time etc. We basically got straight into editing and done as much as possible in the time given. Remembering the preliminary task I took the experience I learnt into account in the main task. This time we used all the time given, estimating the time of each shots and thoroughly planning how we will organise the filming of shots in order to meet the deadline of filming.

Problems we faced in editing was simple faults like when accessing the software, after setting up the camera and connecting it to the computer when we had to capture the shots onto the pc sometimes it said it could not connect to the pc and as many times as we restarted the software and camera and switched things on and off, it did not work and this wasted valuable time, were more could have been done sooner, so the best alternative is to simply just change pc or change camera. We did encounter similar problems like this and we simply remembered the solution so this helped us to save time. We also had problems like on rehearsing day we were given a camera where its sound did not work, so we simply changed camera. On filming day we set up the camera and equipment to check it worked properly before taking it away to our locations.


Production.

• First we organised the whole setting of the location, decorating the room with children’s toys and props, rearranging the room to look like a little girls room
• I then set up the camera and tripod
• The process of production was looking at the shooting schedule to direct us what shot to film first; it helped us get through all the shots step by step in an organised way
• When filming, sound person and the camera person would get in position to film the shot, the director would make sure the camera person is shooting the right camera angle and remind the camera person how the shot is to be done, the director would look at the Mise en scene and fix any visible flaws, she then indicates the shot and take through speech and the clapper board and says action.
• I as the camera person would allow 3-4 seconds for the camera to get back into focus and then shoot.
• When shooting shots like pans, I would start recording before hand and start panning before we get to the actual chunk of the shot needed. This was to have the effect of the shot already panning instead of a shot starting as a still then panning on screen.
• Looking back at the prelim task, mistakes of not including a variety of shots of different angles and movements was a big flaw. In the main task we did a lot of takes and shots of different angles. We done shots that had tracks in without tracks, and shots with or without zooms etc.
• Continuity sheet kept track of all the shots and how many takes we had filmed, outlined details of the shot like props, characters etc. Useful for organising shots when it comes to editing

Through shooting a variety of takes I learnt the importance of it as it helped us to encounter a minimal amount of problems when it came to not liking a shot and wanting to use a different angle for the shot, which we had, as a back up, saving time. This also meant we didn’t have to go back and reshoot shots this was a lesson that came into practice after the preliminary experience.

I found the method of production for the main task was different to the preliminary task as in the main task we had to consider more things like Mise en scene, creating the setting, the props in the frame and location, lighting etc.


Here is feedback from the teacher and other students;
• Re choose production name
• Camera tilt and pan floats nicely, very well shot
• Camera movements are steady paced
• Smooth
• Good use of transitions
• Pan if props significantly used, sense of narrative
• Very good focus
• Interesting cinematography
• Good hint of main character, by not showing the face
• Soft focus ends opening sequence smoothly
• Looks like a fantasy movie
• Props reflect well on narrative
• Shows characters world very well
• Music goes good with the whole opening sequence

We listened to the feedback of the production title and changed it from T.I.R productions to TALE production.
In all I found from feedback, our film clip was very successful in its improvements all the way from research and planning too the actual main task. I feel I have developed in a number of skills and good habits in filming and all the production stages. As a group we have improved in using cinematography (production values) and taking it into full consideration this time I feel we have used it efficiently in the task and shown it well.