Looking back at your preliminary
task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?
Since shooting our prelim task I have developed many new skills in terms of; camera skills, editing abilities, team work, researching and using/recognising generic conventions. These have lead to me becoming much more confident in terms of planning, shooting and editing a film. If the skills wouldn't have been developed so far the quality of our thriller may not that much better than our original prelim task. This means I have evidence to show the progression between the two productions.
Team Work:
The original group for my preliminary task involved Tobias, Stan and myself. So, at the beginning of our thriller Liam joined our group which gave as a group of 4. Throughout the majority of the planning everyone stayed in our group. Between us we all incorporated ideas into our thriller to try and come up with the best possible production. At the beginning we were being slightly ambitious as a group which meant our production probably wouldn't have turned out as well as it did. We soon re-planned some of our thriller so that it was more realistic for us to complete. As a group we wanted to still be a little ambitious so that we could produce a final product that we would really proud of. This lead to a discussion of if we were all going to be dedicated as a group and work as a team to pull it off and we all agreed. Towards the end of planning and at the beginning of our shooting Stan left the school which meant we were one man down. This caused a few problems in terms of casting for our thriller, but we soon fixed these. This section of the course helped me to learn the importance of working in a real team. It showed me that to pull something off to the quality of our thriller you need to work well with others and be able to rely on them to do everything on time. This has helped me to develop my skills in maybe organising group which could come into use in many other of by subjects and life experiences.
Research:
This is an area which was very new to me in terms of how the research would effect my work. In the preliminary task we didn't have to do any research because we were not trying to create any intertextual references or we weren't sticking to the generic conventions of a particular genre. Of course I have done research in other subjects before, but this research had a much larger impact on my work. We were taught to produce case studies on thriller texts or other productions which contain similar generic conventions, then take elements from them to help create the opening to our thriller. I researched old thriller productions such as 'The Third Man' and several modern ones such as 'Essex Boys' and 'Pulp Fiction'. These thrillers have given our group a large amount of inspiration and helped to add intertextual references into our opening. These included things like; costumes, names and locations. I personally gained a large amount of influence from productions such as 'Sherlock' and 'Breaking Bad'. These are television series that I actually like,so I picked up on a larger amount of specific detail in them which helped to give me ideas of our thriller,Eve.This part of the course has helped me progress in the sense that I have realised the importance of research and its power at providing ideas when creating a professional production. This means I will use research more to my advantage in other subjects that I take and hopefully in the next year of Media Studies.
Generic Conventions:
Before media studies I knew of certain elements that are used in particular genres of films over and over again, but I didn't realise that there were so many, especially in the thriller genre. Since shooting our preliminary task, I have learnt a large amount about thriller films. I can say I have watched some thrillers in the past, but doing this course has helped me develop my knowledge and amount of films I watch. Some of the generic conventions of thrillers that I have learnt are; stair cases which are used to show characters going into a new world (metaphorically), small locations which help to create a sense of claustrophobia and entrapment, a fast edit which helps to build up a fast pace which achieves a increased amount of suspense and the fashion used for noir thrillers.
Camera Skills:
Before starting my media studies course I had only ever used my camera for photography. I started using a DSLR properly in year 10 at the start of my photography GCSE and carried this on into A-level. This gave me a good knowledge of using a variety of camera angles and how to work my own camera and tripod very well. Obviously filming allowed be to expand on these skills with a much larger variety of camera angles. This include ones such as tilt, tracking shots and over the shoulder. Most of these were learnt during the filming of our preliminary task, but I didn't understand the real impact of them until we had planning and shooting our thriller. I developed a larger understanding of how individual camera angles can portray different feelings to the audience. The one shot that I may transport into my photography work is the over the shoulder perspective. Personally I really liked this shot because it helps to almost put you in the same place physically as the character. We kind of used this shot during our thriller. The section in which the camera cuts to behind Hazel and Cha cha sees them running after Eve. This puts you in the perspective of the characters which give it the same feel as an over the shoulder shot. However, this is also tracking shot because the camera is following the characters action/movement along the path.
