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

Preliminary task VS Opening sequence

(Preliminary Task)

In our preliminary task our group stuck to the very basics. There was no experimentation with different angles. Using different angles can dramatically improve the feeling the movie will give off. Low angle shots can show the audience a character is powerful or superior. The use of a high angle shot can show that a character is inferior or being intimidated. In our opening sequence we tired to use different angles.

In this shot we see the character sat on a bench. It is only subtle, but this is a high angle shot. It gives the scene more of a dramatic effect as we can see someone approaching her. This could indicate that she is inferior to this character at this point as she is unaware of her approaching. As the other character is sitting down there is going to be a slight high angle shot when they are talking. Again this indicates to us that there is a possible power struggle between these characters. If we just had a static shot of the characters talking it would not be as effective. This is what we had in the first draft of our opening sequence. There was a build up of enigma and then the shot just stayed the same for the duration of their conversation. We felt this took away from the enigma and suspense. So we re-filmed this scene and felt it had a better effect. Although some viewers found this scene slightly confusing.

In our preliminary task it all felt very fast paced and rushed. This was due to lack of transitions. The only transitions we included were when it faded from her entering the door to being on the other side, and when the production had ended. We obviously didn’t notice how rushed it looked when we watched it back when we had finished. But now looking back on it transitions are really needed to stop the abrupt changes happening. If we had added in transitions the production would have been a lot smoother and would have flowed better.

We should have also added in filler shots. These are shots that are not 100% necessary to convey the storyline, but lengthen the scenes making them seem less rushed. We did not use any of these in our preliminary task. We had a conversation that was 8 shots long, but it took place over 10 seconds. This looks way too rushed and would probably put off the audience unless it had a meaning to it.

In our preliminary task we muted out all of the background music. At the time we thought it was a good idea, but when we watched it back it just seemed bizarre that one shot was silent, then when we had the conversation and there was loads of background noise. From this mistake we learnt the importance of having ambient sounds and background noise. It makes the movie seem more realistic as when she is walking out of her house the viewer can hear cars and people in the street. We only encountered one problem with the background noise and this was in our first draft. We had a scene where two characters are talking at the bus stop, but the bus stop was on a main road. It was very difficult to hear what the characters were saying as there was a constant flow of traffic. So when we re-filmed the scene we moved the location and had to alter our narrative slightly to encompass this location change.

In our preliminary task we did not use many shots to establish the environment the characters were in. In many films there are several different shots of the environment the characters are in. We tried to encompass this technique into our opening sequence.

Using this technique meant that our opening sequence didn’t look too rushed as we took the time to show different points of view of the environments. This technique also helped our opening sequence to flow and have better continuity which is key in any production.

Another thing we have learnt since the production of our preliminary task is the importance of music and sound. In our preliminary task we did not use any music, only dialogue. As our preliminary task was under a minute long this didn’t really matter. But as our opening sequence was longer we felt it would be boring if it was all just background noise and dialogue. We decided to have a maximum of two pieces of music in our production. The first, ‘Wake- Linkin Park’, was used to build up the suspense and enigma in the dream sequence. I think that particular piece of music was successful in doing that.


(Wake- Linkin Park)

The other piece of music we used, ‘Something in the Way- Nirvana’, was simply meant to fill the space of her journey before and after the conversation. But we knew picking the right piece of music was key. We wanted something that could both reflect the way the character was feeling and foreshadow the events to come. The lyrics of this song reflect her mood perfectly “Something in the way”, we can clearly see the character is distracted. But also the mellow sound of the track seems quite foreboding, like the calm before the storm.



(Something In The Way- Nirvana)

I personally think the use of music in our opening sequence was effective, and so did our viewers with 8 of our 9 viewers agreeing that the soundtrack was effective.

I have learnt a few new techniques to do with sound since our preliminary task and as main editor incorporated these into our opening sequence. The first was the use of sound effects. The sound effects were already loaded into iMovie and were ready to use. At the point where the main character wakes up we had trouble finding a way to make it fully effective. We tried extending the music, cutting it short, merging another track with it but nothing seemed to work. So I had a play around with the sound effects and found that using a heart beat would not only solve our problems with the music but it would also continue to build up the enigma. The second sound technique I discovered was extracting the audio from clips and placing them elsewhere to enhance the scenes. In our first draft we had ‘S.N.A.P Productions’ come up in silence and dive straight into the dream. The silence seemed a bit boring as the whole point of those first few seconds is to grab the attention of the viewer. So for our final draft I extracted the audio from a clip we had filmed of some crows in some trees, the cawing of the crows seemed really ominous and menacing, it also filled the silence that would have bored the viewer. Another time we used the extracting audio technique was to build up the enigma and suspense. The scene where the main character is on the bus and sees the mental institute seemed a bit strange in silence too. So when she has the flashback I decided to place some dialogue from the conversation over the top of the flashback. This made it seem more like a realisation to the main character than her just randomly seeing it. The dialogue was “Why are you drawing the mental asylum?” but instead of having it just randomly there I played around with the audio finding a way to make it seem haunting and eerie. Eventually I found the right combination and I feel it definitely made the scene better.

Overall I believe our opening sequence is a lot more skillful than our preliminary task. This is because our camera skills, knowledge of iMovie and understanding of technical skills have improved. This meant we could produce a more technically skilled movie.