ALEX: EVALUATION: QUESTION 7

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

Looking back at our preliminary task, I can see a clear improvement in our use of technology; mainly in our use of Final Cut Pro and use of lighting.
Prior to our preliminary task, none of my group had any experience with Final Cut Pro, so learning our way around new editing software was progression already. Now that we have finished editing our full product, I can safely say that I have mastered the basics of Final Cut. Learning basic key-controls such as 'i' and 'o' to trim media, and 'b' to select the trim tool.
Before starting the course, I had only used a Mac one other time; so this was also progression. I am now a confident, well-organised. Mac user with designated folders. Meg created a blog post to show how we organised our files here.

I have now learnt how to create titles on Final Cut Pro, and how important they are. For ages I was just typing text out on Photoshop and importing a .png file into the project. I have now learned that generating text within the software is so much quicker and easier.

In our full product, we had the opportunity to use lighting - something we had access to in our Preliminary task, but never thought to use. Lighting is important when filming outside, as natural light can be spontaneous and not look professional in the final product. Lighting was also very important to our film in particular as a large percentage of our filming was done outside. I have learned how to create something that looks like a street-lamp with the use of a tripod and LED light. The red arrow indicates where the light had come from.

 In our first 'Proof of Filming' post, you can see us testing and trialling different brightness levels and what works best on camera. Click here if you haven't seen that already.

During editing, I had troubles with continuity in a particular section of the film. The match-on-action of the detective closing the folder didn't look continuous no matter where I placed it or cut it. To resolve the issue, I used a sound-bridge and just left the CU of the folder on screen a bit longer. Click here to see this.

I have also learned the importance of communication during our progression. Our preliminary task was really rushed as none of our group really discussed filming outside of the classroom. We settled for a classroom within college a week before our editing deadline and wasn't very happy with the final product (although our plot line was very funny and hard to film due to laughter - click here)