Evaluation Q7) looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Q7) looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Upon the first time of my group being given the cameras, we had been set a preliminary task in order to test our physical abilities on the camera and to put our knowledge to the test. Our main aim of the preliminary task was to put to practice the use of various camera shots and angles as we had to make a 30 second video of a convocation between two people.



Having now used the cameras and the editing software more often, I am now used to filming in different camera angles such as the 180 ° angle to capture the viewer's attention of the two characters engaging in conversation. This is useful because it allows our viewers to see who is talking and make sense of the conversation taking place. The shot taken however was not as good as it could have been as there is unwanted space above the characters head, which could have been cropped out as this extra space withdrawing the amount of attention on our characters that we initially wanted. 

 

 

 We also used techniques such as the straight cut. This is an easy and basic transition between shots when you simply place the first clip onto the timeline, cut the clip down to as long as you prefer it to play and the you place the next clip right next to the first clip, leaving no gap in between. After this it will play off as one individual clip. The transitions between the shots was also rough as during the stages of editing. Making the straight cuts seem off queue in terms of timing. this isn't good for the audience because if time is wasted in between cuts then this tends to lose the attention of the audience if there are massive pauses between cuts, as they are waiting for the next camera shot.

 

However in the final product I began to perfect various edits and transitions to merge clips together as well as perfecting the straight cut. This was beneficial for the sake of the movie as we managed to trim down the timings of the clips and only kept every second that was relevant to the film. Which saves as much time as possible considering the film is 2 minutes long.

Another skill that I have learnt during my time of editing the clips is how to merge two clips together and to make them overlap so they play at the same time in the same frame by overlaying the two frames together. This is good because it forces the viewers to focus on what is happening in the clip as there is more than one clip playing at the time.

Comparison of shots

 

The usage of camera angles in both shots are good, however in the preliminary task their is a lot of the background being shown which diverts attention from the characters and what is happening in the shot. In the final product however this is all cut out and only what is necessary is presented in the frame.

 

In these two scenes we review the sharpness and focus of each shot as in the preliminary task their is a low sharpness which makes the image in the frame look slightly blunt, if this isn't an actual affect necessary to the scene then this makes it hard for the viewers to clearly see what's going on which can also affect their understanding in each scene. But in the final film we see a high focus which can show clearly key iconography and objectification relevant to the scenes.

 

The usage of angles in the camera are also used to create a  high amount of tension and suspense in each scene in the final product.



But in the preliminary task the positioning of each camera is a lot calmer and doesn't create any tension which is needed in a horror thriller.