Question 7:

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Our thriller opening went better than I expected from a group of beginner film makers, I feel that we learnt a considerable amount through the whole process of planning, research and production including new techniques and terminology. My general knowledge on film-making has expanded and I can now identify different processes used in various productions using the correct vocabulary, this has helped me to identify conventions that can make up a thriller opening. The strengths that presented themselves in our production were the camerawork, editing, continuity, range of shots and sound. We kept our shots steady when filming them which gave them a more professional look and made the movement smooth and swift. We kept continuity by relating the shots to each other and editing out any other unnecessary shots that could hinder the performance or make it more confusing, continuity was found as the shots led on to each other and the sub-plots of the separate lives of the two characters tied in at the end. We had to make sure that everything was the same when jumping from one angle to another so that no differences could be spotted which loses the effect of the production.
We learnt techniques such as sticking to the 180° rule, this rule states that the camera must stay on the same side of the line of action through-out filming to avoid confusion for the audience involving directions. Shot-reverse-shot is when two subjects are facing each other talking and the camera switches between the faces to show reactions and expressions on both sides of the party, this is all done whilst sticking to the 180° rule, however we did not use this technique as we had no confrontation between two characters in our piece. However we used this in our preliminary piece to show our understanding of the convention, in the scene the camera stayed on the right hand side of the line of action so that when the camera reverses to show the reaction it appears to be on the left, this avoids confusion to the placements of the two characters when being viewed by the audience.

We learnt the phrase match on action which shows a subject beginning an action and then cuts to another shot elsewhere of them completing the action, as a group we took plenty of shots using this technique however left most out to keep to the flow of action throughout our production.
As a group we came up with a storyboard and shot list which we took with us as a hardcopy to our filming location to use as a reference. We divided the tasks equally, tailoring each job to match the person we gave it to.
As a whole I find our thriller opening to be quite successful, however an obvious difference can be seen when compared to the high-budget modern 'James Bond' with many fast cars, gadgets and CGI which we did not have the resources for. I think it fits in nicely to the genre of spy-thriller as it complies with the conventions that we researched, conventions like guns, fast-paced editing and music, suits and male casting. From the feedback we gained we learnt that it was quite a success our peers said that one of our ending shots was too long to make the effective quick pace that we were striving for, to change this
we broke up the shot, cutting to different locations in between; we were told we could've used a few more locations instead of restricting ourselves to a wood, we met this by filming the victim in a house. Other feedback included costume improvements, getting rid of the purple watch on the killer which seemed just out of character and considering more than one use of character. The most common piece of positive feedback was made on the pace of editing saying how it kept it exciting.
To improve we could've done some extra filming to include some shots that we thought would be quite effective such as the spilling of a cup of tea to signify the death of the character and make that more