LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

Preliminary Task

Question 7
From being able to construct a preliminary task, as a group, I feel that we learnt an awful lot. We had to consider many factors when creating the task, and I do honestly believe that 'The Visitor' was a large improvement to the techniques we gathered previously.
These improvements were not just necessarily things such as holding the camera steady, but also the shots we decided to apply and the cutting duration. We also learnt that planning in advance was a major thing we had to consider when creating our final task as when filming, we were wasted a lot of time due to not knowing which actors we would use and who was available.

Picture Two

Firstly, we improved greatly on organising the order of the shots and choosing what shots were appropriate at what time. As the picture to the left shows, it was clear that the actors had their back to the screen on more than one occasion which was not done on purpose. In order to improve this for our final product, we made sure that it was directly obvious to the audience when a character was meant to have their back to the screen (shown through picture 2) and changed the angle of the shot to side view when a character was approaching an object (picture 3).
            Picture Three

Secondly, I learnt that the use of appropriate mise en scene really added a more realistic effect to what was produced on screen. In our preliminary task, we did not give ourselves as a group a lot of time to plan where the filming would be shot. Due to this, we lacked appropriate mise en scene, for example note pads and filing cabinets which are commonly seen in a doctors office. This then made the location seem completely unrealistic to the audience. However, from learning from this mistake, we made sure that we got the setting completely right for our final product. This was done by using a lot of mise en scene in the context of things such as; pens, books, a bed, posters, music stereo, and pictures all around a room, to portray an 'arty'and teenage room to our target audience. I believe this worked successfully you began to understand what sort of characteristics our antagonist had and what sort of feelings she would later express throughout the film.

Use of Mise en Scene

Lack of Mise en Scene

Along with many of the techniques that we approved on, I also feel that I learnt a great lot about using other technologies and software.  In the preliminary task, we did not have to add music or any titles to the piece of construction so when helping with the editing element of our final product, I gathered great information on how to apply different fonts and add specific pieces of sound.  Overall, doing the preliminary task was extremely successful as it allowed not only myself, but also the other members of my group to see what we individually needed to improve on to make sure that 'The Visitor' would be constructed in a successful way.