Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
NEW PRODUCT EVALUATION
PRELIMINARY TASK EVALUATION
Production credits:
While this may look like a sped up version of footage it's admittedly in real time; the credits and title pop up for 2 seconds altogether and in the wrong order; here the title appears on screen first (not to mention the 'description' tab under it which remained unedited and untouched) then followed immediately by the 'studio 1 production'. The producers and distributors logos should appear on screen first, then are repeated in credit format as the initial credits, followed by director and main actors and then the title (normally with an average of a 5 second gap in between); this can differ slightly but such is a traditional opening layout in terms of text.
Our new product displays our better understanding of credit layout. Following research and timeline creation, we have put together an opening that follows the traditional layout of real media products.
Moreover we have created our own animated production logos using software outside of final cut pro such as go animate and biteable, making the opening look more professional than the prelim with its 1 second display of a red coloured credit in the corner as still text.
Camera angles, shots and movement:
Here the shakiness is visible without a swift camera path and movement. A shaky camera, unless a p.o.v shot which deliberately uses handheld camera, really takes away from the effect of any media product making it look unprofessional.
In our actual thriller opening we tried to keep pans as smooth as possible with a straight camera path.
Software usage:
The lightleak effect from final cut pro is used without subtlety in the preliminary task to mask a lack of continuity; the footage starts with the girl already walking after shes opened the door. An effect layered on really obviously can look almost comical and cringe worthy, whilst here we made sure to use the precision tool to make sure it comes in just as the natural light enters the camera it does not work very successfully, highlighting the importance of planning shots well rather than opting for fixing the footage in post production.
Final cut pro's effects came in handy when creating our real piece, yet this time we opted for a more sophisticated cross fade; merging two pieces of footage so that one fades into the other. The cross fade was useful to show time passing or establishment of a new scene, moreover it allowed us to 'cross fade' to black meaning a smooth fade out rather than an abrupt cut to black. I think this better use of software shows a development of our confidence with equipment, especially considering that, put together, editing took us just a little longer than it did for the preliminary task.
Shot types:
Though shot reverse shot is done correctly, portraying the conversation from the listeners perspective, the dialogue is very short with one word exchanges such as 'yeh' which made it hard to edit so that the conversation would look smooth resulting in a very jumpy, high speed effect.
Post-production, through cuts, can control the pace of action and here this is not done effectively as instead of the slow pace of a drug deal; establishing perhaps a feeling of mystery, there's a very quick pace giving the audience no time to think about what is happening.
Furthermore these short cuts make not only the image jumpy but the sound too, a lack of smooth audio makes the clip almost uncomfortable to listen to.
In our final product we do not use the shot reverse shot as we believed a two shot would be more effective, portraying the two detectives together as a team, rather than as individuals, and thinking that the pace that a shot reverse shot can bring (with the limited dialogue we had) would be too quick for the still enigmatic atmosphere of the slowly unraveling story. This showed a much better control of pace compared to our preliminary task and made dialogue much smoother and clearer.
Planning:
For our preliminary task we had little to no time to plan; all we really had time to decide on was the theme of the short clip which rotated around a drug deal, however we did not plan step by step what was going to happen; instead we did it as we went along. Furthermore location was not planned either it was just a place we happened to walk by a yet again spontaneous decision.
For our real product we had time to plan thoroughly with a shot list and later storyboard showing step by step camera shots and movement, a costume and prop list which was sent to the actors and crew and a picked location; down to the very specific spot.
Planning helped us to gain better continuity as we would know to re-film shots from the same point but at different angles rather than estimating where a person should start walking from and then having them look like they teleported as in our prelim (light leak transition gif).
Although filming still took a considerable amount of time, especially considering weather conditions and the 30 minute walk its-self to the park's cafe, (in order to change into costume for the second scene) this all would've taken double, if not more, time to do if all was done spontaneously; not to mention that something would most definitely be missing and the likelihood is we's have to travel back down to re-film.
Storyboarding, in particular, was useful as through the animatic we had a rough idea of how long the opening would be and thus if we needed to include any more footage or cut any out. We mainly stuck to our storyboard using it as a firm guideline and check list however did experiment with certain shots, such as the establishing shot for the second scene, we did this in order to make the best of the weather conditions, believing that the rain would be very atmospheric, therefore wanting to highlight this element of pathetic fallacy.
Overall we have improved our understanding of software and hardware used for film making at a basic level, gaining a better understanding of the programmes built in features as well as exterior elements brought in from other sources (i.e our production logos). Furthermore i think we have gained an appreciation of the time and effort that goes into creating media products at all 3 stages of production.
Though there's still much space for improvement, I believe our final product is of a relatively good quality with the props and setting playing a major role in this, placing importance on the pre-production research and planning phase.
Demonstrated that:
