Evaluation Q7

Q7) Looking back at your preliminary, what do you feel you have learnt in progression from it to the full project?
Looking back at the preliminary task I can almost not believe that I participated in such a poor production. The task lacked a certain level of continuity and was most definitely to short which ultimately proved disappointing and it didn’t really achieve the message we were trying to put across or reflect the groups potential. In terms of expertise and knowledge gained from the prelim it is amazing of the awakening it gave me with regards to the use of technology and ensuring that I am working to the best of my ability in order to reach my target grade and above.
The preliminary task was very structured and it didn’t provide us with so much time to ensure every detail was met; we had to keep to a tight time schedule to ensure that our actual finished production was given enough time. Our main task allowed a lot more preparation to take place such as a range of research regarding our target audience, who they were and how we could please them. Inevitably we had a greater amount of time to produce this and this allowed us to put into consideration depth and further detail to the storyline and this is when we started to think about the use of mise-en-scene, props and shots and the effects we wanted them to have on our viewers. The prelim taught us not to rush into things and actually take a step back to consider our actions and where they were leading us; a good example of this would be when we made arrangements that fell through without a backup plan ultimately wasting filming time.
The group took a slightly relaxed approach to the prelim and considered that simple was effective “that’ll do” when in reality it was not good enough and this was an important step for us realising that this is not always the case, we need to put pen to paper and jot down detailed points. This later revealed the important of planning which allowed us to save time which again was important as we were trying our best to keep to tight deadlines. Another aspect was the location in which we were filming. In our prelim many of the areas we approached were often inappropriate due to noise levels and the sheer amount of people in any given place or the room was booked meaning the actual filming was postponed which then placed a domino effect on the rest of the film as everything was delayed. We were not prepared to make this same mistake and this taught us a valuable lesson being that it was important to book locations in advance to avoid drawbacks.
The prelim was organized poorly and the notes were minimal meaning there was no real direction of where we were going and for the matter where we wanted to go and this reflected in the poor comments and grade achieved. There were generally plenty of areas for improvement such as a detailed shooting schedule which would play similarity to the way it would be shot out to our viewers and this was important as it allowed us to set aside areas for filming and the shots that would be done in a particular settings and this ultimately helped with the continuity and general flow which I felt was very poor in the prelim, had the prelim not taken place the group may not have picked up on this.
The prelim didn’t require us to carry out research concerning genre, target audience or conventions and having analyzed the prelim it taught me and the group to go away and really dig for information on common conventions etc and this is important because had we not known this it could have proved tragic when conventions clashed.
The actual production of the prelim proved helpful as it allowed the group too really point out elements we didn’t like and then build on them by adding greater detail and if there was an aspect we really didn’t like and perhaps felt is in the wrong place we would go back to the drawing board and look at finer detail for improvement or even scrapping a particular shot all together. Areas that were picked out featured the rushed ending as we the viewers felt it was to sudden and when it came to our actual shoots we added more shots to break in the footage so the viewer didn’t feel so rushed and as a result they have time to react.
With regards to shoots the prelim featured no re-shoots, every shot was considered playable and this was partially due to the time scale we had though this affected the quality of the film and explains some of the poor footage that can be seen. From this we took away that it was important to plan the shots first hand and not settle for anything less than our viewers would expect to see and in relation to time the fact that we were so tight for time in the prelim made us aware of what we needed to do and the time they should be done in.
By the time our prelim had been shot an uploaded to the Mac we found ourselves embarrassingly laughing at the quality of shots we were reduced to because we considered that we would work with what we had and all would be okay. When it came to editing and cutting we were reduced to a measly 30 seconds introduction from what had been the good part of 15 minutes filming. From this we gained the understanding that we would need to shoot more footage than perhaps needed as when it came down to the editing process it was better to have more shots than not enough.
One area that was not directly related to filming was the work load. We had a large task to perform and we were restricted to small groups of four which meant that there was a lot of pressure. However in the initial prelim we managed to get a group of three together underestimating the work that needed to be done. Inevitably some members pulled their wait more than others though this can be argued by the amount of experience that certain members held.
To conclude we learnt that it was important to share the work load equally between the group and it really helped when it came to the final product as we learnt to assign roles and provide deadlines to ensure there was an element of pressure. A good example of sharing the work load concerned editing in the Mac suit, during the prelim editing was relatively small and straight forward as was our understanding of the application on the Macs. However when it came to editing the real thing it proved a lot more time consuming and the group therefore needed to work together and in partners to tackle the editing bit by bit.