7. Looking back
at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you
have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Looking back at our preliminary task, I think I have
progressed immensely in many different fields, especially camerawork and
editing. For the preliminary task, we recorded a short scene that aimed to show
different camera angles/movement, a short story and a usage of continuity
editing (where the editing follows what is happening in order). For our final
product, we had to produce a two-minute opening that conformed to all the stereotypes
and conventions of our chosen genre (horror) and demonstrated a wide variety of
camera and editing skills. Even from that, you can see where the improvements
will lie.
For our preliminary task, we used a couple of shots (making
sure that we met the brief for the task) but other than that did not really
branch out with the shots that we use. We greatly improved on this in our final
product. We researched a lot of movies, analysing the types of shots that they
used and the effect that they have – then transferred this to our actual
product. I produced a Test Footage post, that went over a variety of shots that
we wanted to use and explained what they were and the effect that they have on
the audience. In our final piece, I thought we used a good variety of shot, for
example; we used a birds-eye-shot from the drone, close-ups of people’s faces
during scenes where facial expressions needed to be shown, a low angle of the
killer and an over the shoulder shot of Basket-Case taking the pills. I feel
like our skills with the camera has also greatly improved, as we learned how to
manipulate ISO to our own liking and also how to experiment with different
focus points, for example shallow or deep focus. I think we have made a lot of
progress in this area since our Prelim, and can hopefully continue to improve
in the future.
Sound in our prelim was non-existent except from dialogue. This vastly changed in our final product, we went from using no non-diegetic sound at all to using it primarily. We added a backing track, sound effects, foley diegetic sound (like ambient woodland sounds) and we used high quality recordings of our dialogue and also our non-diegetic voiceover. The voiceover was used to explain the narrative more clearly and the backing track was used to show the genre and set the mood for the attached scenes. The comparison between our final product and the preliminary task is vast and shows an obvious growth of both skill and understanding, that was aided by research and target audience analysis (in the form of focus groups).
Another key thing that we needed to improve from our prelim
was the usage of the different aspects of Mise-En-Scene. In our prelim we didn’t
pay any attention to costume, lighting or facial expressions and body language.
We did include a prop, the briefcase, and an example of positioning (as in our
brief we were told we had to have two characters sitting across from one
another). In comparison, for our final product we had to focus on mise-en-scene
extensively, paying close attention to props, costume, make-up and hair,
lighting and positioning and setting. We decided on an iconic setting for
Horror movies, that being a forest, and as we decided on stereotypical
representations for each of the characters they all had attached costume and
make-up and hair pre-defined. Compared with the prelim’s single prop, our final
product contained an abundance of different items, from a butterly knife to a
pack of prescription pills to revision guides. Each one served a purpose in the
story much alike the one prop used in our prelim but each had to be thought
out. Positioning was also a key thing in our final product, and it was down to
our own choice as opposed to being forced into it by some kind of brief. Some
key examples were the worms eye view of Basket-Case’s foot that left space for
a title to be inserted, or the final scene where the sixth character is placed
in the right third of the frame, with the boggy swamp shown in the other
two-thirds of the frame (which established a setting of his capture). The
locations used in our final production also varied, despite being mostly set
around the woodland. We had the more open areas and the thicket of the wood,
each with a key reason why it had been used instead of anything else. This was
another improvement compared to our prelim as there we only used one location
that, whilst planned out, was not good as it was just in our school.
The final thing that was an extremely large improvement was
the editing from our prelim to our final product. In between we developed a lot
of key skills that allowed for the final product to look more professional and
to be more effective. In our prelim we used continuous editing, which followed
the current course of action, and just used cuts to transition between different
shots. We didn’t do anything else to the prelim, it was all raw footage spliced
and put together, mainly because we edited it on Windows Movie Maker which is a
very simple and featureless application. In comparison, our final product was
edited on Adobe Premiere Pro, which allowed a lot more customisation in our
editing. For example, we colour corrected almost every clip in order to
accentuate key shades, like deep greens, and also to lower the brightness in
order for our final product to conform more with the chosen genre (Horror).
Other editing techniques we used were strobing (flashing one image over
another) and using a black and white filter. We were also able to tamper with
the audio, changing different levels in order to produce a foley effect or able
to sync the backing track with what is happening on screen by looking at the
sound wave graphs. We taught ourselves a lot of the techniques used to edit in
this way by watching Youtube videos, which gave a visual tutorial on how to do
certain things. This allowed our library of techniques to be increased from our
prelim as we were constantly learning and trying out new things. This allowed
us to gain a furthered knowledge in the editing sector that can then be applied
to any products that we create in the future, hopefully with further progress
than this final product.
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