Evaluation Of Prelim Task

Strengths
camera angles 
We used a variety of angles to create the right atmosphere and tension we were aiming for. I believe the camera angles worked really well in this prelim task and helped to create that professional vibe.
Editing
I believe we demonstrated a wide range of skills for editing. We used straight cuts, fades, blurs, match on match action and created a section which resembled a CCTV camera. I think all of our editing showed off our skills and worked well with the camera angles to make it continuous and flowy.
Mise-en scene
Lighting was a good aspect which was thought about considerable throughout the process of filming. Whilst shooting the parts where Paddy was tied up, we thought hard to make sure it created a more violent atmosphere than the scenes with myself and Csenga. To do this we used a separate light source and placed it in different angles to create different shadows and brightness etc. We even filmed a section using the strobe option.

Titles
The titles worked affectively by not distracting what was occuring on screen, they were also nicely visible and not fading into background.


Weaknesses 
Mise-en scene
I dont believe the Mise-en scene used within our project was of the standard of something professional. I believe this is the aspect in which let us down the most. We didnt take much thought into what the sets look like. However we didn't have the time or money to get sets which would have represented our scenes better.
E.g. The scene in which Csenga and I exchange the money: the black backdrops don't do anything to help create affect or provide the viewer with understanding as to where they are.
Our use of pros were very limited and we just kept everything simple.

Sound
The plane engine non diegetic noises are too loud and disrupting for the scene. The images of Paddy were taken to create tension and I feel like the diegetic noises ruin this and make it seem unprofessional and not to the desire of what I want.




What I have learnt

• Filming may not go right first time, so dont assume you have all the content you need. Allow yourself time to go back and perfect filming or gets shots you may have missed or filmed incorrectly. 
• Provide yourself with lots of time to edit, you can always make it better and better.
• Dont leave anything your not 100% happy with.
• GET PLANNING DONE. Even if it takes you a while to do the planning. As long as you know exactly what it is your doing so you have a guide line. Dont dive into filming blind as it will just be messy.
• Think about every single shot.
• Mise-en scene is very important. Make sure every prop means something and everything is used to create create the scene what it is. 
• Dont make it look like a trailer.

Review of other students work 2

Harriet Richardson Thriller Project

 
Thriller strengths 
Camera angles 

• Slow pan across the photos of the murder. This works as an establishing shot to represent what has happenend to draw in the viewer. 
•   Extreme Close up of photos and string attaching it, this works to provide extra information for the vierws. 
• Close up of both girls faces and extreme close up of eyes. Shows a comparison between the two girls and perhaps links them.

Editing

Begins with slow paced cutting, this strecthes out the lengths of the scene making it come across as more time consuming and stressfull for the detective. Towards the end of the scene as more inforamtion is suggested about the killer, it becomes more fast paced cutting. this created chaos in the scene. Overlaying with fade was used as the detectivewas pinning the photos onto a board. This was a good affect as it helped to connote time moving forward.
Sound
non-digetic of the phone call works really well to draw the viewers in straight away and ge tthem hooked. It begins forcing the viewers to question themselfs like "who is the girl on the phone? whos on the other side?"
more non diagetic sound used was a police radio which is muffled, this works affectively as it shows the extent to which the siuation is and connotes that the proagonsit in it may be a police officer investigating the murder. 
Use of ambient sound which have been over layered was a good idea as it makes the extract seem more professional. This is because if they had acctually used the real sound then you could be able to hear all of the background fuzzy noises which contradics the instense incidental music.
Mise en scene 
It is ovbious that alot of thought was used in deciding the locations. They are used affectively to ensure verisimilitude.
Titles
The titles are presented in sans serif. The first set of titles appear on the screen seperately and in different colours of purple and white. The white font establishes the name of the production company, to represent that this is an important title it is shown with big lights streaming off the letters; this makes it very extravagant.
The names of the actors/actresss appear in a thin black sans serif at the corners of the screen, this is good as it dosent take attention away from the clips but stands out enough that it is still seen.

