Evaluation Question Seven

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

This shot from my preliminary task shows the basic effects that we used throughout. The black and white effect was something that I was keen to include in our final Thriller project. At first when I used black and white in my preliminary task I was unsure on how to change the balance of black to white. When I came to editing my Thriller film however, I was more confident in using premiere pro and was able to adjust the contrast to create a darker, shadier atmosphere.

Whilst filming and editing our preliminary task I had to ask for much more help and guidance when using the cameras and Macs. I felt that my knowledge has progressed substantially since working on the preliminary task as I am now confident in using premiere pro, the video cameras and also the Macs themselves. I felt that I didn’t need to ask for as much advice and I resorted to trial and error when trying to figure out how to accomplish something.

In our preliminary task the transitions were far smoother and cleaner. At first I was hoping to achieve this in our Thriller, however after Charlotte and I had established the jolty, grainy effects by using dust and scratches and noise and grain and also chosen a jerky song, we felt that clear cuts and fades to black were more appropriate and made the film look more fitting for our target audience and the overall end product. I learnt in the short time between filming our preliminary task and our Thriller, that to create a good quality product we needed to make sure the editing process fitted all the aspects together, instead of making them vague and confusing.

I feel that the biggest learning curve in the progression from our preliminary task to our final Thriller film was learning to take ideas and develop them from existing Thrillers. The research that Charlotte and I carried out helped us to understand particular conventions and incorporate them into our work. We learnt how to use the technology provided to try and develop some of the aspects of successful Thriller films such as ‘Seven’ and ‘Sin City’.

Amy Reeve