Editing Abilities:
Before producing the video for the preliminary task I had never really edited any videos using any software like Adobe Premier Pro. During the preliminary task I learnt the basics of this software, but when editing my own version of our thriller I developed my knowledge of the software to the point where I can now say I am a lot more confident with it. I now know how to change the brightness and contrast of the clip, make the clip black & white, use a larger variety of transitions and edit sections of the soundtrack so that it will in and out. One of the biggest things I had learnt when doing the preliminary task was flipping a clip which I also had to use during this edit. This was to ensure that the 'match on action' from each clip showed Eve or the hitmen running/travelling from the left hand side of the screen to the right. The reason why we did this is included in the paragraph below. The other big thing I had to do in my edit was crop two similar shots. These were the long shots in which the character(s) ran from left to right on the screen. In the original edit (bottom) the camera was zoomed out too far from the action that was happening, so by cropping the clip I managed to bring the camera closer in on Eve and the hitmen running across the screen. The reason I did this was because in the rough cut it was hard to see who was actually running across the screen, so by cropping it it was more obvious to the audience who was sprinting across the countryside.
180 Degree Rule:
This rule seemed to apply more to our preliminary task than our thriller. This is because there wasn't any conversations or a large amount of dialogue in the entire opening of the thriller. This means the camera didn't have to cut between two different characters whilst they converse. The only time this really applied was when we had to make sure Eve and the hitmen were shown running in the correct direction the screen. So, any movement in the edit shows the characters travelling from the left hand side of the frame to the right. When we shot the clip of Eve running into the barn she ran from right to left which was the wrong direction. So, when performing the edit on the thriller I flipped the clip so that she was then running from left to right. This helped to ensure everything stayed on the same side of the camera throughout the whole of our opening.
Soundtrack:
When editing the preliminary task we didn't use a soundtrack for our edit because it would have resulted in the audience not being able to understand the conversation which was happening. So, the soundtrack was very important to our thriller because there was no dialogue present until the very end of the opening. I looked into soundtracks from several other thrillers which had a fast pace to them. These included thrillers like James Bond. The original soundtrack that I choose didn't really work with the action of the edit because it almost gave it a kind of comical element which was something I didn't really want to achieve. This meant I had to find a new soundtrack that worked better with my edit. I eventually found and soundtrack called "Man Hunt" which fitted perfectly with the edit. The soundtrack helps to build the opening up to a climax through the increase of suspense and drama.
Evaluation and feedback:
Throughout the editing of my thriller I received feedback from both of my media studies teachers and other members of the class. This feedback allowed for to compare peoples opinions and then apply what I believed was the best option to my edit. I think this really allowed for me ensure that my thriller would appeal to the age demographic that Eve is aimed at. The feedback also helped me to realise what did and didn't work in the edit. This kind of feedback wasn't really necessary in the shooting of the preliminary task because that was a very experimental piece of work in which the same elements of a thriller weren't needed.
So, evaluating the progress since my preliminary task, it is safe to say my skills in terms of research, camera skills and editing have developed vastly. I now feel a lot more confident in a larger range of specific media areas. This should hopefully help me to improve in some of other subjects and in any future media work I produce. I feel as if I can also now say that I can produce something which is more of a professional quality.
Research:
This is an area which was very new to me in terms of how the research would effect my work. In the preliminary task we didn't have to do any research because we were not trying to create any intertextual references or we weren't sticking to the generic conventions of a particular genre. Of course I have done research in other subjects before, but this research had a much larger impact on my work. We were taught to produce case studies on thriller texts or other productions which contain similar generic conventions, then take elements from them to help create the opening to our thriller. I researched old thriller productions such as 'The Third Man' and several modern ones such as 'Essex Boys' and 'Pulp Fiction'. These thrillers have given our group a large amount of inspiration and helped to add intertextual references into our opening. These included things like; costumes, names and locations. I personally gained a large amount of influence from productions such as 'Sherlock' and 'Breaking Bad'. These are television series that I actually like,so I picked up on a larger amount of specific detail in them which helped to give me ideas of our thriller,Eve.This part of the course has helped me progress in the sense that I have realised the importance of research and its power at providing ideas when creating a professional production. This means I will use research more to my advantage in other subjects that I take and hopefully in the next year of Media Studies.Generic Conventions:
Before media studies I knew of certain elements that are used in particular genres of films over and over again, but I didn't realise that there were so many, especially in the thriller genre. Since shooting our preliminary task, I have learnt a large amount about thriller films. I can say I have watched some thrillers in the past, but doing this course has helped me develop my knowledge and amount of films I watch. Some of the generic conventions of thrillers that I have learnt are; stair cases which are used to show characters going into a new world (metaphorically), small locations which help to create a sense of claustrophobia and entrapment, a fast edit which helps to build up a fast pace which achieves a increased amount of suspense and the fashion used for noir thrillers.
