Main Task - Introduction

Brief: The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

The Genre We Have Chosen

We have chosen to do a teen horror film for our main task. This is because it allows us to use a range of different camera shots and sound as well as offer a wide variety of ideas for the mise-en-scène. A horror film gives us an opportunity to show the techniques we have learnt and create a film suitable using the equipment and location necessary. Also, we chose to do a 'teen horror' instead of just a 'horror' which we thought was appropiate and understandable since we are teenagers ourselves. We understand the ideas that would be effective for this type of genre.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

For our preliminary task, we experimented with the camera to produce a short clip of action. We shot our preliminary task in our school reception area, including a corridor and a meeting room as we felt this was an appropriate location to film our clip. The concept was to have a character distributing a mysterious package to another character, in suspicion, whilst still considering the brief we had to follow. The brief stated that we had to have one character opening a door and coming through the door before crossing the room to meet with another character, and so we fitted our planning around this brief. After completing our planning process, including our storyboarding, we continued to the filming stage since we knew exactly what we were doing and how to use our time wisely.

We started the scene with a long shot of our location, which was clearly a school reception area because of the register rack chairs and rooms. This was a good opening to our clip. It showed Tabby walking towards the camera, and entering a door, passing through the door to meet another character. The other ch444;">

As well as unnecessary people interrupting our filming, the diegetic sounds of voices, telephone ringing, slamming of doors and photocopiers could all be heard whilst we were filming. Although this kept a more naturalistic environment, the voices that could be heard would put the audience off from focusing on the action and so we knew this had to be a part of our editing process. However, when it came to editing, we could not seem to separate certain sounds, long shots and close ups when necessary to focus on location, facial expressions and body language as well as expressing good camera skills in advance, before starting our main task. As we only spent 2 hours filming, it was easy to keep the surroundings and costume consistent as the filming was complete in just one part of the day. However, the only problem we had with filming in a school corridor was that it was busy with people interrupting which slowed down our filming process, taking longer than we had planned as we had to ensure that no-one would walk in.

As well as unnecessary people interrupting our filming, the diegetic sounds of voices, telephone ringing, slamming of doors and photocopiers could all be heard whilst we were filming. Although this kept a more naturalistic environment, the voices that could be heard would put the audience off from focusing on the action and so we knew this had to be a part of our editing process. However, when it came to editing, we could not seem to separate certain sounds from the whole background and therefore just had to quierious about it, as well as the character distributing the package. This, as well as the cookie involved in the package were the only props used when filming.

Even though the film was short, a lot of editing was involved. The editing took longer than the time to film the clip, since we had made many mistakes and had to cut each shot to fit in with the continuity. Fortunately, we did not need any text or additional non diegetic sound in our film and so the editing process was simple. The editing took longer because of the amount of importing we had to do and since the shots were short and sharp, we had to fit the correct shots in order whilst making sure the continuity was smooth to look professional. At the end, since a group of people accidentally walked into our shot, we had to cut them out of the film. We used a ‘fade out’ effect at the end not only to block out the people from walking into our footage, but to demonstrate that our filming was complete, as most movies and television programmes end with a ‘fade out to black’ elope with a ‘?’ printed to indicate a sense of mysterious about it, as well as the character distributing the package. This, as well as the cookie involved in the package were the only props used when filming.

Even though the film was short, a lot of editing was involved. The editing took longer than the time to film the clip, since we had made many mistakes and had to cut each shot to fit in with the continuity. Fortunately, we did not need any text or additional non diegetic sound in our film and so the editing process was simple. The editing took longer because of the amount of importing we had to do and since the shots were short and sharp, we had to fit the correct shots in order whilst making sure the continuity was smooth to look professional. At the end, since a group of people accidentally walked into our shot, we had to cut them out of the film. We used a ‘fade out’ effect at the end not only to block out the people from walking into our footage, but to demonstrate that our filming was complete, as most movies and television programmes end with a ‘fade out to black’ effect.

From watching back over our finished footage, we noticed small improvements that could be made. We could have been more aware with our sound at the beginning and end of our filming since there were unwanted sounds that had been captured. Also, there were some slight pauses in transition between a numbers of shots which could have been sped up so that we would not notice these. This was due to moving the different shots around and experimenting with the continuity. However, we did use the 180 degree rule, reverse shot and match on action in our filming and therefore successfully produced our preliminary task, to our standard. Although there are improvements that could have been made, we experimented with using camera and are proud of our work so far.

Preliminary Task Final

This is the final link to my preliminary task.