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

The main aim of the preliminary task was to become familiar with continuity and the 180 degree rule. It was also a good oppurtunity to gain more expereince in camera work, editing, and getting a good performance out of the actors. The preliminary video was only a short peice and only ivolved basic camera work and a small variety of shots.


In my preliminary, I used very basic editing skills when editing the footage. After watching the preliminary weeks later, i realised that when it came to editing my final peice, i needed to inlcude many special effects when edditing to make it look more professional and more complex! In my final peice, I used many effects such as cross dissolve and many other transitions.


My preliminary video had a very limited variety of shots as it mainly consisted of close ups. Although close up shots is great to show a chatacter's featurs and emotions, i realised that my final peice needed to have a much bigger variety of shots in it. In my final peice, there are establishing shots, close ups, cut away shots, sceneray shots, mid-disatnce, long distance and many more. This made it a more interesting watch as the whole peice didnt consist of one type of shot.


My final peice contained A LOT more mise-en-scene than my preliminary video. The preliminary video had a very limited amount, if not any mise-en-scence what so ever.. so i realised that in my final peice i definitely needed to change that and thats exactly what i did - i PACKED it with the good old mise-en-scence. Some of the mise-en-scene in my final peice included the shot under the tunnel where Niall walks from the dark into the light, signifying how he's walking into a new life which will give him hope. I learnt  that mise-en-scene is definitely one of the most, if not the most, important ingrediant when making a film to create the certain mood you're looking for!


In my preliminary, i discovered that sound and music is a major contributor to setting the mood of the peice. The sountrack in the prelimanry completley transformed the video from being a poor watch.. to a very good watch! The soundtrack worked perfectly with the video as is set the mood to just how i wanted it to be. This made me realise that i needed to do the same in my final peice. As i was aware that the soundtrack was such an important element of the 2 minute opening, i spent a lot of time trying to find the perfect song. I finally found a cover of the Coldplay song 'Trouble' performed by the unsigned band Obadiah Parker. The song fit the opening perectly and it created the exact mood we were hoping for.