Question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to your full product?
Since our preliminary task I think we have become more aware of having to have continuity in our thriller especially sound continuity as this was the main thing in our preliminary tasks that we lost marks for. When we have been filming and planning for our thriller openings we have been more aware about sound continuity and also about including things like a wild track and atmos track to ensure that we have consistent noise throughout the opening of our thriller unlike our preliminary task where we had a variety of diagetic noises in the background of the prelim task.When we were planning for our preliminary task we were not very aware of the effect that uneven background noises create and how if the scene is supposed to be tense it can ruin the atmosphere of the piece. But we learnt from our mistakes and when it came to planning our thriller we spent time thinking about what noises we could use for scenes like our cold opening. But due to us actually thinking about the sound it then allowed for us to eliminate any unnecessary sounds which would ruin the tone of the opening. Due to our lack of sound continuity we lost part of the effect that we were trying to create in our preliminary task. We decided to use mostly non diagetic noises as we thought that this fit in best with our opening. An example of sounds that we used is traffic noises and we also tried to involve some siren noises to convey the type of place that the main character lives and associates herself with. By having the slight siren noises it connotes that the place is quite troubled and is full of chaos. We chose to use mainly diagetic sounds because we thought that by having them linked together it would make the continuity of our sound smoother so that our thriller opening isn't jaunted and it makes it easier to watch as the sound will be cleaner cut and better put together then in our preliminary task. Since our preliminary task we also learnt about making the scenes smoothly and to avoid them having severe jump cuts so the opening is smoother. We learnt about the different ways that we can transition from different scenes and some examples of this are the use of jump cuts, ellipsis and match cuts. By learning about these different types of cuts it allows for us to make the transitions between scenes smoother and make our opening of the thriller better. Because we learnt this after our preliminary task it allowed us to progress in our editing and make the cuts between scenes have better continuity so that they don't look smooth and jumpy.
Since our preliminary task I have also been made more aware about camera work and certain rules that are there to stop the piece looking disjointed and not very together. Examples of some of the rules that are in place are the 180 degree rule which is primarily used in films when there is a conversation about to take place. The 180 degree rule stops the audience from being
confused because of the varying angles that are used. When planning for our thriller we understood what type of shots we should use for each part of our opening as we had learned them earlier in the year. We knew that we needed to use a wide variety of shots like close-ups and long shots to exhibit the background of where the character is and the type of environment that the character is in. We used a few obscure angles to create disorientation and confusion within the audience. An example of this is at 0:16 where we are planning on turning the scene around while still having the angle obscured. This is different to our preliminary task as our thriller uses quite a few obscure angles where as our preliminary task had no obscure angles it was mainly close ups and long shots. Because we had a better understanding of the different camera angles and different shot types we were hopefully able to use them effectively.
We have also been made more aware about mise en scene and have a better understanding of it and because of this it made us plan about the costume and the props but also the types of things that would be relevant to our thriller opening. We intently planned what the characters were going to wear but also what would establish them and allow the audience to understand them. This is different to our preliminary task as we didn't really plan what we were going to wear we only planned what scenes we were going to wear. For our main character we chose to establish her by having her wear red shoes and lipstick. where as our preliminary task we didn't see mise en scene as vital but now we know more about it we understood the importance of it and we planned it more thoroughly.