Evaluation question 3

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

Through the use of the preliminary task I learnt how to properly implement continuity editing as it was the fundamental principle that it was trying to teach. However, although I now knew what it was, I didn't fully understand its importance up until I began to edit my main task.

How well did you keep the conventions of continuity?

While filming the main task I began appreciating the importance of continuity editing and began to implement it regular throughout its course. I found that it gave the piece fluidity and it gave an impression of authentic movements. Throughout its duration, I used several match on actions to show movements of the character going through the alley ways and going through a door. I also always stuck to the 180 degree rule although towards the end of the thriller, I purposely broke the 180 degree role as an attempt to enhance dramatic effect.

Directors such as Quentin Tarintino and Stanley Kubrick break the 180 degree rule in order to convey a change of mood or perhaps to represent the psychotic and twisted nature of the on screen action.

With this idea in mind, I wanted to convey a similar feeling of something be not quite right, and I thought that through the use of a violation of a fundamental rule, this would convey to the audience such a feeling quite effectively. Consequently to doing this, I actually accidently created a new dynamic in addition to what I explained earlier, in that by having broken the 180 degree rule, the audience feels as if there may be a secondary character voyaging. This now put the audience in two minds and in turn makes them unsure of what to think, as they are not sure if it’s a it’s indeed a second character or if it’s just to try and unease them like I explained earlier. This very much mimics the main character thought of mind, as just like the audience, he is unsure whether to continue walking deeper into the warehouse or not; i.e. he is split between two minds.

In addition to implementing the 180 degree rule and match on action, I also used an establishing shot to establish the relationship between the set/location and the character, and in turn to portray how the character is isolated in this menacing looking location, which could thus impact the audience by making them sympathizing with the character.

How did the storyboarding work in practice?

The storyboard we created post-production was left purposely vague in order to allow us space for creativity on the day. It included all the critical shots in it but it also had gaps in between which was purposely put there. This was down to 2 reasons, firstly because we weren’t familiarized with the location before the first production day, so we didn’t know what types of shots where available to us. Secondly, if we had a very strict storyboard it would mean that in turn we wouldn’t be constantly looking for opportunities to exploit the locations to its full potential. An example of this is that only once arriving to the location where we told we would additionally have access to go to the floor above the

actual location. Immediately we saw the opportunity and decided to film the main actor walking on the ground floor through the elevated window as if someone was watching him. This has in turn lead to the creation of some of our most effective and successful shots according to the audience feedback that we have collected.

How did you manage your time?

Although many different techniques were implemented in order to manage my time correctly, due to various unfortunate events, I found it very difficult to manage my time well.One of the ways which I tried to manage my time was by setting up various different means of communication between me and my collaborating partner. I felt that setting up the different mediums (Facebook, Whats App, skype) would lead to us being proficient in communications and would in turn mean we would have a streamlined production, as we could insure that we could discuss ideas and set deadlines outside of school time.

In addition, me and my collaborating partner split the workload between so both of us could be working at the same time and thus it would mean that less time is wasted. This however wasn’t the most effective technique as we found that quite often we actually needed each other’s help/opinion.

Our final technique which was key to our time management was the production schedule we produced for the filming day. This production schedule set in stone meeting times and dates, times for filming as well as taking into account time needed to set-up/pack up equipment. Although this production schedule had leeway scheduled into it, on the day we found we couldn’t stick to it exactly on the minute, as some tasks took longer to complete then we had previously envisaged, such as setting up the lighting as we had to also set up electrical extension leads, however we still found it very helpful as it gave us a rough schedule and almost a checklist of things we had to complete.

Despite all these different techniques we tried to use, we still found it very difficult to manage our time efficiently, and due to some technical issues which we could not foreshadow, we were set back greatly. One of these technical issues was due to being inexperienced with our equipment, whereby we actually overwrote the vast majority of our footage on the first filming day when viewing it. This set us back hugely as it meant we had to schedule in a second production day on really short notice.

What mistakes did you make and did you improve in the main task having made errors in the preliminary task?

The primary mistake we made with shooting the preliminary task was not insuring all the equipment, was functioning correctly. Once thought we were finished filming the preliminary task, we were brought to the harsh realization that the camera we had been using had actually malfunctioned throughout the whole film shoot, and in turn had not actually stored any of the footage on the tape. This meant that we had to spend a whole other lesson refilling. This lead to another complication as the actor which had agreed to be in our preliminary task was unavailable for the second lesson filming, and consequently it meant that we had to source a new actor on very short notice which proved to be a challenge.

With these experiences under our belt, we decided that before we film borrow all the equipment from the school, we should test it and make sure its functioning correctly. We also took extra precautions such as taking a spare light bulb for the redhead light, which actually proved to be very useful as the one that was previously in the redhead had burnt out on the day. In addition, we casted a backup actor in case the actor we planned on using had to pull out on the day for some reason.

How did you organize your crew?

As my main crew only consisted of one collaborating partner, the majority of the organization was quite straight forward, and the communication methods I had put in place meant that if there was any ambiguity in the organization we could easily figure it out. As stated earlier, I and my collaborating partner had split the roles in the production between us, with each of us taking the roles which we felt we were particularly skilled in. For example I felt that I had a good eye for a movie location so I naturally took this position. This proved to be very wise as we ended up with a very authentic and convincing movie set.The wider crew which participated in the production of the thriller extends to the taxi driver which transported us to and from the set, the owner of the movie location and the school which lent us the equipment. In order to maintain I high level of organization with this crew, either emails, text messages or forms where filled in many days in advance in order to make sure that they were aware of the situation and their roles much before they occurred.