Evaluation - Question 7

Research and Planning:

There are big difference between the research and planning for my preliminary task and my final opening scene task. When I started my preliminary task, I did not collect any research. Me and my group pretty much just got stuck in with the filming and following the script that we were given. We however did make a storyboard for our prelim but it was a digital storyboard of pictures we took, it was very basic.

However for my final task (opening scene) a lot more effort was put into the research and planning. As a group and as individuals we were determined to find out stereotypes of characters we would see in teen films, how they were presented, what they would wear, what camera shots, sounds and what type of editing would be used to introduce them.

We also made sure that we looked at what type of conventions we would find in teen films, typical themes, genres, we also did a research task that involved us finding out about the binary oppositions that we could inf in teen films and how they are represented and distinguished using mise en scene, camera, editing and sound. All of this research was very useful to me and my group as it helped us decide what type of film opening and film we would like to make, what types of characters we would want to use and how we would present these characters. We reached a decision that our teen film would have the sub genre's of comedy and romance, with the stereotypical characters of the outsider, the perfect girl and the cool guys.

Here are some screen shots of the research that was collected for my opening scene task.

The planning part was also very different, when it came to the prelim the most planning me and my group did was creating a very basic digital storyboard, we didn't consider what costumes our characters would wear, what locations we would chose, what props we would use, we just went ahead and filmed with whatever was available. However when in the planning stage for my final project a lot of thought and effort went into, from the locations that would be used and why they should be used, to what characters would be wearing, what different music would be used to introduce different characters, the costumes they would wear and so on, this was all posted on the group blog.

Looking back at what action I took during the stages of making my prelim and the actions I took during the stages of making of my final project, I can clearly see the progression I have made at each step. I learnt that the more effort and detail you put into the research and planning the more accurate and better your film will turn out to be. If you do the correct research you are able to know what audience you want to target and what genre best suits different age groups and who it will attract. I also feel that when creating my prelim there was many things that we did not do for example watching back our shots to make sure that they were acceptable to use, however when doing our final project this was one of the first things we did after capturing a shot, this led to us have much better and professional looking shots in comparison with our prelim.

I feel that I have made a big improvement with skills in researching and planning, filming and editing from my prelim and my final project.