Evaluation

Throughout this whole task I think I have progressed a lot and I think that this task was an overall success. Although I face many difficulties through this experience, I also learned very much and think I have developed on my media knowledge and skills.

The group turning from a group of 4 into a group of 2 was the biggest issue me and my partner Alice faced. One of our team members left the course and the other decided he wanted to work alone. This left it down to me and Ali to do all the work, pre production planning and filming. Although we sorted it out like adults and managed to get passed it and knuckled down because we knew we had a lot to do.

I feel like I have worked really hard on this task, I have explored many different genres for my character representation, enabling me to dig deep and figure out what the main character in our opening sequence should be like what/who she should represent. In order to establish my Target Audience I carried out a Questionnaire. I then held the results in pie charts and came to the conclusion that our Target Audience were 16-18 Females who go to the cinema quite often. I took many forms and conventions into consideration during this task and though about mise en scene, costumes, Lighting, props, camera shots etc in every aspect of our film, helping to make it the best it could possibly be.

Where the equipment was concerned we didn’t use a tripod so we balanced the camera on steady surfaces that we could find around the house to get different effects within camera angles and movements. We rested it on things like ironing boards; this gave us a middle shot, a banister from a stair case; this gave us a birds eye view and a long shot, and many more. We used the camera well and used many different facilities for example zoom. We also used night mode which we were very impressed with. We experimented with a variety of camera shots and movements during this film for example tracking, long, middle, zoom, close up etc. This way we could see which looked better and we thought it’d improve our sequence and make it more interesting.

The group of 4 found it really hard to choose a story to use for the opening sequence, seeing as they were all really good. After a long debate and people putting forward their proposals we chose Alice’s story to use and we all felt we had made the right choice. Although we have done story boards, shooting scripts and screen plays, while filming we changed some of the aspects of the sequence. We did this to show that something’s did not work and were unrealistic and we had to use our own initiative to get around it and still make our sequence work. Something’s that did not work for example is particular flashbacks, for example “CSI tape” and “dust brushes”, therefore we stuck to doing close ups of the face in night mode, making it look as scary as possible.

I think that this task had a very good time limit, we had enough time to get all the pre production planning done, and the filming. Although due to so many step backs within our group, we didn’t get that long to edit, therefore I wish I spent more time on the editing then anything else, due to the fact we only really edited in 1 day. We used many different techniques on our editing section for example cutting, fading in for transitions, speeding parts up to make it go quicker therefore making it look more scary. I feel like I have become very familiar with Windows Movie Maker and feel comfortable using it now. If I had to redo this task I would definitely leave me with more time to edit and less time doing anything else. I would leave myself at least 4 lessons to make sure everything was perfect.  I feel like I have improved drastically from the preliminary task a lot. I feel that I am much happier and comfortable with cameras and now what camera shot’s and movements to use to make it beneficial for the sequence.

In theory I would have liked to use a better camera, one with focus, I think this would have had a better effect and a huge benefit on our sequence. Making it a lot better than it would have been. I feel like I’ve worked really hard on this project and put in a lot of my spare time to do things like; make sure the presentation was done and looked good. I also made sure I was present for most lessons, and that I’d only be absent if I was ill etc.

In conclusion I am very happy with the way our film has turned out, although in the future I would have definitely left more time for editing and more time for filming therefore making my sequence up to a higher standard. I feel that I have progressed and came along way from the preliminary into this task. I also feel like I have managed to develop and challenge forms and conventions of media products for example costume and mise-en-scene. Overall even though our sequence isn’t perfect, I think it is the best we could have done based on the fact we were a group of 2. We overcame a lot of issues and I feel like I have developed within myself and knowledge of media terms and products.