7) PRELIMINARY TASK VS FILM OPENING- WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT?

From the beginning of the preliminary task i began to experience a range of different tasks. The preliminary task did not take long to finish although we had a few issues while filming. Throughout the making of the film i came across several difficulties. However nothing we couldnt overcome. The post production of the final film was much longer than the preliminary task, it consisted of more preparation and thought.

Although ive used Final cut express4 previously, this year i was able to work with this programme in great depth, i learnt a great deal of ways to improve our film and make it look more proffesional and presentable.

In terms of Editing it was my favourite part of the film-making process, although at times it seemed like no matter how much we edited something was always missing.
Using Final Cut express, i learnt how to add new effects such as slow motion, black & white ( for flashback), also i am now capable of synchronising the sound to fit in with the film. In addition to sound, i learnt how to change the frequency to adjust the sound levels to make it more clear.
Like they say- learn from your mistakes, and in terms of sound, ive learnt one of the biggest mistake in the whole of the film making, we had a slight problem with the dialogue and background sound which gave the film a less professional appearance, we tried to solve this problem but did not succeed, although we were slightly dissappointed im sure (speaking on behalf of my group) - we tried our very best & im sure i will keep sound as a key factor in film making for future reference.

As for music, we were not able to use anything copyrighted, so we made our own soundtrack using garageband. Because we didnt use Garageband during prelimianry task - at first it was pretty confusing, but with help from our lovely teacher Mr hull we finally got the hang of it, and it actually came in handy. We began to play around with different beats and instruments and made a soundtrack suiting the motif for our film.

Moving on to livetype, another programme which i have never used before, we used it to enhance the appearance of any writing we had in our film e.g ( credits). Although it was kind of frustrating to use because we had to keep changing fonts, colour, size, time of slide but it gave our film a perfect finishing touch. The final font we chose to use was also to keep in motif of our film. Livetype also helped us in making our production logo, which consisted of 3 red playing card
with A2D on them A- Ahmed 2D for Darine & Diana.

During the preliminary task, as the duration of the task was short, camera shots were very basic. Whereas in the final film we had to consider light, position of camera e.g ( low/ high angle shot ), location and sound, also keeping in mind that we had different footage for the same shots as backup.

Other than learning to work intensely with a multiple of different programmes, i also learnt how to work well with my group making sure everyone had an equall say in the making of the film. Time managment was a key element throughout the making of the film. I learnt how to work around this as it was constantly 'time is of the essence' kind of thing. Our group was very well organised and prepared which made the process of filming much easier and quicker.

Throughout the process of the film we tried to keep many things into an occuring theme. For example the frequent use of red and black- Red nails, Red jacket, Black Hair...
I realised that location and costume was important in the development of the film. Compared to the premliminary task, location was set in one place and costume was not a major issue.

Finally, we had to learn to use the Blogger in order to post all of our research work onto it. It was straight forward and easy to use.

Overall, the experience has been great- (although i didnt enjoy wearing the itchy black wig!)
Ive been able to pick up a load of tips for future use, and any mistakes i made during this film i am now able to make sure they dont happen in future reference. I believe all our hard work payed off and i am happy with the outcome of the film :)