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

As I did not film in my preliminary task I feel that I have definitely improved with our piece, ‘One Eleven’ as I contributed to filming the scenes I was not in. Although not all my shots were great I did my best to correct my mistakes. For example I shot the scene panning around the HOODED MAN’S face. My first attempt did not go to plan as I was in the wrong position and was not 100% clear of what I was meant to be doing, however when shot again I did my best the produce a steady shot as the camera was hand held. The shot now looks a lot more effective and portrays the eerie effect of the evil face watching the three girls in an intense manner.
Panning around HOODED MAN'S face

Another major fault I seem to come across is the breaking of the 180* rule as this occurred in my preliminary task and the first attempt with the final project. Luckily we realised this fault and were able to correct this mistake and I know completely understand the rule and will not do it again.
Breaking the rule

I have definitely become more confident over the editing process from the preliminary task. I found it much easier to use the editing software as I knew where the buttons needed were, and how the shots had to be placed. I found the blogging process quite simple meaning it was done quickly. I also learnt new techniques that improved the sequence such as the fade/ dissolve in and out button which gives our titles a more interesting appearance, making them more mysterious. Except nearer the end where we experimented and found that it actually looks better to use hard cuts on the final shots to make an intense, scarier pace. Having the superimposed images allowed me to change the opacity and trial how dark or light the shots needed to be to make it the most effective, which gave me more experience with the different options Adobe Premier has to offer. Although it was quite challenging at times as we had a few jump cuts or issues with continuity and needed to cover them, we did our best to get round the problems and in doing so I improved my skills with the programme which will help me in the future and showed me where I was going wrong in filming.

Adobe Premiere

Another area in which I have enhanced on is with the sound of the film. In the preliminary task we simply used a CD and just put it on in the background making it quieter when the door closed, and loader when it opened as it was meant to be from a different room. This gave me a little knowledge of the programmes audio software. However in our opening sequence we need the sound to help create the mood for the piece and add to the overall performance. This required finding or creating a noise which would fit with the horror genre with an eerie sense to build the texture of the sequence. We decided to find a piece of music, though this became difficult as the original sight we wanted to use- mobygratis- which had ideal tunes, did not send us the rights to download them. Luckily we found a song from Unsigned Band Web called ‘Aluminium’ with the song ‘Iodine’. It took us a while to find an appropriate sound and even when we decided on this one it did not sound quite right. This is where adjustments were needed and skills learnt. We decided to slow the piece down as it became more horror like and less sci-fi which entailed fiddling with the programmes sound buttons. We also had to raise and lower the tone of the piece so it was not overpowering with the dialogue, yet louder when we wanted it to make an impact, for example over the superimposed images and some titles. However before we mixed the sound track we had to merge the audio with the footage so that it faded up and down on cue, I had done this previously but am much more confident doing so now as I used to get slightly confused. From adding the soundtrack I learnt how to use Adobe Premier in more depth and can now combine the visual with the audio more comfortably. Unsigned band Web

Unsigned Band Web