Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at the preliminary task I have progressed a lot. The first time I got to use the cameras were for the use of the preliminary task since then I have improved in my use and understanding of how a camera works. Watching back the video of the preliminary task I can see that the cutting is good and that the camera angles we used were different throughout. Sometimes on the prelim art task the camera would be unfocused and not in a good quality which is poor for the audience to watch. Also some of the cutting that had been done to the preliminary task the cutting was to quick losing some of the dialogue throughout the scene. In the preliminary task we had to include over the shoulder shots and someone walking in and out of the door and taking a seat.
Below is a link the preliminary task and the actual horror opening we have filmed. The reason I have input these videos into this evaluation is so you can see how different they are. Comparing these videos it shows how much are video footage has improved over the recent weeks.
The preliminary Task
The Horror Opening - "The Hanging"
Comparing the preliminary task to the actual horror opening clip you can see straight away that we have improved a lot. For instance the camera angles are still not shaky due to the tripod we had been using. Our footage is now in good quality and focused making it easier for the audience to see the picture in a clearer quality. We have took into consideration the different camera angles we have used writhing the opening. Comparing this to our preliminary our camera angles weren't creative and just straight forward over the shoulder shots and long shots. In the opening to the horror film you can see different used such as point of view shots, establishing shots and close ups.
When we get into the woods we have changed from tripod to hand held, in our preliminary task we constantly used hand held which made some of the camera angles shaky, however in our opening someone of the hand held camera angles aren't shaky this is due to improvement from the preliminary task. What I liked about our preliminary task is that when watching it back some of the angles that were shaky brought to the decision of using a hand held in the woods when filming our opening. This was due to the fact of showing fear and nervousness throughout the camera angle. This is something we wanted to show in one of our characters!
In the editing process to each of these short videos we see different use, for instance in the preliminary there isn't any sound except form the sound of the dialogue used. However in the opening to a horror film there's a little bit of sound from the dialogue. Something we had to take into consideration is the camera angles and where the characters were standing in order to be heard through the mic. This meant sometimes the characters had to be louder and then we could edit this in the editing process on adobe premiere pro. In the editing process we added certain things to our opening to our horror film such as effects of a black layer to darken the footage, also we had to import a soundtrack now comparing this to our preliminary task all we had were basic clips. You can see as well how we have improved through our preliminary task to the opening to a horror by our editing. Such as becoming a lot more confident in changing certain aspects of the opening to make it a lot more chilling. Due to the cutting in our preliminary take as said above sometimes it was cut to quick so you could barely make out some of the speech. However other than that the cutting on the preliminary task was done to a good standard and it had a constant flow throughout with no stops or little messy cuts at all. In the final outcome to our horror opening we can see that the editing is a lot more smoother and slick, the different editing is cut to a good standard and has improved a lot the edits with the sound track also fades in well at certain points gradually getting louder and building up tension which is something we wanted in our final outcome. 
Frame 1
From this frame we can see the use of a phone or mobile. Something that i realized when we look at this frame more closely is you can see the reflection of the camera on the screen of the phone. One thing that is good about this frame is from the rest of the other frames this is the only frame that has been focused in good quality. We could take this in the opening to a horror film and use it as a stalking technique of say the jock reading her text and then becoming a little bit more scared and turning around. This is something to take into account if we were to keep on filming for an actual film. However watching back our opening to a horror movie i would say just about the whole video was in good quality and focused well too.
Frame 2
Something that I took down into my notes when watching this back would be how the cutting here is off time with the flow of the footage. This means it's a little bit jumpy and a little bit of a slow start. What we wanted was a little bit more flow to keep the consistency up. However comparing this to our actual opening to a horror film I think our editing was a lot better and we never cut at a late time it had a consistent flow throughout which was really good because it gave the opening a bit more of a professional outlook.
Frame 3 and 4
From both of these frames we see Erica walking through a door. This is something that was needed in the preliminary task and useful because if we had something to do with walking into a room in our opening to a horror film it was easy to edit and a great way to show us how to cut something at one point then at another point.
Frame 5 and 6
From these 2 shots we see "Over the Shoulder Shots". This is something that we liked in our preliminary task and wanted to use in our film however there was never an appropriate point to it. There wasn't a lot of dialogue in the opening scene however in the group we said if we were to carry on filming we would of used a couple of over the shoulder shots because there easy and show a good use of editing skills. However what I've noticed again is when Erica goes to speak we hear about 1 second of what she is saying and then it cuts. Which is again shows that the cutting was done to quick. However in the opening to a horror film we improved a lot by cutting to soon you could hear the dialogue which was in the film clear and it ran smoothly alongside the soundtrack that had been composed.
Frame 7
On this clip we see that the footage isn't in focus which is something worked a lot on in our horror opening because we wanted the best quality you could get for the opening scene. However another point about this clip would be that because for this whole preliminary task we were using a hand held camera which meant it caused some scenes to shake a lot. Including this one where the camera slowly followed where I was going, The footage is very shaky which is what drove us for our opening to a horror film to use a tripod for most of the footage walking towards the woods then to use a hand held when we got into the woods to present as the stalker following the jock. Also the shakiness of the camera represents the breathing of the stalker/killer in the opening to a horror film it also represents the nervousness of the jocks character.
Frame 8
From this frame we see a middle shot of Erica and myself. Showing the different camera angles of who has the higher status over who. For instance Erica was higher than myself when she walked in thinking that i wouldn't suss out her game then when they were talking they were on the same level and then when i got up it showed by the camera angles that I had a higher status. This is something that we wanted to work on a lot more in the opening to a horror film, We liked showing different camera angles to show different interpretations of each character. This is what we did in the horror opening. We used this a lot in the opening especially in the woods scenes with the jock and the killer.
Frame 9
In this frame again right at the end of the scene we cut to early at the point where I walk out of the door. It would be a lot better to see myself storm of out of the shot then cut because it would have been more appropriate. Again this is something we kept a clear eye on when editing for the horror opening.
I think from looking back at the preliminary and comparing it to the horror opening the only thing that were not so good in the preliminary would of been the cutting and the quality of the footage. This is something that we took into consideration alot to get the outcome of the opening to a horror film and from looking back at the opening to a horror film we improved a lot on these different aspects. Overall from looking at the preliminary task, which was our first time looking at the camera and working with it, comparing it with the horror film opening you can see how much we have improved as a group towards the final outcome of the video footage. Certain areas we have improved on more than others. The titles fading in out and the clean smooth cutting and the fades in and out for the soundtrack are all well edited to create our final outcome of the horror opening, I think without the preliminary task we wouldn't of had the general basic understanding of how to edit the opening. Also without the preliminary task being set I don't think our final outcome would of been very successful. This is due to the fact we have learnt everything we needed to know in our preliminary task and on the way we can develop our skills a lot more in creating and editing a opening to a teen horror movie.
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