Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Preliminary Task Brief
Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on match action, shot/reverse/shot and the 180-degree rule.



Main Task Brief
The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.



In my opinion the preliminary task helped massively with the full product because it allowed us to develop our skills in continuity editing and taught us how to deal with the process from planning to the finished product. The preliminary task gave us the opportunity to put into practice the theories and different rules we had learnt in the classroom, and I think this prepared us for the main task.

The preliminary task brief was much more restrictive compared to the main task, but this meant that we had to focus on specific elements of making a film, especially match-on-match action and the 180-degree rule. Therefore when we started our main projects we knew how to ensure that our film had a seamless narrative and that it made sense to the audience. It also gave us the opportunity to experience the entire film making process which meant we knew what to expect in the final task.

It showed us the importance of organisation in all stages of the process. We learnt about the different roles that were needed to ensure the shoot was successful and how to make sure that we ended up with all the shots we needed. In terms of editing it allowed us to refresh on the software we would be using in the final film.

Editing Session

Even though the brief for the preliminary task was much more specific it meant that we were ready for the final project and that we had the foundations to be more creative with our final opening film sequence.