I have learnt many things about hows are shot and edited. The main thing that I have learnt, which has shocked me, is the detail and hard work that goes into making a simple scene; for example the amount of different takes and shot types used to create a scene. On the editing side of things I would say I have learnt a lot in terms of fitting shots together nicely and making the cuts seamless and effective so they’ve not been noticed by the viewer. Film producers put a lot of time and effort into their work and overall it is a very complex process.
In my opinion many things when well within our production. At first we thought that our idea and storyline for the film may have been a little over the top and wouldn't fit together and makes sense as much as it did in the end so I am very pleased with that. I also think that the shot types we used in the film helped to create meaning and worked well with what we were trying to achieve. Another successful element was the editing we did for example the effects and cute we used t show where the ‘superhero’ character flying up the stairs. This incorporated a mix of advanced editing such as L and J editing and a good match on action shot. We also used a range of different shots within our production, for example close ups and extreme close ups, which makes it more interesting for the viewer to watch without being to over the top.
One aspect of the things in the production that didn’t go too well was the first shot of the film. We attempted a tracking shot moving around to the front of the ‘ victim’s ’ face but we did not have a dolly to create this movement so the footage is slightly wobbly. To prevent this we could have used something similar to a dolly to try and create the same effect or tried more takes of the shot, practicing our handheld technique until we got the perfect, steady shot and the used it within our film. Another thing that went wrong was that we missed out the 180 degree shot so had go back and shoot these again at the end of our production, this was due to a lack of planning. In doing this things like clothes and lighting was very different and it didn’t quite fit with the rest of the film as it was rushed and less thought through than the other shots. I think to prevent this we should double check our footage before we finish so we do not have to go back at the end and re-shoot scenes.
I think as a whole out group worked very well together and we brought we different ideas together. We knew the roles each person had within the whole production and there were no problems or conflicts between different people within the group as we all respected what each person had to say. Some of the least productive aspects of our group would be the time it took to film our production. It took a while for us to get into/to grips with the filming which meant we were rush at the end of our time in order to have enough time to edit. I think on our next production we will be more used to filming and have much better plans including shot lists, props and selected locations so so our production will get underway much faster and produce good footage from the very start. One major downfall in our production was that we didn’t follow the shot list given to us, I think this effected the timing and schedule of our production most, it is definitely something we need to used next time.
The main thing I have learnt from this experience that I will definitely use in the future is planning. If we plan out our whole production and storyline before we start filming it will go much smoother and we will be able to produce much better quality shots that have been thought out. I have also learnt a lot about improving our editing for example, the shot near the end where a lasso appears in the ‘ superhero’s ’ hand needed very close editing to make sure the cut was seamless by using the frame by frame scrubber tool to cut to 1/24 of a second.
What pleased me most about the process was the team work within the group, we knew what our each individual roles were so just got on and filmed the scenes without much problem. I think if we were within other groups problems may have occurred but thankfully within ours nothing did. In terms of the production on a whole I am most pleased with how our idea came together as a whole and the whole look of our film. I think I helped a lot behind camera, thinking of scenes and shot ideas and helping in ares such as setting up the camera and tripod, which is the ideal role for me in the filming process as opposed to acting.
