Main Task Evaluation - Question 7

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

During our prelim we learnt many things that helped us in our main task. For example we discovered how to use the 180 degree rule. This was important as in a conversation between two people the camera must always stay on the same side. We did this correctly for both prelim and our main task. We also learnt in our prelim that continuity is important. In our prelim we had problems with our continuity as we ended up filming in two different locations so it made our prelim slightly confusing. Therefore we didn't want the same thing to happen in our main task so we made sure that we had a location booked for a whole day, and we also asked one of our friends to come along with us and make notes on continuity and make sure we did it all correctly and no mistakes were made. However, when putting the film together we did notice some mistakes such as the window being closed when it was meant to be open. But overall we were pleased with our continuity results. Other things we learnt from our prelim involved the camera and how to use it. We learnt that to get the best shots the tripod most be used to keep it steady and focused, however hand held shots can become creative too.

Our main task is better than our prelim in many ways. Firstly we believe that it holds more humour which is important to us because we were creating a RomCom. Our plot seems to make more sense and the audience can understand it more. We also found that they enjoyed the story alot more too. We used more shots in our main task than in our prelim so we were really exploring our knowledge of how to use the camera. For example we used panning shots and tracnking shots. Our prelim consisted of minimum shots so it was good to have a range of camera operations in there too. We also had the voice overs in the main task which enabled a more movie effect to our film, whereas in the prelim we didn't have the opportunity to include this. Our credits in our main task are more involved with the film so it looks more like a movie and RomCom, whereas in the prelim we used basic credits and transitions. Once again we were exploring our knowledge whilst using iMovie. Another way our main task was better than our prelim was because of the location. We had booked my mum's work for the day so had no trouble with continuity like our prelim. It also looked the part for the film, as Auntie Babs was at work in her office which is what we managed to get.

There are a few things that could have improved our main task, for example our little mistakes in our continuity, also our positioning of shots. For example when we did a low angle, sometimes it caught the lighting behind the character and caused them to look dark. We would have also prefered a more sexual kind of music for our seductive scene but we couldn't find the right piece. Apart from small changes to film we were happy with what we ended up with. Our main task was complete!

Overall I am pleased with what me and my group produced and Auntie Babs is believed to be a great piece of coursework. Thanks to my PlayHouse Productions group- Courtney Heary and Beccy McTaggart and help on filming day from Sean Firman and Lucy Evers. A great experience!