PLANNING: PRELIMINARY TASK - MISS BEGUM

What is a Preliminary Task? Why is it important?

The preliminary task is when your group is given a camera and without much instructions you are out to film a sequence and edit it on your own. The aim of the preliminary task was to familiarize with the camera as well as the process of filming and editing your own sequence. On top of that it finally allows all of your group members to participate in something that you have done together; being completely left with one another and fully relying on others can also strengthen the teamwork and cooperation skills. The criteria for the preliminary task was:

·         Editing on action

·         30 second long material

·         Range of cinematography.

Preliminary task is important because it prepares you when you are to make the thriller opening and then edit it. Also it will provide the basic knowledge which can be build and improved upon so the opening will look much better and professional. This task allows to experience what filming is like and teaches you how to avoid making mistakes. Lastly completing this task will allow to measure the progress and skills that have been gained when we come to evaluating our opening.

 

The Preliminary Task:

 

The Scenario of our Preliminary Task:

Within our team we have tried to come with a simple scenario that would fit the 30 second criteria. We decided to keep it simple by basing our narrative around a conversation between two classmates. One of them does her homework.

·         The material begins with Bibi who is peacefully doing her homework in an empty classroom. This frame holds for a bit in order to reflect the peace and precision/ effort that is placed into her work.

 

 

·         She is interrupted by her fellow classmate, Gulustan. The medium long shot allows to see Gulustan fully as well as the door that she has entered in.

 

 

 

·         Gulustan sits next to Bibi who is willing to help her out so they can both complete the set work. The two shot shows they are classmates and keen on helping each other.

 

 

 

·         As they both sat down and begin to work, Gulustan notices Bibi’s bracelet. Continued two shot shows both students and their reactions during the conversation.

 

 

 

·         Bibi explains that she brought it last Friday.  Zoom in is used to put emphasis on the bracelet and show that this is an object of significance within the narrative.

 

 

Group Roles.

As a team we have given one another roles so we would stay organized and know exactly what each one would be doing, without an issue or chaos. However knowing these didn’t mean that we couldn’t give suggestions to one another, we have passed ideas over and discussed each one in order to get the best out of this task. We have assigned the roles by preferences and personal strengths therefore everyone was able to work in their favourite fields thus creating something good as a whole. Before starting we have decided that I would take care of filming because I plan to film in the final production as well as I am interested in the camerawork and cinematography and it would be beneficial if I got to experience the filming for myself, thus preparing for the final production. Gulustan has taken the role of director because she has given good ideas throughout and tried to support everyone by giving constructive feedback and suggestions which is partially what directors do; she has also acted. Moreover, we have decided that Bibi would take part in the material as well as be in charge of location and lighting however it was quite easy to allocate the setting because we were in school and this worked well with our scenario. Lastly all of us have taken on the editing of the preliminary task. This is because we were able to gain experience necessary for the actual production. Besides doing it together was easier because we were able to equally distribute the work and we worked together, improving our cooperation skills which is extremely important when working in a group project.

For our final production we have decided to change some of our roles in order to make sure that our product is the best it can possibly be. Gulustan will still be the director as she worked well in that field. She will also be filming and taking charge of sound. Bibi and I will take on the role of editing the sequence because we have enjoyed it before and feel confident while doing it. I will also take care of the Mise en scene, necessary for the filming as I know a lot about representations and how to convey or subvert them. Bibi will be come the producer of our production as she is well organised and will help to guide us during the production.

Difficulties encountered during Filming.

·         First off it was difficult to zoom in/out. This is because the button was sensitive, hence you had to be extremely careful in order to zoom in slowly, otherwise it would smudge the image and look unprofessional and noticeable/unnatural for the audience. This was resolved by trying to practice using the zoom in/ out button and try to get the right take. 

·         Another difficulty that we have come across with, was the fact that we were unaware of how long the footage was lasting. This is because each new take has started with a count from 0. This was resolved by filming few more takes in order to have more material that was cut out later on, during the editing stage.

·         A difficulty that we had to tackle whilst filming was the lack of knowledge about editing stages. We didn’t know exactly what is available in Final Cut Pro because we were unfamiliar with the program and weren’t aware of all of its features. This was resolved by deciding to take short and simple footage which wouldn’t cause a problem to edit.

·         Lastly, the difficulty that we had to encounter was the other people that came across our way while we were trying to film our task. Some people tried to enter the class room or walked past causing a distraction for the actors. This was tackled by really trying to put our full attention on the task as well as trying to ignore others.

·         The ‘start/stop’ button had some delays. Hence it was hard to end the filming at the appropriate time. This was tackled by cutting out the unnecessary footage during the editing stage.

·         It was difficult to hold the camera still, it made the image look shaky and unclear. We tried to tackle this by making slow and precise hand movements however I think that this issue could be solved with a use of a tripod.

·         We were also limited by the lack of battery which meant that we had to film while charging which made the camera movement harder and distorted. This needs to be taken into consideration when creating the opening. The camera has to be charged, otherwise we would be limited in movement and could potentially miss out on better shots.

