Task 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

As can be seen from the two videos above, the preliminary task is far more basic and less sophisticated than the thriller, both in terms of content and production. The initial planning for the prelim was minimal and little thought was put into the Mise en Scene in comparison to the thriller, which entailed extensive research into what would be appropriate for the desired effect. The planning for the Thriller included writing the script, collecting props, building the set, casting the actors in accordance with what best fit the part, storyboarding and rehearsal to prepare for the shoot day. The only planning for the prelim however was finding a free space to shoot and finding two students from the school who were willing to act for us. The storyboard was already given to us and was very basic.

Since making the preliminary task, i feel as if i have developed my film making skills significantly as a result of the challenges presented in the making of 'Aftermath'. We moved from exclusively using simple and conventional shot types to a sophisticated sequence with a visual narrative including more complex and interesting shots such as the crane shot and the tracking shot. Whereas the prelim solely told the story through dialogue, we wanted to incorporate more visual significance to the story being told as well as using dialogue with the Thriller. This made storyboarding an overall longer and more challenging task.

The use of sound differs greatly in both tasks. Firstly, in the prelim we used the basic raw sound from the boom mic whereas in Aftermath we went through all of the sound for each shot and chose the best one out of either the boom mic or the on camera mic. After this we leveled all of the volume so that it was the same throughout the sequence. We also included music and ambient sound effects for Soundtrack Pro in Aftermath which we did not do in the prelim. All non- diegetitc sound had to be leveled and sound bridged carefully.

When it came to demonstrating our ability to master new technology in the use of Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro I think that the jump from the prelim task to the main task was an example of showing a more sophisticated use of the media products than was expected in the prelim task. This is because we all knew that our main task was far more important to concentrate on and put effort into, along with the longer time period to work on it meant that we all had more time to learn how to use Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro at a higher standard than we did during our preliminary task. This meant that our finished result for both tasks contrasted in terms of quality. Seeing as the time limit for editing the prelim task was so short and we were all beginners to this new technology it meant that our editing skills were no where near as good as when we came to editing our main task, which, as a result was much better pieced together and as a result looked far more professional.