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

As we worked in a rather large group for the preliminary task, I didn't really have a huge part in operating the camera/editing/coming up with a script, whereas for my film opening I was in control of everything and I had to make my own decisions. This was a huge step in learning. I haven't used much from the preliminary task, except ellipsis. This was an important part of my final media product as it cut actions the character did (e.g making the paper crane) a lot shorter which is more likely to maintain the audiences interest rather than show a continuous shot of the whole thing. It also allows to change shot smoothly without the movement from getting to one place to another whilst filming.

The Preliminary Task was essentially just an exercise in continuity. It helped us to understand that the audience can guess what happened between the two different shots without there being any question. I used this in my film opening as it is just many shots of a continuous action, yet it is broken up every time the shot is changed.

In my opening I used a lot of transitions and effects for the shots to be moved smoothly into each other.  This was mainly to suit the mood and speed of the piece. However, in the Preliminary Task we did no editing other than cutting the clips up. There were no transitions which was done on purpose because we felt it was not needed as they were short, sharp and fast paced few shots. Since then I have progressed and learnt to add transitions in to make the film more interesting.

Also editing-wise, we did nothing in the way of changing the colour or saturation of the footage. This is probably something we should have looked into doing as western films are often very 'yellow'. However due to time limitations and the fact that this didn't seem important at the time, we did not do this. In my film opening I changed the colour of the footage which suited the mood more than the neutral/sunny tone it was in, to a more cold, dark and depressing blue-ish colour. I learnt to do this from the mistake we made with the preliminary task, as changing the colour can have a huge effect on the mood.

The Preliminary Task included diegetic sound which was filmed by the camera. This was maybe not the best idea as there is a lot of background noise from others in the area not intended to be in the film, yet could not be moved. In my final piece the song played in the background is non-diegetic. This was again something I learnt from the preliminary, that most of the time background noise is very apparent and in the area where I was filming there was noise from the rushing of the stream and birds. This would have masked dialogue if there was any, but I felt it was best to use a song purely as it would set the mood more so than silence from the character. I originally filmed with the sound included, but as I decided later to put a song in I got rid of the original sounds which I did by turning the audio down on the footage when I edited it.

In the Preliminary, we didn't think very carefully about the shot and just thought of the best way to capture the action and not create something more interesting and visually exciting. As my piece is mainly visual and there is no dialogue, it was important to create something that had a variety of shots and could occupy attention, which I learnt from the Preliminary. My moodboard was something that helped me visually, I found it very important and this was something that was definitely missing from our Preliminary. Also on the visual theme, mise en scéne was something very important in my final piece and one of my favourite parts is the bit where the main character is walking along the train track (below) and it accentuates her loneliness and how small she feels.

The mise en scene in the Preliminary was just as importantly thought out as in my film opening. In the first shot where he is striding up to the door it gives the impression that he is very powerful and authorititive due to the position he is in the frame (centre).

Also when he is on the other side of these doors and starts shouting at the other character, the mise en scene also says a lot about both characters and a dispute they have had.

Tom is sitting at the table with his head down, avoiding eye contact with Ben whos stance incinuates that he is angry and is shouting at him (we can tell from the dialogue that he is). This makes Tom seem ashamed and upset and Ben the one in power, which is exactly the plot.