Evaluation task 7- progression from preliminary task

I feel I have learnt a lot since my preliminary task, mainly in the areas of camera shots, editing and lighting. As our criteria was to film someone opening a door, entering a room, sitting down opposite someone and having a conversation we simply worked with shot reverse shot, match on action and 180 degree rule. Yet in our final film opening we used a variety of shots and sound effects.

One of the biggest problems with my preliminary task was in the first shot, as there is clearly too much space above Abby's head, the flow and continuity between the rest of the shots was disrupted and there was then a jump from this shot to another.





This was then something we kept in mind for our film opening and tried to have as little of the surroundings as possible in the shot, for the focus to then be on the character as much as possible. 

In the following shot reverse shots it is far too light, looking back on this now I should have adjusted the settings on the camera or changed the lighting in the room.

Lighting was something we worked a lot with in the film opening as you can see in the shots below. As we wanted to keep it as creepy and dark as possible, due to it being a horror film, we used a lot of artificial light from torches to have enough light as was necessary and to keep the creepy sense. We also changed the setting on the camera to accommodate the low lighting.

In regards to editing, in my preliminary task matching the opening of the door in the first shot with the second shot was something I really struggled with, looking at it now it still doesn't fully match up. Another problem was the lack of sound in the last shot, contrasting to the rest of the piece.

Although we didn't have any speaking in the film opening, we used a lot of sound effects such as the closing of the door, music in the titles and the heartbeat to emphasise the story line and shot. So going back to the last shot of my preliminary task I would add in the sound of a gasp to emphasise her shock.