Evaluation for question six.

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

2. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
 When looking back at my preliminary task, I am able to see how much I have learnt in the process
of researching, producing and evaluating my main task. Not only have I learnt more about the film
industry, I have also learnt about different film genres, different roles in the production of a film.
Additionally, I have been able to improve my cinematography and editing skills. We used ‘Final Cut
Pro’ to edit our prelim task and our main task, meaning that we had experience of using it when
editing our main task. This meant we were able to use it to a more advanced level to try to make
our title sequence as we imagined.

3. Why was the main task more difficult than the
preliminary task?
 The main task was more challenging than the preliminary task for several reasons. When doing the
preliminary task, a concept was given to us, we had to reinact a scene from a film that already
exists. This meant that we didn’t have to create everything from scratch like we did with our main
task. The characters, script and setting were already made, meaning we only had to act, film and
edit. Even though this wasn’t easy, as we had no previous experience doing any of this, it was a lot
easier than doing the main task. With the main task, we had to construct everything ourselves. We
had to choose our own genre, concept and story line, as well as filming and editing. Therefore, the
main task took a lot more in depth research and planning, meaning that our group had to work
closer together to ensure everyone was happy with what was being created amongst us.

4. Why was the main task more difficult than the
preliminary task?
 During the production of our main task, we encountered several setbacks. After filming the first
scene with our chosen actor, they were no longer able to continue filming due to a heavy work load
at school. This meant that we then had to find another actor and reshoot the whole first scene
again. We struggled to find a similar actor. Finally, we decided that we would change the concept of
our sequence, as the shooting deadline was approaching fast and we had not yet finished, or come
close to finishing our filming. We decided that the news reader would be the victim of the stalker.
Having to change the concept and reshoot scenes made the main task a lot harder and challenging
than the prelim task, which went substantially smoother on comparison. However, encountering
these obstacles meant that we learnt to work effectively as a team to overcome them and produce
a final product.

5. How did you research and plan your Prelim brief? Why was
your Main Task research and planning better?
 As our preliminary task was to recreate an already existing scene, we did not have to do much
research or planning. We watched the clip and picked out things that made the scene memorable,
we then tried to make sure that we incorporated that into our version of the scene. To plan the
prelim task, we created a script and storyboard, clearly showing what each short would look like
and what would be happening. However, as we had to create the main task from scratch, we
needed to a lot more extensive research and planning. To research the main task, we watched
several film title sequences to find out what things were commonly included in title sequences to
make them feel and look title sequences. We also analysed crime thriller title sequences (as this was
our chosen genre) to see what mise en scene, symbolic codes, font and sound was used to make it
appear as a crime thriller sequence and how it attracted it’s target audience.

6. How did you research and plan your Prelim brief? Why was
your Main Task research and planning better?
 The planning for our main task was very detailed, this was vital to ensure that our sequence was the
best it could be, also to make things easier when we began filming. Our planning included: a
storyboard, script, blocked plan, risk assessment, shooting schedule, animatic storyboard, detailed
mise en scene planning (including the location, actors and props we would use). Doing this
extensive planning help a lot as it meant we could get straight onto filming once we had received
the equipment from our teacher. It also meant that we had a clear idea of what we wanted our final
product to look like.

7. What was advice for improvement on Prelim Task? How
did you make your Main Task video better? (refer to both
filming and editing process)
 After producing our preliminary task, we screened our edit to our class. They gave feedback to us,
telling us what we did well and what we could improve. One of the most frequent recommended
improvements was to be more experimental with mise en scene. For our main task, we decided that
we would use props and decorate our locations to ensure that our mise en scene was detailed and
fit to purpose. We were also told that we should try to match the lighting to the content our
production. Therefore, we used locations (such as a shed) that had naturally dark lighting to create
a dour and eerie atmosphere. Finally, we were advised to use a wider variety of shots. To ensure
that we did this in our main task, we created a shot list and tried to use as many as we could.