Graveyard
Productions
Harvey Gough - AS Media
Question 7:
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Since the beginning of my Media course, I have now taken part in two projects. The first of these projects was the preliminary project we created, in order to practice the necessary skills, for creating our final piece. This needed to be a short sequence where:
1. One character walks into a room
2. This character and another are opposite each other
3. They exchange dialogue
4. A shot reverse-shot needed to be used.
The sequence did also have to follow the conventions of the thriller genre, as this would be the genre of our final project. Whilst we did have a brief to follow, we still had a number of options, in terms of story, and were not limited by these requirements. We decided to have a very basic plot, whereby a character is seen in a hurry, clearly needing to get somewhere, fast. The character then arrives at a small room, with a man playing a piano, who tells the character to sit down. Here the piece ends. This whole extract is full of enigma codes, as throughout, the audience doesn't have any idea what is happening for the majority of the story.
After we had finished this extract, we moved on to our main project. This time we had very few limitations, in that our only requirement was that our extract fit as an opening sequence to a film of the thriller genre. Obviously, in order to create a good sequence, we would need to use some thriller conventions, such as the creation of enigma codes, as well as such as the use of a warning, which is ignored by the protagonists. All of these conventions were picked up throughout the creative process of the two projects, particularly in the preliminary, as I did not yet know anything about the creative process due to my lack of experience.
Another key aspect of media production is the use of lighting. In our first piece, we focused primarily on he use of natural light, as well as filters, in order to make the lighting more sinister, such as the red light seen in the image to the left. This allowed me to learn how colour can affect the atmosphere of the scene, as well as learning about the equipment, such as UV filters and light filters.
Clearly there is a difference between the use of light in each of the two extracts. Whereas in the preliminary project, the primary use of lighting, was to change he colour of the scene, in order to control the atmosphere. However, in the main project, most of our lighting was used to create shadows, and darkness, rather than alternate light. This is effective as it creates mystery, in that the audience never know exactly what is lurking in the dark, backed up by the tension built through means such as sound. It also makes innocent looking objects sinister, as they seem to have a dark side to them.
All of my experience with lighting has been gained through these projects. I feel I have learned much, both in terms of how the lighting equipment, including filters and reflectors, work and how to use them to the best visual effect.
There were a number of areas which I was forced to pick up, in order to help my group to make our project as professional as possible. One of the most important aspects of media production, is the use of framing. During our preliminary project, I did not play a huge role in this aspect, however when it came to editing, I could see that there were framing issues with some of the shots, which I was not happy with.
However, when we began work on our final product, I did have a greater say in many of the shots. Whilst I wasn't the main cameraman, due to a lack of experience, I did have some say in how shots were composed, and I feel I learnt much from this process, and became able to properly frame shots. I was often consulted over whether a shot was useable or if a re-shoot was necessary.
As you can see, a number of the shots in the preliminary project were, in my opinion, very unprofessional, with large amounts of empty space, as well as characters having their heads cut off by the framing. On the other hand, I was very pleased with a number of the final shots in the main project, such as the one shown on the right with the tarot card. This has good lighting, and places the main focus of the shot in centre frame, in clear focus.
Finally, I have managed to pick up various aspects of post-production, which are crucial to the success of any project. Editing was completely new to me before the beginning of this course, and I had absolutely no experience with the software we used (Adobe Premeiere). I did not play a role in the editing of our preliminary task, with much of that being carried out by other members of the group. However, I did manage to pick up the various techniques whilst watching other members of the group work on the editing. By the time it came to our final project, I felt I would be able to edit if required to, and often worked alone on editing in my spare time, with a reasonable level of confidence. I now feel comfortable with such techniques as cutting shots, altering aspects such as lighting, as well as working with sound.
Sound is an extremely important aspect of post-production, with a number of different aspects to consider. Firstly, it is important to add/edit any sound effects in the piece, in order to add to the realism or to alter the atmosphere. For example, the sound of wind or a creaky door, which add tension. This was a good starting point for me in terms of working with sound, as it was relatively easy to pick up. This was not a very successful aspect of our preliminary project, with very few sound effects used. Clearly, this was a big learning curve between the two projects. Secondly, it is important to work with the character's dialogue. For example, making sure that the lines are audible, or clear. A number of our lines were filmed later and dubbed. For some shots, such as the ending where Joe's character outside is heard calling for Ashley, this is easy as we cannot see the character. However, in other cases we had to work around the shots we had. In my opinion, this worked to great levels of success. This too was not overly important in our preliminary work, with only a few lines of dialogue, all of which was recorded live. Again, I learnt much from my work on the main project. Finally, music is essential, as it can completely change the effect a scene has on its audience. For much of ours we used low, dark music, which adds tension as it builds. We also had to find music for our ident. This took less time but felt equally important, as it was crucial to get the mood of the extract clear from the start. For our preliminary work on the other hand, we used a piano version of Gary Jules' 'Mad World'. Whilst I do feel this fit the piece nicely, it did mean we had a minimal amount of work to do regarding music. I feel I learnt a lot more from the main project, in that we used a number of different pieces of music, which enabled me to learn more from the process of choosing different pieces of music for different sections of the extract.
To conclude, I feel that I have learnt a lot between the two projects, with almost every aspect improving on the main project. Whilst this could be due to a larger period of time to work with, I personally feel that it is due to the learning process we were allowed, by creating a preliminary task. Being new o media, this was my first chance to learn valuable skills in media production, and I now feel confident with a number of different aspects, which I knew very little about prior to this creative process.