Prelim Evaluation - Question 1

Explain, in detail, the process you went through to create your prelim.

We firstly had to decide on our storyline for our prelim. This began with a discussion about different ideas each of the members of our group thought of. This discussion involved the difficulties we believed that could have occured from each idea and the positive aspects that could come out of them. We all decided on creating a story that was simple as it was our first time filming, directing or creating any length of film whilst being taught media. Once we had agreed on our ideas, and began to produce details of our chosen story, we then began on the script. This involved a minimal time as we knew that it wouldn't take too long to complete. This was because we were only planning on creating a less than two minute film. Once we knew our script we began on the storyboard. Our storyboard contained many different shots that each of our members of the group had contributed in giving and also contained the shots that were needed in the prelim. This took a while longer than the script as it had each shot had to be drawn as seen in the film so we knew how to shoot each scene and what angles and shots to use.
Once the storyboard was complete, we began to look around our school, in search of the perfect location for our film. We looked in different offices and classroom and in the end we came across the perfect office. However, we discovered a problem at this point because another group had also wanted that office and they were filming at the same time as our group. Therefore we looked around the school once again. We then found a room that wasn't owned by our school so we had to get permission from its owner, and after the agreement we had found our filming room. We had decided to use our headteacher for one of the characters in the film but he couldn't make it as he was in a meeting so we settled for another teacher. Once we were all ready we began to film.
When we went into the room and set up the camera, we all decided to do all the shots that involved the teacher first because once all her shots were done, she wouldn't be needed anymore and could then get on with her work. So we observed our storyboard and filmed every shot she appeared in once she knew her lines from the script. During each shots we sometimes had to consider the continuity, for example she was always writing on a piece of paper so we had to make sure that she continued this action through to other shots.
Whilst filming, our headteacher who was going to play the main part had entered our room and told us that he could now be in the film as he was available, which was all well as we had a character that he could play. We filmed his shots that were needed and then the shots that him and the other teacher were in so once again- we would keep them for minimal time as possible so they could continue with their work.
Once we finished our filming for that day, as we only had an hour to film, we had realised that we still needed to shoot alot more shots. During our next media lesson we started editing the shots we had already taken. Fitting them together even if there were shots missing. This helped us because we could then see easily what shots were missing and what we needed to do to improve. Also during this lesson, we noticed that our shot counter shot was missing from our prelim so we thankfully put that into our storyboard before our next filming day. Without this mistake being noticed we would have not included the shot counter shot and we wouldn't have been marked to our highest ability for it because we missed out the shot needed in the prelim.
Our editing involved some transitions from shots which we used for the end of our film and credits which we added. Some of our opening titles were placed over our shots to show that it shouldn't distract the audience watching to take their aways away from the film, instead watch whilst reading. We also added in music in some of our shots which created a mood in the film, an atmosphere surrounding our characters. For example, when the 'orange girl' is wondering how to be mischievious, we added an up tempo music so to show the audience that she was thinking about doing something out of the ordinary. During this two hour media lesson we were going to film for the second hour, but continuity problems- such as our teacher not wearing the same clothes, and camera problems- such as low battery had stopped us from filming on that day.
However, the next day in our media class we were given two hours to finish our filming. This was more than enough for us as we were only missing a few shots. But we came across a problem. We couldn't get the same room that we had filmed in before because it was being used for a meeting. This meant we had to search for another room. This became a problem in a finished film as our continuity for the room wasn't very good, as it was obvious that two different rooms were used, but we had no choice. Once in the room we tried our best to make it look the same as the other, for example the teachers desk, her piece of paper, the door etc. Once we had sorted out the room we recovered into our postitions as camera operator and director and shot the vital scenes that we had missed.
Once they were complete we added them to our others and edited the film as a whole. We cut down shots to take out the clapper board and we sliced shots so we could used the shots in the shot counter shot. Once we finished and watched our final piece we noticed that our continuity was disappointing but we were overall happy with our prelim.