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

Starting the preliminary task in October 2015 to completing my group’s main product in March 2016, I feel that I have learnt a considerable amount of new skills and techniques that I will be able to use personally with my own hobby of making YouTube videos. I feel as though I have been able to pick up on many key parts of terminology especially terms within Mise en Scene, Camera Work, Sound Track and Editing. Learning these new skills/techniques and broadening my knowledge has helped me towards creating a higher quality finished product which looks a lot  more professional.

The first noticeable aspect of my Preliminary Video that has differed from my group’s main product would be the quality of the footage that we filmed. Back when I carried out the preliminary task I used my Vodafone Smart Ultra 6  mobile  for filming the shots, of which the standard of quality was low. For the main production my group used a Canon 600D which includes full HD recording meaning it gave us clearer and sharper shots, also it includes a wider range of zooms meaning we could experiment close-ups without them looking distorted as they would have done with a lower quality camera. Overall I feel this improved the quality of the shots immensely, such as Dolly Zooms for example which were substantially crisper. My group rendered the final product in HD which I had also rendered my preliminary task in, this made full use of the HD footage that we could work with.

Preliminary Video

VS

Final Product

The next thing to speak about would be the sound,  I wasn't too  creative when it came to editing my prelim video in terms of sounds, I managed to pick up the sound of the door opening and the speech is clear but the overall sound is of a low quality given that the phone microphone is weak at picking up noise. So for the main production we decided to use quality microphones meaning we could get very clear sound clips and use them to add effect to the product, deciding where to set up the microphone was key to whether we were getting the crisp sound that was required.

Next would be the editing side to the two productions. In the preliminary video I  simply   used the split button to break up a clip and then move them where it made sense too. I wasn't as accurate as you would have to be when creating a movie or final product . I deleted the clips I  didnt need and rendered it. This changed dramatically when editing the main product as we  had to be extremely accurate and there was no room for error at all.

The lighting is also less worked on in the preliminary task as I kept the clips exactly how they were and I didnt test my skills out at all, whereas with the Final Product lighting was key as to be conventional for a thriller it must consist of dull low key lighting, so we had to get it just right throughout including the dark scenes outside. 

Overall I   believe that  my skills and knowledge of film producing has rapidly increased in a short space of time. I strongly believe these new skills and techniques will help me in the future when editing my YouTube videos  and being able to assist   more when making another media product. Some of the most important things i have learnt personally are the different camera angles that are available, how important lighting is within a production and lastly how to edit to a higher standard to make a few clips look very proffesional.

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