Evaluation of the Preliminary Task

During filming we used the Ipad to film the clips, once we were around half way through filming we realised we made an error. Unfortunately we had filmed the clips portrait which we discovered wasn't the most successful way to do so. Therefore, we filmed those clips again and fortunately, we managed to film them effectively and to a good standard. This put us back a bit on filming time however, we managed to film all the necessary clips to include in our Preliminary Task.

In my group it is me, Georgia and Danielle. During the filming process it was Georgia and Danielle who played the two characters who engage in the conversation. I took the role of filming the clips and then once we had filmed all of the clips we thought about the editing process. We all had a role to play in this and all engaged in discussion about what direction we wished to take this video through this stage of the process. As a group we collated all of our ideas and brought them together in order to create the final product.

Once we had filmed our preliminary task we started to think about how we would edit it together. We thought about the order of the clips, as well as the length, transitions and soundtracks as well as further sound effects. Once we had thought about this we began the editing process. First of all we ordered our clips to the desired effect in order for it to flow, then began to think about transitions in order to ensure it runs as smoothly as possible. Once we had done this we watched it through and picked out any mistakes we may have made in order to correct them efficiently. We then began to think about the filter we would use within our video. To decide this, we thought about our genre and came to the conclusion that black and white could be an effective way of linking the genre and theme into our set task. We therefore changed the filter and once again watched it through in order to make a second judgement on what we had created thus far. Once we had decided whether this was effective, we moved onto the soundtrack and any sound effects we may wish to use.

We researched existing soundtracks used within popular psychological horror films and then began to think about what we could use for ours. This was extremely helpful not only for the preliminary task, but also our opening sequence task because it gave us an insight into the types of soundtracks and sound effects that make a successful horror film. We looked through the file within Final Cut Pro, and found a track that we could insert to play throughout the duration of the clips. It has an eerie and mysterious feel in order to link into our genre. We then wanted to find a sound to be used when doors open and close. For this we looked on the website ‘Soundbible.com’ which enables you to use sounds without worry of copyright. We also found a scream on this website, which we decided to use in the final clip of the video for a dramatic effect and further imply the idea of mystery and suspense.

Once we had completed each step of the editing process we ensured that we re-watched the entirety of the video. We did this to enable ourselves to critique our work and make changes by shortening clips, adding more sound effects, differing transitions etc. This helped us as it enabled us to perform a type of quality control check after each stage which made the process run more smoothly and effectively.

Our preliminary task had to include different shot types, specifically shot-reverse-shot, match on action and the 180 degree rule. We ensured that we used this during the process of filming and checked that it had been used during the editing process as well. Within the video we have used the 180 degree rule and shot-reverse-shot together during the conversation the two characters have. Then we used match on action during the journey into the classroom, once the two characters leave the classroom as well as the journey to the hall. I believe that we have used our time effectively and created a successful video that enables the audience to have an insight into our genre as well as the fact that we have ensured that we have used a range of techniques and shot types.