Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

From the very beginning of putting ideas on post-it notes for suggestion for the thriller opening to the end product, I have felt there is much I have learned. When we formed the preliminary video relatively at the start of the process, I had little knowledge of how to shoot such a simple scene since this was an entirely new task to me. Ben took charge as we realised his prior experience with working with film equipment could be used to our advantage. Knowing that I was tackling the coursework by myself, I had to adopt new techniques and learn from what Ben initially taught me.

When I had ideas put forward to the teacher, I found it was a struggle to stick with the exact storyline for the entire process such as filming every scene as it was initially proposed. However, I found filming the scenes on set one of the hardest part of the process. The camera I used (Canon 550D) was something completely new to me. The transformation of using a camcorder or phone for filming to a HD single lens camera was intense. As the camera had so many functions built into it, it was hard to comprehend all of these and to film an actor at the same time. For example, a switch on the front of the camera could change the exposure level and I found out that altering this affected the footage enormously.

Another aspect of shooting scenes, which I have learnt, is that nothing is ever apparent. As both director and cameraman, much of the focus was getting the actor’s expression and possession right for the shot. However, issues such as continuity errors were less observed as my actor had to sometimes point out certain things, which would not seem right if not changed i.e. a door that has recently opened.

I have probably learnt the most in the post-production. The vast amount of possibilities is endless and I found this most when dealing with Adobe After Effects. I realised that some marks come from colour correction in the editing process and so a lot of time when into dealing with brightness and contrast- more than I thought at the beginning. I always found that editing took a lot more time in order to make things flow correctly. For example, my actor had to walk through a door and this was filmed through two angles. Therefore, to make this work I had to cut the sequence of him walking slightly short to when he touches the handle and so the next shot behind the door would seem as though it's the same action.