My main responsibilities during the pre-production of this video were helping to create a storyboard of around 12 shots and helping to find, plan and draw suitable locations. I was also jointly responsible for completing all of the necessary paperwork such as the risk assessment and call sheet which were needed before filming could start. During the production I was able to be involved with both acting and shooting and for the post production work I was able to find a piece of music that was used at the beginning of the film. The whole group was involved in editing the piece together.
Overall I think I contributed effectively with the pre-production paperwork as I was responsible for making sure everything was complete and in order before filming could start. Ideas from all members of the group went into the eventual storyboard. For the actual filming I feel I could have been slightly more vigilant for any continuity errors especially in the final few shots as a continuity error was spotted during editing. For the post production work the piece of music I found didn't fit in with the on screen action as well as I initially thought but this is something I will learn for the next excercise. I will try to put more thought and research into what music would be appropriate before choosing.
Most of the new skills we learnt from this exercise were theoretical as we had already familiarised ourselves with the filming and editing equipment. We were able to put many of the techniques to make a film thriller into practice for the first time. This included the use of foreboding music, unnatural camera angles such as close-ups or dutch tilts and an enigma at the center of the plot. After feedback from colleagues and the tutor we now know how we can enhance these techniques to make the more effective in the final piece. We also learnt about finding a suitable location and finding background music to have the desired effect on the audience. On the practical side one new thing we learnt was how to add music to the film and edit it so certain parts of the track appear where we want it to.
Overall the lighting and the sound in the film worked well with the only notable problem being a continuity error near the end although we were able to cover this up during the editing.
I think our use of editing worked well especially near the end of the film where we were able to flash between the closing titles and the closing image of a character on the floor after supposedly being killed. I feel we could have used a wider range of shots such as more usage of close ups to give it more of a noir/thriller feel although the lighting in the park where a low sun created some high contrast lighting worked particularly well. However we probably should have used costumes to give the characters a better representation of those found in noir/thrillers. Most of the audience were able to follow the storyline.
Overall despite a couple of errors with camera positioning and continuity the exercise as a whole ran relatively smoothly and the most of the ideas came across as planned and we got the basics such as the 180 degree line rule correct. The feedback from the audience was generally positive with the only criticisms being the lack of an establishing shot and no costumes being used. There was also a bit of confusion regarding the storyline. Overall the audience saw the same positives and negatives as we did. If we were to get a chance to do the excercise again I would try to add more genre specific mise-en-scene such as costumes for the characters
