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

Looking back at the preliminary I feel like I heave learnt a lot, not just about filming a good video but about how to structure a story as well. But i have also learnt the basics, including framing. During the preliminary we mainly kept to a few key shots, displaying the 180' rule in a simple way. However in the final task we showed the 180' in a number of shots which took a lot more skill and precision. We even went as far as to film a clip where we cross the 180' line, however it was not used in the final product. As well as that we went for more complex shots, like the extreme close up of Jess face. This was effective as it showed we could use a number of complex shots, not only that but use them effectively.

As for the story planning we grew even more. The preliminary was a terrible story line, consisting of a fire in the school and the conversation that took place was about the nearest fire exit. However in the final task we went as far as to include a flashback, futuristic radio broadcast and a end-of-the-world, apocalyptic scene. All in all the idea was Jess gets kidnapped and I rescue her, we then run away together - leading to the main problem centred in the film.

As well as the technical side of things my thinking for the media world has grown as well, for instance i now know how to plan for a target audience as well as being able to describe a specific type of person the product is aimed at. This will help me in the future because that sort of idea/thinking will be relevant in almost any line of work - especially an advertising job.

If I were to do the whole project again there would only be a few things I would change, firstly I would design a storyboard of what shots we want and when we want them. That is the only thing about planning that i would actually change, however for the actually production i would change the way we recorded. Instead of just getting the shots we need i would run the whole scene through from a number of different shots. I think that would give us more variety to choose from as well as making the editing easier. Also if we had extra time i would have suggested dubbing the audio, to make it that little but clearer. Apart from those few things i felt that the project as a whole went very well and it is something i am proud of.

What have you leant about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt a lot about a few technologies, those being Adobe programmes, camera work and the sound recorder. Firstly Adobe:

I probably learnt the most about this technology because this was my main usage in the group. I learnt how to do basic effects on After Effects (learnt from VideoCopilot) and simple transition on Premiere. This was useful as it made the video look more professional. An example of the effects would be the gun shot where the end of the gun is lit up:

The next technology we learnt about would be the sound recording, done for the radio broadcast. This was interesting as i had never really done anything like that before and it as a new experience. The idea behind it is simple, press record and speak, but a lot of planning and thought went into what exactly we would get Steve to say. In the end to whole thing went smoothly and the radio broadcast we came out with was professional and added a sense of story to the video. 

The final technology we learnt about was the camera itself, allowing us to use it to its full potential. This was useful for us as it gave us an understanding as to what we were doing whilst filming. We used a number of features for the camera including a tripod and dolly (what Lauren broke). These were useful for our video as it gave smooth shots where the camera was free to move.