 

Difficulties encountered while Editing.

·         It was difficult to get started. This is because we were unfamiliar with the program and had to check out all of its possibilities and features. This was resolved by trying to work out how everything works and just practicing with different frames. We have used simple cuts which allowed to complete this preliminary task. However for the final production we will be able to use the best edits and transitions that will compliment the thriller genre and draw audience response.

·         It was hard to remove the unwanted footage because sometimes we had cut it too little or too much which made the scene look distorted. This is necessary to know because we have tried to leave the best examples and get rid off the rubbish ones. For the final production we will have to film for a little bit longer so it would be easier to erase the unneeded film. We will also need to be very careful when we edit.

·         Another difficulty that we had to tackle was to edit the footage so it fitted the 30 second criteria. This was hard because if something was removed we had to make sure that the rest of material flows and works well with one another. In the final production this would be tackled by clearly planning our filming. Therefore it was very important to create a detailed storyboard so we will know exactly how long each frame should hold for.

·         In addition, another difficulty that we encountered was the process of saving the footage into a safe drive so we could access it later on. This was resolved by making a copy which was placed onto a USB and desktop. For final production this shouldn’t be a problem because now we are confident in saving our footage.

 

What have you learned during the filming of this Preliminary Task?

Completing this task was very beneficial for my understanding as well as allowed me to learn new skills. Some of these included operating the camera as well as getting to know its features better. Bearing in mind that we are not professionals in using such equipment, this preliminary task allowed us to familiarize and realize that filming is not as easy as it looks and you have to be careful throughout to gain a decent amount of material which then could be adjusted during next stages of production. From this, I have learned that shooting more takes as well as footage is necessary because if you lack in material then it will be hard to go back and film it again because of aspects like lighting that could not be restored/ recreated to film the footage again and make the material float and match together. Therefore it is important to film as much as you need and then easily get rid of the irrelevant takes. Furthermore I have also learned how you could roughly estimate the length of your footage. This will be helpful when filming the final production because the criteria is to create a 2 minute opening, therefore timing is essential and needs to be taken into consideration. From this, I learned that in order to be secure about the timing and amount of footage you can simply film more and then chose the best takes to make a good opening sequence. Moreover this task has also helped to improve our group work and skills like cooperation. This is because we only had each other and could only ask for one another’s help which strengthened trust within our team as well as helped to understand our strengths and weaknesses more. Giving one another constructive feedback and suggestions has improved our communication skills. Assigning different roles before the preliminary task has helped to experiment with different jobs and gave us a deeper understanding of what we are good at and what we can do during the final filming and make this the best we possibly can.

 

What have you learned during the editing of this Preliminary Task?

During the editing stage I have also learned many new skills as well as developed some of my background knowledge. I also improved the teamwork skills because yet again we were left to edit on our own and had to agree with one another. During the very beginning my group and I tried to play around and experiment with the different features available in Final Cut. This allowed us to widen our knowledge and possibilities that we could use in our final production. We have looked at different transitions such as fade to black or cross dissolve which we plan to use in our thriller opening sequence later on. Moreover this also allowed me to familiarize with the actual program as I have never used it before. I realized that Final Cut is not difficult but very time consuming and a lot of thought needs to go to every action because you are constantly building upon your material and try to develop it by using different edits and transitions which is what we will try to achieve in the opening sequence. Therefore it’s important to have an idea of what is needed later on. Moreover I was able to practice how to save the progress and finished product which is significant because you always have to be sure that you have made a copy on a safe source so your work will not get lost. Simultaneously, when we got to the editing stage we all started to communicate and work on editing, without the role distribution. This was necessary because we all got an insight into the editing process as well as each one could try to add something from themselves as well as practice it. This showed who is good at editing and could potentially take this role on in the final production. The editing process was also helpful to strengthen our teamwork skills because we communicated throughout.

Conclusion.

To conclude, completing this preliminary task was highly beneficial and an essential part of this production. It has helped us to prepare for the real process and allowed to avoid unnecessary stress which would be caused by the lack of experience in filming and editing. As much as it has been a straight forward and fairly simple task we had encountered different difficulties of which some we tackled and some learned lessons from but we are now ready to avoid later on when filming and editing. It also allowed to build our confidence and independence because we could only rely on each other which made us feel responsible for one another, thus helping to ensure our safety when going off to film. Additionally the task has given us an insight into the filming and editing processes which seemed exciting as well as interesting. Lastly this preliminary has helped us to assign roles for the final production and making us a much more organized team. Organization is the key to create a good sequence because without it we would be in chaos and unsure of what we are supposed to do; possibly leaving something important behind. Overall, I think that preliminary was helpful because it gave me a taste of what the real production is like as well as what is expected of me later on. I also have a much clearer view of the possible adjustments that need to be made for the thriller opening because I am now aware of what I need to be careful about and how to improve.