Development over year 12:
At the start of the year we were asked to shoot a short film and the requirements were to film a character walking, having a conversation and then leaving. These requirements, although not even close to being as complicated as the final piece, were still very new to me and the aspects of planning it then filming and editing it was to me a very new experience as I had never done anything like that before. The plan was tricky for me because I was not sure exactly how to film the shots or where to place the camera to get the perfect shot so I could not plan very well as I was very much in the dark about it all. However I was excited to be given freedom to try and see what I could come up with and how everything could be put together.
Looking back I can see how much easier this task really was and how filming in one or two locations and from a few angles was very easy compared to my final piece which I figured out would be a lot more angles, locations and props.
Editing:
When I edited the preliminary task I was nervous to use Premier Pro as I had never used it before but once I started I found I was learning new things very quickly and able to put clips together and cut to where I wanted to quite easily. However looking back at the preliminary task I found that the editing was not as smooth or as effective as I thought it was.
This helped me learn that I needed to pay more attention when I was editing my thriller as there are a lot more shots, sounds and transitions to worry about. Being in a group for the preliminary task I leant that it is much easier to be on your own to edit as I can make my own mistakes and edit how I wanted to without opinions crossing over.
How is thriller more challenging:
In the preliminary task there was no genre or themes to be met so it was very much just to see how we film and edit a piece where as the final piece was very much about how we can not only edit and film but fill the requirements of a genre and mine was British gangster. In the preliminary task we didn't have to worry about the locations and costumes not fitting or film as that was not what was asked of us and I learnt that if you want to fit a certain genre properly all aspects have to be perfect such as having the right mise-en-scene and location.
There are other details in my thriller that will hopefully link to connotations of a conventional thriller film such as enigmas, language and sound which I hopefully captured in my thriller. I looked at other films and wanted to make sure that I stuck to the genre because if you stray from the genre then it will completely mess up the film.
Production - The shoot:
For the preliminary task the shoot was very basic as we were getting to understand just how to use the cameras where as when we had to do our thriller it was a lot more challenging. This is because we had to think about getting many more angles and even creative shots for example on my thriller I have a point of view shot where it looks as if you are walking with a character. This means I have learnt that you have to have more than just standard camera shots in different angles to make a good short film as this would just make it boring to watch. Looking back at my preliminary task I can see that all I had were basic camera angles and did not think about having any creative shots so I looked to make sure I had a few shots that would make my thriller more gripping and better to watch.
On the other hand it was harder for us to make sure we could all be free at the same time for the shoot of our thriller as it was in our own time and not in school hours so sometimes we couldn't always be in the shoot together. For example the shots when it is in the house in my thriller they were all shot and acted by me because other members of the group could not make it. This was challenging as it meant that I had to do the acting so I could not make sure that the angles were right or that I was properly in shot as it was all done by myself.
Comparing my thriller:
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| Figure 1 |
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| Figure 2 |
Looking back at the preliminary task I can see that I have become more creative with shots and shot angles. Figure 1 is from the preliminary task and my head has been cut off and also the shot is very dull and lacks any creativity. Figure 2 from my thriller shows that I have learned how to make the most out of a shot. I have gotten a creative angle and also not cut off either of the heads in the shot. This means I have learnt how to improve my shot quality by expressing myself and thinking outside the box.
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| Figure 3 |
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| Figure 4 |
In my thriller I looked to make mine a better production by getting ideas from other films to inspire shots. I looked at the film Essex Boys and this film was a British gangster film with a lot of bleakness and grittiness to it which is exactly what I wanted from my film. I then looked at the shots and noticed the use of bleak locations to create a real harshness no the film and I wanted to take these ideas into my film because in my preliminary task I didn't have any other films in mind when I filmed it. In figure 3 it is my thriller film where a have gotten a bleak and wet location just like they used in Essex Boys as you can see in figure 4. This allowed me to see what kind of shots I should be aiming to get as Essex Boys is very much the type I film I wanted to create.
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