Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
At the beginning of the time which we started planning and getting ready to get ideas together to produce a film opening sequence we had to make a practise clip (preliminary task). The aim of this task was to show the progression which we had made throughout the project compared to our final product.
The skills which we had learnt while completing the preliminary task was mainly the filming and editing which we had to complete and produce to see what our skills were like at the beginning of the project compared to what our final product looked like. This task helped show us different ways of editing to help the clip fit the type of genre which our media product was portraying. Also the task helped us figure out different types of shots which look good and give off certain effects which will be needed throughout the opening sequence. For example, close up shots of the meat being cut and red wine being poured in a glass in our opening sequence, this helps to build up the tension for the audience, thinking about what is going to happen next.
Throughout the whole of the prelim task there was quite a few different bits of weaknesses. One type of weakness which was the quality of the filming such as the lighting and blurriness, some parts of the filming was really dark and fuzzy and you couldn’t really see exactly what was going on and then it went to parts where it was quite clear – such as when walking up the corridor and then going into the classroom. Another part of weakness was that the people who featured in the opening sequence didn’t hold the ending position long enough so the ending of that particular scene is cut of quite quickly and you don’t really hear what the last words are which are being said.
We have ensured that out final product doesn’t have these type of weakness’s, we made sure of this by having a red head lighting kit, this gave our opening sequence quite a balanced lighting source the whole way though the sequence where the lighting is needed such as when the meat is being cut and the wine being poured into the glass. Then to make sure that we get the correct cut in the right place once we had filmed we carried on filming for a couple more seconds after it had finished, this is so we made sure we had enough time for it to fit in and that nothing had been cut off because there wasn’t enough time for it to finish.
Overall I have learnt main skills which are needed to make a good film opening sequence, such as making sure the lighting is equal throughout and that you have a few more seconds extra filming after a scene we had just shot. Some of the main things which are essential to make sure you have a good media product is that you have planned what you want to do so you can just do it and get it done quickly – also making sure that you have all your props and clothing which needs to be used ready for when you need to use them.
