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

My preliminary task I felt was a real starting point within my work I was able to progress with further technology and my skills within this are. It taught me to plan things out thoroughly in order for my sequence to work effectively. We got given a booklet with different camera shots, giving us a sequence to inspire our own. This task given me the opportunity to follow the instructions correctly and create my own sequence. I felt it help improve my understanding of camera shots. Including the use of close-ups, long-shots, extreme long shots, match on action and so on. This helped me greatly when beginning my final outcome because it given me an understanding of what types of clips would be used in my future production. The preliminary task given me a good sense of direction to what I was going to do for my actual outcome and the process that is needed to go through, one thing I found extremely helpful was creating a storyboard. Before filming the sequence a storyboard was created in this helped understand the concept of the preliminary task better and improve planning techniques. This helped for my final product because I went through the thought process and planning techniques I learnt before I create a step to step guide on what I needed to film and which shots I needed to use. I found it very useful because I understood everything more thoroughly.

The preliminary task also taught me able certain aspects of filming which I wasn't aware of before. One of these aspects are the 180 Degree Rule, this is an imaginary line the connects the characters. The camera must be kept on one side of the line otherwise the filming would look like if was coming from different directions, to film on the other side the camera must be recording tracking to the other side of the line. Below is an image which demonstrates the 180 degree rule:

This was a big help when filming my final product because it stopped me making that mistake and having to film the sequence. The preliminary task also developed a base for using the camera. The camera we used was a Sony Handycam, this was a useful camera because it was small meaning it could be carried around anywhere easily. The setting on the camera was easy to use as well so this practice given me a good set of skills before filming my final product. 

After filming my product I realised that there were many faults within it. Some of these included the surroundings I filmed in, as the location was at school there were many interruptions for example students walking in front of the camera etc. Another issue was sound, the background noise from the school created too many problems for the sequence meaning I had to mute the entire clip. Although these weren't major problems I felt that it helped towards my final product because it helped me organise and structure a location where these problems wouldn't occur, it also allowed me to make sure the people whom were involved were reliable and serious so it wouldn't be difficult for them to act properly. This task then helped me work as a group, this is because everyone involved were motivated to create the piece ensuring they did their parts effectively. 

The program used to edit the sequence was Adobe Premiere Pro, the task really helped me towards my final product because it given me skills which I wouldn't of had to learn if I had not done the task which would of wasting time towards finishing my product. Some techniques that I learnt was importing the video clips and using the razor tool to put them into a sequence. This taken some time for me to go through as I had to ensure all the clips were in a good order and flowing. After some practice I found it a lot easier and was then able to add filters onto the clips and transitions between scenes. The progression of these skills helped my full product immensely as because I knew all these general techniques I was able to just keep developing my knowledge and started to add slides into the sequence and titles which indicated what the film was called and who was involved. This become very easy and encouraged me to learn more.

Once the video was done I then learnt how to render my clips and export it as a sequence. After I did this it was uploaded to the internet software YouTube. Going through this process allowed me to understand that making my final product would follow this structure as well.

Overall the preliminary task was a big help as it taught things that I was aware of before, it also made me realise the importance of certain things and how areas which I may have not found relevant could impact the outcome of my piece e.g. the 180 degree rule.