Camera Skills:
Before starting my media studies course I had only ever used my camera for photography. I started using a DSLR properly in year 10 at the start of my photography GCSE and carried this on into A-level. This gave me a good knowledge of using a variety of camera angles and how to work my own camera and tripod very well. Obviously filming allowed be to expand on these skills with a much larger variety of camera angles. This include ones such as tilt, tracking shots and over the shoulder. Most of these were learnt during the filming of our preliminary task, but I didn't understand the real impact of them until we had planning and shooting our thriller. I developed a larger understanding of how individual camera angles can portray different feelings to the audience. The one shot that I may transport into my photography work is the over the shoulder perspective. Personally I really liked this shot because it helps to almost put you in the same place physically as the character. We kind of used this shot during our thriller. The section in which the camera cuts to behind Hazel and Cha cha sees them running after Eve. This puts you in the perspective of the characters which give it the same feel as an over the shoulder shot. However, this is also tracking shot because the camera is following the characters action/movement along the path.Editing Abilities:
Before producing the video for the preliminary task I had never really edited any videos using any software like Adobe Premier Pro. During the preliminary task I learnt the basics of this software, but when editing my own version of our thriller I developed my knowledge of the software to the point where I can now say I am a lot more confident with it. I now know how to change the brightness and contrast of the clip, make the clip black & white, use a larger variety of transitions and edit sections of the soundtrack so that it will in and out. One of the biggest things I had learnt when doing the preliminary task was flipping a clip which I also had to use during this edit. This was to ensure that the 'match on action' from each clip showed Eve or the hitmen running/travelling from the left hand side of the screen to the right. The reason why we did this is included in the paragraph below. The other big thing I had to do in my edit was crop two similar shots. These were the long shots in which the character(s) ran from left to right on the screen. In the original edit (bottom) the camera was zoomed out too far from the action that was happening, so by cropping the clip I managed to bring the camera closer in on Eve and the hitmen running across the screen. The reason I did this was because in the rough cut it was hard to see who was actually running across the screen, so by cropping it it was more obvious to the audience who was sprinting across the countryside.180 Degree Rule:
This rule seemed to apply more to our preliminary task than our thriller. This is because there wasn't any conversations or a large amount of dialogue in the entire opening of the thriller. This means the camera didn't have to cut between two different characters whilst they converse. The only time this really applied was when we had to make sure Eve and the hitmen were shown running in the correct direction the screen. So, any movement in the edit shows the characters travelling from the left hand side of the frame to the right. When we shot the clip of Eve running into the barn she ran from right to left which was the wrong direction. So, when performing the edit on the thriller I flipped the clip so that she was then running from left to right. This helped to ensure everything stayed on the same side of the camera throughout the whole of our opening.Soundtrack:
When editing the preliminary task we didn't use a soundtrack for our edit because it would have resulted in the audience not being able to understand the conversation which was happening. So, the soundtrack was very important to our thriller because there was no dialogue present until the very end of the opening. I looked into soundtracks from several other thrillers which had a fast pace to them. These included thrillers like James Bond. The original soundtrack that I choose didn't really work with the action of the edit because it almost gave it a kind of comical element which was something I didn't really want to achieve. This meant I had to find a new soundtrack that worked better with my edit. I eventually found and soundtrack called "Man Hunt" which fitted perfectly with the edit. The soundtrack helps to build the opening up to a climax through the increase of suspense and drama.
Evaluation and feedback:
Throughout the editing of my thriller I received feedback from both of my media studies teachers and other members of the class. This feedback allowed for to compare peoples opinions and then apply what I believed was the best option to my edit. I think this really allowed for me ensure that my thriller would appeal to the age demographic that Eve is aimed at. The feedback also helped me to realise what did and didn't work in the edit. This kind of feedback wasn't really necessary in the shooting of the preliminary task because that was a very experimental piece of work in which the same elements of a thriller weren't needed.
So, evaluating the progress since my preliminary task, it is safe to say my skills in terms of research, camera skills and editing have developed vastly. I now feel a lot more confident in a larger range of specific media areas. This should hopefully help me to improve in some of other subjects and in any future media work I produce. I feel as if I can also now say that I can produce something which is more of a professional quality.
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