Preliminary Task: Evaluation

In our preliminary task, we were asked to create a short scene involving a character opening a door, sitting down beside another character, then engaging in conversation with them. We had to shoot, direct, and edit our footage - making sure we included match on action, shot/reverse shot, and the 180-degree rule in our camerawork and storyboard planning. I think our end product turned out to be pretty successful;

To begin with, we brainstormed ideas for our scene and what setting/dialogue our characters should have - and who our characters should even be. We were in mutual agreement that even though this was only our preliminary task, we wanted our scene to have substance (plus, treating our beginning project with the same passion as we would our exam task helped gave us a great idea to what we could expect in the future). Wiktoria was very passionate about having the conversation be between two secret agents, and we found that this idea had lots more potential compared to a romantic or horror approach to the scene. After exploring various camera shots, angles, and movements we could use in our scene, we began to produce other concepts for our agent's story - leading into planning our scene and storyboarding. The backstory to these agents would be that Agent would come to meet Bgent in a secluded area so he could receive a mission report; unfortunately, a failed mission means that another agent would have been killed. Devastated at the news, Agent lashes out at a sorrowful Bgent then exits the room. Although our original casting had to be changed due to actors availability, our replacement actor was a perfectly fine substitute and both Josh and Ashley were great performers to work with when shooting. We were also unable to take our opening shot of a grey office building, but our change in location from our school to Keystone Youth Club was a very beneficial decision. Although an opening shot would have helped set an office-like scene, the interior of where we filmed in keystone looked more like a secret bunker - so everything worked out (yet we were lucky, in future we will think more about location planning). Though we were able to film all shots incredibly early, it would also be wise to stick to a film schedule. 

Our filming was highly enjoyable and produced satisfying results. Each member contributed to camera work, directing, and mies-en-scene. While Wik and I hunted down locations inside Keystone that would match what we needed in our storyboards, Emma made some last-minute adjustments to crucial props needed for later on. Wik, who had proposed the idea of the secret agents, was very comfortable and confident directing while I mainly monitored the reality and mies-en-scene and Emma kept her eye on the camera. Though we had forgotten most camera movements in our shots and nearly ran out of time to film, I'm glad we were already able to work efficiently as a group. This task has certainly been a learning curve, and there are a lot of areas we have agreed to improve on in future projects.

Editing our footage using Premiere Pro was also a great experience. The software was very straightforward to use, and I feel as if I am already skilled at editing match on action between separate shots. What I didn't notice while editing is the sound of a camera being turned on in one of the later videos - which admittedly could have been easily avoided if I had either turned up my volume or used headphones in my editing; again, something I have learnt to be cautious about. There is also a lack of meis-en-scene in a transition between two shots near the beginning of our scene, where Bgent goes from having his head in his hand to look up at Agent in 0.2 seconds - highly unnatural for a normal human. From this, we will try and take more shots to work with in future filming and try to pace out scenes longer to build up more tension. 

I would say our preliminary task very did well to meet the expectations of our set brief, especially our use of more unique shots, location planning, casting, and editing (for the most part), though there were definitely weaknesses when it came to planning. When producing our main task we will absolutely be more organised, yet I feel as if we have learnt from this task and will continue to make more good content.