Thriller weakness 
Camera angles
At the end of the project when the girls faces are in Extreme Close Up, they are presented in slightly different angles. However these angles are only slightly different but not contrasting enough to make a statement. So it looks like a mistake.
Editing
Pehaps too much rapid flickering shots of the muder and murderer. The pace is so fast that you cant concept what it is your looking at and dont have the oppotunity to take it all in.
Mise-en scene
Within the room which is meant to be the 'office' where the detective is working you can see aspects of it which suggest it is a family house. This dosent create verisimilitude.
Titles 
There is a flickering title which is too different from the others. It is distratcing and looks unprofessional.

 From this photo screenshotted of Harriet's blog it demonstrates that she took alot of pride in her presentation. The background is filled with colour and personality. She has used alot of photos wihtin her work and lots of detailed writing. She also uses alot of different sources of website to present her work, an example of this would be her 'emaze'. I think Harriet's blog is a good example.

prelim task day 3

When editing our prelim task we noticed that one of the long shots taken of Paddy in the cubard was at a wrong angle. Because of this, when editing there was an odd black boarder around the clip. This made the video look unprofessionll and looked as if there was some sort of glitch. It also didnt help to give the menacing affect I was aiming for with the inserts of Paddy.  

In these shots it demonstrates me and Csenga taking new shots of Paddy tied up. We wanted to get the best shots possible. As we were attempting to retake the eerie long shot we came up with the idea of taking a high angle in the corner of the small room to give a CCTV affect. This idea worked really well with the rest of the shots as it helped with that thriller atmosphere to build suspence and draw in the viewer.

 This image shows how we worked together to gain the correct lighting and camera angle to get the affect we wanted.

We had plenty of time left of the lesson to carry on our editing. Whilst editing we came across struggles such as making the prelim look exactly as we had wanted. A problem which had occured was the lighting between two different closeup shots of paddys feet. The difference was to striking and harsh and may have confused the viewer. To solve this problem I came up with the idea of having it blurred at the begining and fading into the closeup which then fades into the next clip of a pan. This helped to create a messy affect to connote the characters confused and bewildered situation. An idea which occured which helped to make the prelium task be filled with more advanced skills was creating the CCTW affect. We decided that the high angle wasent enough to create this affect so we change the colour to be a washed out balck and white and adding a 12 hour clock into the top right hand corner of the screen. This counted up for three seconds.

Prelim task day 2

Today the roles were reversed and me and Csenge were able to do the acting. Unfortunately Paddy was not able to turn up so we used assistance of others to help filming.Problems we came across whilst filming was attempting to not get unnecessarily objects within the shot as it would ruin the verisimilitude. To create it as natural as possible we had a dark black background, keeping it as simple as possible. Whenever we wanted to change the camera angle we would have to keep moving the black curtain around the room and moving the green curtain so it wasn't visible.

Prelim Task Day 1

Today we began filming  our prelim task or a thriller movie. Myself, Paddy Mcan and Csenga Nemeti took part in directing, filming and contriubuting through holding lights etc, to create the perfect shot. In todays session Paddy did all of the acting, and tomorrow myself and Csenga will be doing the acting. This gives us the chance to be able to take part in all areas of making this intro.

Before we could begin filming we had to understand exactly what shots we wanted to use and editing inbewteen the shots. To do this we made a story board of 15 shots. When filming we were extending these shots as more ideas came to mind. In the prevoius lesson we had allready created a A3 sheet covered in ideas and planned out the story of which our intro to a thriller film would become.
This photo demonstrates the type of postitions I would put myself into to get the correct camera angle I desired.This shot was a close up of paddys hands tied up, the idea was to gain extra information for the viewer by inclding objects like the back of his feet and chair inside of the image aswell.

 This photo was taken when I was filming an extreme close up of Paddy's hands being tied up at the back of a chair.