Preliminary Task Evaluation - Miss Georgiou

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we had to create a 1 minute sequence using various different conventions. The outcome of our task has both strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of this task was so that we could become familiar with the camera and the role its has within film production. We also were able to identify what is necessary to create a successful film, i.e. planning, storyboards etc, so that when it came to actually filming our group would be prepared and know what needs to be done in order to create a successful film opening.

One strength of our preliminary task was the use of a variety of camera shots which allowed us to explore different ways of expressing a certain aspect of a scene. We employed different shots to display the authority of the protagonist and antagonist characters, as we based our task on the conventions of a thriller genre. Although we did not have to base our task on the thriller genre, we decided it would benefit us when it came to planning and filming our thriller opening, as we would have a greater knowledge of what would work best where and what to include. 

A weakness of our preliminary task is that we did not have access to a tripod and therefore some of our shots were not stable, and did not flow smoothly, which let down the professional look of the task. A further weakness was that we were limited with being able to experiment with certain conventions such as lighting, as we were in a naturalistic environment and could not alter the lighting provided.  This therefore meant the quality of our filming was effected and did not meet our expectations. However, if we could have altered the lighting we would of employed low key lighting at certain points during our filming, to following the thriller conventions. Another weakness of our task was throughout the filming you could hear background noise that was not relevant to the scenes we were filming, and therefore lowered the quality of our task, as it effected the sound aspect of our filming overall.

Carrying out this preliminary task has greatly helped my group to prepare for our own thriller opening. We are all more aware of how to use the camera and how to set up shots before we decide to film them. We are also aware of taking into consideration the transitions we wish to use between each shots, so that when we film our shots they will flow evenly, once edited together as a whole. Completing this preliminary task also informed us of the extent to which you need to plan before conducting the filming process so that all group members are aware of what is expected from the outcome. It involved planning ahead in extreme detail, which meant we had to take into consideration the sounds we wished to use, and whether we'd edit them in later or record them during the filming process. 

To summarise I think our group completed this task to the best of our ability, and even though we formed ideas of different shots on the spot, it proved to work well once we put the filming together. Therefore I believe when it comes to planning and filming our thriller opening scene we will ensure we are fully prepared and have accurate plans of what we anticipate, so that when it comes to filming we will be organised and be able to deliver to the best of our ability.