Day 41 part 2 : Our Prelim Task + Evaluation

This week we were put into our final groups. Our first task was to produce a prelim in 2 days which involved us having a variety of camera angles, movements and shots, good use of sound and effective editing in terms of fades and transitions. This was a challenging task due to a limited amount of time, however we used the most of the time we had meeting at lunch time and staying behind after school to improve our piece after audience criticisms.

Here's our prelim which was influenced by Halloween (1978)

The constructive criticism was extremely helpful and I plan to refer back to this post, throughout the whole production process of our media products. Personally I have learnt a lot in regards to editing, as previously I did not know how to transition 2 clips together which was one of the best elements of our trailer. I would love for me and my group members to use this style again in our final trailer as it was evident our class as an audience liked it. Also I realized from witnessing other groups remakes of scenes that the more simple it was, the more effective a scene could be. Our trailer was too complicated which resulted in us having limited time to trim long clips and edit mistakes through camerawork. However what worked well was our ability to work as a team and decide on what worked and what could be improved. For example whilst I was editing, I would refer back to Afreen and Priscilla for advice. This process was also good as it allowed Priscilla to come up with the suggestion of using heavy breathing, which reinforces the theme of fearing the unknown and Afreen to spot un-smooth editing which could often let down a media products overall feeling.

Here's a list of the feedback we received:

- Make sure if you change the angle of the camera that it work well
- Make sure the colour balance is even (use white balance)
- Make sure when doing camera movements it's a smooth shot
- Make sure all mise en scene relates to how you want the audience to perceive a particular person or setting
- Don't overcomplicate your scenes
- There's a good variety of shots and angles
- The use of sound was effective
- The transitioning effects worked well
- The opening scenes use of fades was attention grabbing
- Good portrayal of narrative

Quick Summary of whole process:

When producing our final piece I'm determined to improve all my skills, however my  filming skills in particular. This would involve doing a detailed plan of each shot and repeating a shot at least 5 times, just in case you finish filming and dis-acknowledge that some of the clips don't work well due to acting, people getting cut out of the shot, lack of colour balance (which would require using white balance), unfocused shots and a "shakey"camera.