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

Above are both the preliminary task and the final cut of Turning Pages.
Whilst the aim of the prelim was to work on continuity editing (180 degree rule, match on action and shot reverse shot), the main task involved us using these continuity editing skills in a full opening sequence for a fiction film, which also had to include a titles.


This table summarises what we did differently between the preliminary task and the production of Turning Pages, what we learnt from the process and what we could have improved on. 

	What we did in the Prelim	What we did in the production of Turning Pages	What was different? Was this effective or not? If so, how? What did you learn?	What could have been done differently/ better?
Pre-production Planning for Faceless Planning for Turning Pages	Brainstorm to plan ideas > storyboard > script > shot list > shoot schedule	We followed the same process as with the prelim, but since we had multiple shoots, we had the chance to go back to our scripts and storyboards and edit them.	Revising the pre-production material several times helped us to see which parts of our script needed changing, whereas in the prelim, we could not change much about the initial idea. I learnt that sticking to an original script is quite rare, and that revising pre-production material is an essential part of the process.	I think we could have paid more attention to the shoot schedule, as we did sometimes end up shooting some shots more times than they needed to be done due to a lack of paperwork.
Audience Research Using BFI statistics to form our core audience profile of 16-24 year old females	Since the main focus were the continuity principles, we did not get much time to think about audiences, but tried to factor in audience involvement by including over-the-shoulder shots and an appropriate shot order to bring the audience into the action.	We researched audience BFI statistics, which helped us form our core and wider audience profiles- 16-24 year old females were our primary audience and we had two secondary audiences of 16-24 year old males, and couples in their 30s.	Doing audience research helped us to focus our product more, as we took into consideration what our core audience would enjoy seeing, as well as what we could add into the narrative to appeal to our wider audiences. This meant that we took into account our genre, style, the themes/ messages conveyed and our characters.	What we could have focused a bit more on was the appeal to the 16-24 year old male market- what is it about Turning Pages that would convince them to watch it? Is Noah really an aspirational character to young males?
Location scouting Shooting on school grounds for Faceless  Primrose Hill in the morning	We were quite limited in our choice of setting for the prelim, and therefore chose our location on school grounds. We looked primarily for a long path which led to a door, which led to the room in which the exchange of dialogue takes place.	Since we had a longer period of time to plan, shoot and edit our opening sequence, we were able to go on a location scout a couple of weeks into the process. This also became our first test shoot, where we were able to, very roughly, rehearse the sequence and the dialogue.	Location scouting was one of the advantages of the main task over the preliminary task. We could rehearse the sequence in the space available to us at Primrose Hill, and could see what worked and what did not, in terms of the dialogue and shot order. Location scouting also inspired the very first change in the script, because prior to the scouting, we hadn’t thought much about the dialogue.	Shooting in an exterior location was  difficult at times, especially on cold mornings. Also, due to weather changes between shoots, the ‘quality’ of the sunrises would change, which had to be resolved during grading.
Multiple shoots	Again, due to a shortage of time to complete the prelim, we were unable to carry out multiple shoots and had to use the footage we got the first time round.	As well as the location scout, we went on more formal test, real and re-shoots; between each of these, we had made some changes either to the storyboard or the shot list after getting feedback on what could be improved.	The process of having multiple shoots was a lot more effective, because it meant that we had several opportunities to make changes to the storyboard and script. We also looked at our rough cuts more critically and paid attention to the detail of each shot so any errors and alterations would be the focus of the next shoot.	Had the problems that were flagged up between the real shoot and the reshoot been noted earlier on, we would have been able to get usable footage during our real shoot rather than having to do an extra.
Continuity editing At the edit suite	The focus of the task was to implement continuity techniques, such as match on action, the 180 degree rule and the shot reverse shot, which I think we did successfully.	There were several more points were we were required to use continuity editing, especially matches on action. We had to edit Lila getting her notebook out, Noah’s jump over the bench and Jess shoving Noah using these principles.	Whilst continuity principles were not the main focus of the main task, I think we did well to get enough footage which we could then cut together in the edit room. For example, we made sure we shot sequences from multiple angles so that we could then edit together a shot reverse shot in post-production.	Because we changed Jess’ coat between the real shoot and the re-shoot, we had to reshoot the whole conversation, and we didn’t actually get footage from enough angles to edit the shot reverse shot adequately
Group dynamic Group 3B	We worked really well together as a group, despite the fact that we did not have much time to plan, shoot and edit the sequence.	I think our group dynamic was great during the whole process. We voiced our opinions and told each other if we thought there was a problem with the sequence. We also shared responsibility for the blog, for planning, during production and in post-production.	We found that communicating regularly through Facebook helped massively, because we all knew what our responsibilities were and when we had to get things done by. We also made sure we spread the blog posts out equally between us.	One thing we could have worked on was communication with our actors- during our re-shoot, there was some confusion about timings and meet places.

In conclusion, from the preliminary task to the final product, I definitely feel that my grasp of technology has improved, as well as my understanding of audience and the process of production. Overall, I think that this project has been really enjoyable and beneficial, particularly in terms of honing my Premiere Pro skills and learning about the difficulties one can encounter during pre-production, production and post-production. I loved working with my group, and I also think that group dynamic was essential in the production process as we could not have completed tasks efficiently without effective communication.