Task 10 Evaluation - Foundation Portfolio: Question 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final product?

I have learnt a lot in relation to working as a team and have progressed since the preliminary task. As a duo/pair, time management was always going to be of utmost importance as we lack the man-power that the majority of people had. Because of this, we had to keep to deadlines and try and reach them early to ensure that all our work was finished in time. Something else I've learnt that's also a product of time management, is the delegation of roles. To ensure that we complete work we both had to delegate roles to ourselves and each other, this could've created tension within the group but due to our like-minded nature and clear goals we avoided this and successfully produced an opening sequence with no 'hiccups' or issues. Whereas during my preliminary task, me and my group didn't have a clear idea in our heads and often had constrasting views. Due to this we produced a mediocre, at best, product which was rushed and produced in only one day. However, there is a reason for this, one of our group members who had all of our work decided to drop the subject which resulted in us losing said work with only one day until the deadline. There is a positive that I took from this, and that is that I had learnt to make sure everyone has a copy of the work so if one person loses it then it is easily recovered.

I have come on leaps and bounds when it comes to operating video cameras. At the beginning of the course, during our preliminary task, I simply knew how to turn it on, and record. Now, I have gained knowledge from my own research into balancing ISO, shutter speeds and exposure. Being knowledgeable in these areas allowed my partner and I to make sure the footage we captured is of high quality and looks amazing post editing. On top of the technical aspects of camera use, I've developed a deeper understanding in the physical use of cameras. For example, the use of handheld camera in our opening sequence to create an adrenaline pumping atmosphere that wouldn't have sprung to mind during the filming of my preliminary task.

As well as using a handheld camera, we decided to use a dolly instead of a tripod for a specific scene that involved a pan. This was a concious decision deliberately made to reduce the jittering that would occur on a tripod and it had the desired effect. It looks more professional and steers away from look of a low budget film that wasn't thought out/planned.

Let's compare these two clips to one clip from the preliminary task and we'll be able to see just how much my knowledge in camera operation has advanced. As you can see, it is extremely rigid and doesn't create any sort of atmosphere whatsoever compared to the footage from our final production which clearly illustrates the mood and tone of a scene. The angles are very basic low and high angles which carry no form of symbolism unlike the angles of a similar type used in our opening sequence. One of which being a low angle of  Chaser to show him towering over Subject: X. asserting his dominance.

Moving on, I expanded my knowledge surrounding the filming of sequences as well. I learnt things such as 'match on action' shots can be used to highlight the importance of an object (as seen below) and that the 180 degree rule should never be broken as it will damage the continuity and believability of the film. Taking continuity further, I now understand that to keep the product convincing and realistic you must make sure that everything that is changeable such as costumes, narrative and actors.  In the preliminary task my group and I managed to successfully use continuity editing, the 180 degree rule and a 'match on action' shot but the method in which we did it wasn't powerful as the final opening sequence.

In the preliminary task we learnt about using a tripod which made everything rather cognitive and stiff, this is great if you want those still shots but in our film we wanted action, and lots of it. We wanted the audience to feel the adrenaline and we believed the best way to achieve this was to do away with all the stillness and use free cam for the majority of the film to make it more frenetic.

To apply all of the knowledge gained since the beginning of the course and since the Preliminary task I did multiple things, one of which is the meticulous planning of everything that is part of the process of making a film. As well as this, all planning was put into this blog and multiple copies were kept elsewhere as in the event of the files being damaged, there were backups readily available. As well as this, because my 'group' was in fact just the two of us, we had to work as efficiently as possible and even used our own recreational time to work in as it was the only feasible way to actually succeed. Doing it this way allowed us to not have to rush everything (unlike the Preliminary task) and make sure our product was perfect. Regarding the use of the camera, we checked each of the settings aforementioned to make sure they were right for filming as we moved position or changed sets. If they weren't right we corrected them and proceeded to run all the checks again. As well as this, we would watch back all of our footage to make sure that it was correct and had the high quality look we were aiming for, in addition to this we would film scenes multiple times before finishing them so we had a couple different versions of each one to use. We even practiced each scene before the cameras were rolling multiple times so the actors could get a feel for the scene and the cameraman could adjust to the situation. This collectively reduced the time we needed to record a scene as more often than not, everyone was ready and everything was perfect before the cameras were even involved. Thus giving us the efficiency we desired and needed. We applied certain things such as 'Match on Action' shots into the final, major production to necessarily highlight the importance of the 'data cell' as it is the enigma of our piece. We also made sure that the 180 degree rule was kept to throughout, primarily the second half (after the title screen) as that is when it was needed most due to the conversation taking place. Finally, by working as a pair well we managed to come up with a strong and engaging narrative that had potential to become an opening sequence which would keep an audience hooked for the duration of a full feature film. We did this by extensive research into the genres codes and conventions and using the '007' series as our inspiration, hence the chase scene at the start.

Compiled by Owen Clive