Evaluation Question 7

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

From looking back at both of our preliminary tasks, we feel that our final opening title sequence had been a big improvement compared to this. This is because throughout the planning stages and analysing other title sequences we learnt a range of techniques of how to use and operate a camera properly, as well as learning how to keep to continuity, match on action, and how not to break the 180 degree rule. 

We learnt how sound could be used in order to build tension and represent a horror setting or characters in a certain way, for example in our final opening title sequence we used a soundtrack to make the interior of the building seem unnatural, as if there was a spiritual presence, which was one of the main aims of our opening titles, to make the audience aware that the old building had spirits present.

We have learnt how different camera shots have different meanings and are used for different purposes, for instance an establishing shot is used to show the setting of the scene, close up shots are to show things such as facial expressions on characters, long shots can also be used to show a setting or action, etc. Another example would be a point of view shot, which shows the audience what the character is feeling and puts them in the same position as the characters, as they were experiencing it for themselves, however a low angle shot is used to make someone or something appear taller and make it appear to have more power.

In our first preliminary task we used a GoPro camera, which has a fish eye lens, wide-angled lens. This didn’t work well for us because it gave an obscured effect and didn’t look realistic and withdrew the audience because it seemed less real. This camera also had a waterproof housing, which affected the sound of the video recording, as we were not able to hear the audio of the video, such as the characters speaking. From this preliminary task we decided that a different camera needed to be used in order to improve it, so we used a hand held camcorder. The camcorder improved our preliminary task because we were able to mount it on a tripod, which improved the stability, whereas in our first preliminary task, the camera we used was not able to be mounted on a tripod, meaning we had to record our preliminary task hand held. By using the camcorder, we also got a better sound recording and were able to hear the characters talking, whereas in our first preliminary task we were not able to hear the characters due to the waterproof camera casing. We also didn't abide by the rule of thirds, as the characters were not positioned in the frame properly. 

Comparing our final opening title sequence to our preliminary task, we have progressed much further into using a variety of different things, such as editing softwares, such as Imovie, which allowed us to edit our title sequence by putting frames together, cutting them, adding a soundtrack, and adding titles, etc, which we have not used in our preliminary task. We have also learnt how to use Garageband for our opening title, which allowed us to create our background soundtrack.