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

Looking back at the preliminary task, I think I have learnt to be more creative with the shots to use when filming. For example in the final opening sequence a variety of shots were used in comparison to the few used in the preliminary task.

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Preliminary task shots

1.  This shot shows a close up we shot in the preliminary task.

This shows a mid- shot we filmed of two characters speaking during the preliminary task.

These two shots show an action match we shot in the preliminary task. It shows a girl running and then running out of a gate at the other end.

This shows a point of view shot from the female character looking down at her feet. This is used when the character has been running and has now stopped and is out of breath.

  

This is an establishing shot that we used in the preliminary task to show where the female character is. This shot shows that she is in the middle of no where. 

The final opening sequence shots

This is a close up of one of the boy characters playing with the football the shot them zooms out as shown below

                                           

We also used a number of point of view shots throughout the final opening sequence. These point of view shots were all from the male character. We used these shots to create tension for the audience, and make them feel as if they were seeing things from the male's point of view.

This shows a tilt that was used at the start of the opening sequence to show that the man had sat down and is watching the boys play football.

This long shot shows the two boys playing football together, however it also shows the male character in the background walking towards the swings. This allows the audience to see what all three characters are doing. 

Throughout the final opening sequence a number of action matches were used, however they may not be a clear as the two shown in the video due to the fact that they are separated up by the point of view shots of the male character walking like in Action match 2. 

when filming the preliminary task we had to change a few things so it would work, therefore because of this, it taught me to be prepared to change things last minute to make it work better. 

First edit of the opening sequence and the total re-shoot for the final edit.

When filming the first edit of the opening sequence we thought we have a strong idea for the storyline. However even though the idea was a good idea we did not tie up any loose ends. Resulting in a storyline which was confusing for audiences, the shots we took were also hard to edit together to ensure that it was realistic and there were no jump cuts making the post production stage very difficult to improve on what shots we had. This resulted in a poor first edit. Therefore as a group we thought it would be best to re-shoot the whole of the opening sequence. This included coming up with a totally new idea. However learning from the mistakes we made during the first edit, we put together a more detailed and thought through storyboard and brainstorm. When filming we also ensured we filmed clips more than once and from different angles which meant when it came to post production we would have a number of clips to choose from, so we could pick the one that would work best within the sequence. From the first edit of the opening sequence, we also realised the quality of sound wasn't clear. Therefore this resulted in Chloe and I recording sound separately from the videos For example we recorded heavy breathing by blowing down an empty bottle as this amplified the breath making it seem deeper, louder and heavier than when recorded with the action. We also recorded the conversation with the boy character and his mother separately as this is an important part of the sequence, as the audience are made aware that the boy is leaving the park. This ensures they are not left confused like in the first edit of the opening sequence. Over all I feel it was a better idea to do a total re-shoot for our final opening sequence, as we ended up with a sequence which was of a better quality not only due to the storyline, but also because of the post-production stages and the amount of thought and planning that went into the final opening sequence.

 From this I learnt it is best to go into a lot of detail when planning to make sure the ideas I do come up with are going to work well, and not going to be confusing for the audience like the first draft was. All the things I learnt throughout the process of making and developing the opening sequence have helped me ensure that I have helped me contribute to the group as much as possible. As well as putting together a final opening sequence that has been planned and thought out, that is creative yet fits the thriller genre and is appealing to the target audience.