1) Who did you work with and how did you manage the task between you?
I did my prelim task with Deborah and James Grimley. We managed our task together well as we all agreed on the way we were producing each scene and all worked together taking turns to use the camera to film them. Each of us had a character to play and we improvised our characters so we all had an input in the way the characters were presented.
2) How did you plan your sequence? What processes did you use? What theories did you try to take in to account?
We thought of all our different ideas and wrote them down then decided as a group what we thought was best. What we chose to do was by far the best option out of all of them. We used a storyboard to plan out each scene as well and labelled how each of the camera shots were going to be used. We took into account the narrative theory when planning out prelim.
3) What technology did you use to complete the task, and how did you use it?
We used a video camera to film our prelim and an iPhone. The iPhone was used during a scene where Deborah was texting the drug dealer. This was a good example of a close up shot.
4) What factors did you have to take into account when planning, shooting and editing?
When planning we needed to make sure the scenes were the right genre and as it was an urban teen drama we needed to make sure we made it seem like a typical urban teen drama. When shooting we planned out how long we were going to film each scene then when editing we were able to cut out scenes that were too long or when we had stopped acting. When editing, we also made the scenes flow by creating transitions within each scene.
5) How successful was your sequence? Please identify what worked well, and with hindsight, what would you improve/do differently? What did others say about your production?
I don’t believe our prelim was as successful as we hoped for. Although what worked well was the use of hoodies and a gun to present an image of urban. Our alleyway scene and the interview scene with the 180 degree shot were scenes that worked best in our prelim. If we could start our prelim again and do it differently we would include a scene of a close up of the door handle when Deborah goes for the interview and to make the whole storyline more realistic. The comments that were given for our prelim were mostly positive. They commented on the good music, our different shots and transitions and how it was a clear story.
6) What have you learnt from completing this task? Looking ahead, how will this learning be significant when completing the rest of your foundation coursework, do you think?
I have learn a lot during making my prelim. I have a better understanding of camera shots that I could use next time and I think lighting that could be included would improve my prelim. Seeing other peoples prelim’s, I have also learnt how to make scenes more interesting with different effects and I now have a better knowledge of music that can be played in the prelim. One other major point that I have learnt is you don’t need to give away too much in a small scene therefore you can make it more interesting by leaving a cliff hanger.
