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

From my preliminary task, I feel I have learnt three main things; how to edit to an advanced level, how to achieve the shots we want with lighting and how the opening sequence of a film is supposed to work.

My editing skills have vastly improved over the course of this project. I feel I am now able to edit any footage into a sequence that makes sense. Not only am I able to do this, but I have furthered my skills in minor technical details and I am now able to cross cut shots with dissolves and fades to create specific effects. I have also learnt to add effects to sound to create eerie moods and out of the ordinary sounds. The ability to unlink audio and video footage was something new to me and I used this to a great extent.

The use of lighting was something I have never tried before, however we used lighting to great effect on our shoot. I learnt ways to create different of lighting, such as; beams, flooding, day-light and incandescent lights. I have also learnt how to use them in different ways to create different moods on shots.

The improvement of light even between the two shoots is clearly visible.

Although I already had an idea of how to create a flowing continuity sequence, my ideas behind film openings were not fully consolidated. By watching through other opening sequences and working with my own to make it perfect I have learnt the theories and conventions behind an opening sequence. I have learnt how different directors use theories of equilibrium and disruption to draw in audiences. Whereas, in my preliminary task I could only just use continuity editing to create a flowing narrative.

I feel that this project has greatly increased my knowledge and understanding of how films work.