Media Evaluation.. What have you learnt since preliminary task?

1. Question 7.
Looking back to your preliminary
task, what do you feel that you have
learnt in the progression from it to the
full product?
Lauren Harrison

2. The Preliminary Task.
For our preliminary task we created a short clip that consisted of various basic camera shots.
These shots were the following; over the shoulder shot, long shot, close up and extreme close
up. We used the refectory for our filming because it gave the lively atmosphere of the students
having conversations.
We used the over the shoulder shot throughout the conversation between the people on the
table. We thought this would give off a better effect than just a basic long shot of the people at
the table.
Before filming our preliminary task we had to create a story board for the different shots we were
going to use in our filming. We found this helped a lot because we included more shots following
the story board than we would have done just from memory.
We were going to make a script for our task, but having a scripted conversation, we
thought, wouldn’t work as well as an improvised conversation.
When we had finished filming, we used basic editing skills such as cuts.

3. What I Learnt…
Throughout the filming of our preliminary task I feel I learnt
more about the equipment. Although I felt more confident
with the equipment our cinematography as a group was not
as good as it could have been. Some of the shots overlapped
each other. We can see this happening in our conversation
scene. When someone is talking it is on the other person and
it looks messy.
Having seen the outcome of our preliminary task, it made
me want to focus on the camera work when we began to
film our thriller. I feel the cinematography needs a lot of
time spent on it to make sure it looks neat and we
produce a better thriller opening sequence.

4. Research and Planning of our Thriller.
Leading up to the process of filming we looked at various Thriller films to
get an idea of what conventions we would need to include. We looked at
films such as Seven, Memento and Vertigo.
Memento was one film we focused on in detail. An example of
the convention which this film has is a crime at the core of the
narrative.
In the opening scene you see someone get shot. This shows the
crime at the core of the narrative. Another convention is leaving
the audience with questions that get answered at the end or
throughout the film.
The name of the title is reflects the main character. The beginning of
the film shows that the main character has obviously losing his mind
and with a name ‘Memento’ it leaves the audience with an idea but
leaves them with a question ‘what will be resolved?’

5. Thriller Conventions.
In thriller films, there are four main sub genres:
* Psychological Thriller
* Political Thriller
* Action Thriller
* Crime Thriller
Conventions of a Psychological Thriller:
* Character has a fear or fascination with death
* One or more character characters preying on each others mind
* Character in conflict with their own mind
* Characters are trying to discover their own purpose
* Danger on a mental level rather than a physical level
* Drama and mystery included
* Character is lonely/isolated
Conventions of a Political Thriller:
* Threat is set against a backdrop of a power struggle
* Threat sometimes expresses current news or social fears
* Strong male and female leads
* More locations/countries
* Opponents try to prevent the protagonists success
* Innocent people drawn into the threat
* Themes of proving innocence and deceit

6. Planning.
We decided to do a crime thriller because we could get a lot of
ideas from this genre. There are many paths which could be
followed and we thought it would make a better opening sequence
than the other sub genres.
Whilst thinking of an idea for our film, we all put an idea in, and to
stop any arguing we took a bit of each idea and put it into one
and focused on that. The more time spent planning the better our
outcome.
Our final idea was detectives investigating the crime of two dead girls
discovered in a cow shed. When we had come up with the idea and
storyline, we focused on the cinematography and decided what shots
we were using where.
Our Mise-en-scene is going to be basic when it comes down to the
costumes. Detectives wear suits and the dead girls are going to
have been on their way back from a night out, so will wear evening
clothes (dressed up).

7. The location.
Our location for our filming will be at Dan’s house in Meldreth. He
has a huge field behind his house in which there are old cow sheds
which are filled with hay. We thought this would be the perfect
location because the building is derelict and it fits in with the image
of our thriller.

8. Like we did in our Preliminary task, we created a
story board which included the different shots We also created a shot list.
we were going to use in our film and what was
going to be happening in each scene.
Shot 1 - Desk with notes about crime, linking to the murder (Close Up)
Shot 2 - Detective looking down at his notes (Close Up)
Shot 3 - Detective sitting at desk and his phone rings (Long Shot) (Close Up)
Shot 4 - Phone Ringing (Close Up)
Shot 5 - Walking to get the phone from the desk (Panning Shot)
Shot 6 - Detective picking up the phone (Close Up)
Shot 7 - Person saying hello (Medium Shot)
Shot 8 - Other detective 'Its Me' (Close up)
Shot 9 - Detective number 1 standing and talking on the phone (Medium Shot)
Shot 10 - Detective number 2, standing, talking to detective number 1 (Close
Up)
Shot 11 - Detective walking to the window looking over at the cowsheds
(Panning Shot)
Shot 12 - More conversation (Close Up)
Shot 13 - Detective waling towards his desk (Panning Shot)
Shot 14 - Person getting picture of the murder victim (Close Up)
Shot 15 - Person examining photo (Medium Shot)
Shot 16 - Looking at picture talking to detective 2 (Close Up)
Shot 17 - Flash back of what happened or what 'could have' happened (POV
Shot)
Shot 18 - 24 - six repeats of flashback and detective (Close Up) (POV Shot)
Shot 25 - Shadow, and you can see the body behind a wall (POV Shot)
Shot 26 - Phone Call (Close Up)
Shot 27 - Body gradually gets further away, whilst fading slowly, when we see
the whole body the screen cuts to black. Title appears then credits follow
(Zoom Out Shot)

9. Filming.
Our filming went to plan. Everybody turned up at Dan’s and
the story board helped us film the best we could. We thought
that the footage we got was good for the film we were trying
to create. The only down side to the filming was the Dialogue
when the filming took place outside was a little mumbled
and unclear.
Editing and Sound.
When we had finished our filming, we had to create our own
soundtrack. For this process we used garage band. Our sound
track had a range of different piano sounds and chords in it. It
was mostly very calm and created dramatic effect when needed.
For the editing process we used final cut. This was very easy to
use to put our clips together and make our film look how it
should be.
These soft wares helped us a lot to create our final Thriller. I find
our outcome successful.