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

During my preliminary task I learnt many things, the use of certain technologies,the importance of editing, how time consuming producing a film (Even the beginning of one) is and the importance of organisation during a film. In the preliminary, I used technologies which were new to me: Camera's and Apple Macs, I also used editing programme's – something that I had never done before. Using these technologies in my preliminary enabled me to practise and better the new skills I had for when we filmed our main task.
In many ways my main task has improved from my preliminary. My main task was a lot more focused and clear because I had to be more specific about genre's and conventions within that genre. Compared to my preliminary, my coursework is a lot more structured and is easier to understand – when I had to edit for my main task, I was more skilled with the editing programme's and so the structure of my product is a lot tighter than it had been, due to the better structure, my product was also easier to understand. Wholly, the idea for my coursework is much more interesting than that for the preliminary which in itself makes my media product better. Camera angles in my full product have a wider range than they do in the preliminary – where everything was very simple – during the filming of the main task, my group were a lot more creative with the shots we used, we stuck to the one hundred and eighty degree rule during conversations but the wide range of angles enabled the viewer to see much more of our setting.
If I was given a choice to improve anything in my main task, I would. Upon planning I had a certain image of how everything was going to be and due to the limited time we had to film, it did not have much likeness to my perception of the idea. If we had more time and certain editing programme's then I believe that we would have been able to make our setting more surreal than it already was. I would improve the steadiness of the shots in our film, we didn't use the tripod available to us and so, if we could film again, I would have made sure that we did use them.

Audience research and Editing.

Audience Research:

Considering the films we used and considered for inspiration, I decided to do some research on the audience's that Pans Labyrinth, Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, The imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Narnia: The Lion the Witch and Wardrobe attracted.
I researched what certificate's these films were given by the BBFC (British board of film classification) . Pans Labyrinth was certificated 15 for strong language and violence. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was certified PG-13 for epic battle sequences and scary images (taken from idmb). The imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was certified PG-13 for violent images, some sensuality, language and smoking (taken from torrents). Narnia: The Lion the Witch and Wardrobe was certified PG (Taken from idmb).

Note: consider this for evaluation questions.



Editing:


My group finished our editing within the deadline and - as said previously - it was a lot more time consuming than I realised. We finished most of the editing but were still over two minutes long. We all recognised that we had far too much loaded into such a small amount of time and had to go back on our original plans (Flash backs into reality and flash forwards to show Sam's death) and cut out pieces of film to narrow it down. In the end, however, our film looked a lot better for it.
We had an organised screening (Using our class members) and provided questionnaire's for audience feedback, soon the feedback and our main task will be posted.

Feedback form.

Here is the basic design for the feedback form we gave to our viewers to fill out after watching our coursework:

1) Please select your gender: Male Female

2) Which genre do you think our piece is?

Romantic Comedy o

Fantasy o

Action o

Comedy o

Other (please specify) _____________________

3) Have we improved since our prelim?


4) What certificate would you rate this piece? (please circle)

U 12A 15 18

5) What would you improve in our piece?


6) Did you enjoy our piece?


7) If you answered yes to question 6, what was your favourite part?

8) Would you want to watch the rest of the film?

So far.

As a group we managed to get the filming done a few days after the coursework deadline but were quickly on track with our editing. Personally I've always found Editing the hardest and most frustrating thing about filming but it's unavoidable and so me and other members of my group began editing. From my preliminary I realised that Editing was a very important and time - consuming thing, that has become even more obvious through Editing our coursework. With the Genre we chose Editing is an enormous part of our film and the facilities aren't available to us but I think that with what we had, we've done really well so far and despite some difficulties - trouble with location (not being able to use the same place twice), trouble with actors (lack of communication) - we're going to do well with the effort we've put in.

Shooting schedule.

Progress so far.

My group failed to meet the coursework deadline for filming and from this we learned that filming takes a lot more organization than we imagined: next time we make a film of any sorts we'll be sure to organize everything a lot better. Personally, I learned not to rely on the internet to get in contact with people because it's not always best.

There were negative aspects to our coursework. For one, we didn't meet the deadline due to health issues amongst the group and so this put us behind but at the same time could not be helped. We also encountered problems with certain parts of our film but it was easily overcome with team work: we all handled points (as stated below) which we were strongest at.

Despite the troubles we had I think that there are a fair few things that were positive about our coursework. I think that the amount of time that we spent on our setting is a positive thing due to the amount of time and effort put into our set we got the best out of the materials that we brought (which were originally at a good value). Certain members of our group are skilled in different area's: Jake took Art in both GCSE and A level, so he handled the artistic design so he designed and drew the tree we used for our setting. Stacey took Drama for GCSE and A level so she handled the make up which helped to bring characters to life, especially the Hung-Helper, who looked more realistic (blood, decaying as an example) and I took English Literature in A level which helped develop the personalities of the characters. Due to the fact that we had Drama facilities available to us our setting had the appropriate lighting which helped set a good atmosphere. Another thing we did really well was our planning, without this it would have been difficult.

Preparation for filming.

Props List;
. Plants
. Modelled Apples
. Modelled Pears
. Coloured Cloth
. Home-made tree
. Ropes
. Chains
. Make-up
. Gun
. Alcohol

Costume List;

. Puffy shirt
. Tucked in trousers
. Socks