E7: What do I feel I have learned from my preliminary task to the full product?

September 2016


April 2017

The above is a nine frame rundown of my preliminary task and below it is nine frames from my opening sequence. Most obviously, there is more variety and colour in the opening sequence as I used a better quality camera and natural lighting instead of the school lighting. In editing, I added filters to add atmosphere, which I didn't do in my prelim as there wasn't a need for a thriller atmosphere because it was an everyday encounter. In terms of camerawork, I was pretty much a novice at using cameras and tripods at the beginning of the year so the shots are very limited: I used static or tracking shots the whole time, with no change of angles- in the opening sequence I had had more practice with cameras and as a result I could include different angles like the low angle taken from the ground (see bottom left) or the high angle establishing shot I used a drone for (middle). I also used handheld cameras more in my opening sequence for a tension-building and immersing effect, for example in the bottom right shot where I ran behind Abbi for an over-the-shoulder shot. In my prelim, I also used a lot of match-on-action and shot-reverse shot, but as there is only ever one person in the shot at a time in the opening sequence I struggled to include shot-reverse shot and the 180-degree rule- which I did break once or twice in the prelim because of inexperience. My prelim has very limited narrative as it only consists of two classmates talking and entering/leaving a room; compared to my opening sequence which holds a lot of narrative hints as it is elusive as to why she is running away, who she was kidnapped by and the reasons behind it- also the cliffhanger of the kidnapper noticing she has escaped and whether he will get her back or not. This development was because I had more time in research and planning for my opening sequence, and my prelim was very rushed and improvised. I feel I've learned a lot and seeing the differences between the two makes it clear how much I've progressed since September, in terms of narrative and complexity as well as professionalism and editing.