Group: Preliminary task- Embed exported production

1. Outline brief:
We were set about the task of planning and producing a sequence of a film which would be approximately two minutes in duration, it had to follow certain typical rules of production such as the 180 degree rule and other continuity editing techniques. The video also had to include at least two lines of dialogue and a shot of an opening door.

2.What did you learn about filming? What are your best shots? What difficulties did you encounter?

• Generally we learnt that group cooperation was important, as we felt that we got the best end result by allowing each other to share ideas, and working together to decide which ideas would gives us the best end result. 
• It is a mutual decision that our best shot is the shot of the character who receives the most prevalence exiting the building and showing only his feet, the shot then develops to show the rest of his body and pan around his whole head. Other than that shot though, other mutually praised shots included the one of the non-speaking character, and the zoom towards his head, where the camera then pans around to an over the shoulder shot (all corresponding with the 180 degree rule).
•  The main difficulty was ensuring the environment was the same throughout the entire video, we found the the amount of sun light varied in our two shooting sessions, and as a result, we had to keep waiting for their to be an approximately same amount of sunlight as there was in our shots which we had already shot, another result of the additional sunlight was another building reflecting in the windows, which was another reason for us to wait it out for the amount of sunlight to reduce.

3. What did you learn about editing?

• We learnt a number of key skills, such as the basic use of the software we used ("Adobe premiere elements 9.0), we learnt to cut the footage we didn't need, and cut the footage we did need to more appropriate lengths and speeds.
• As a group, we learnt about how to add and edit audio in our footage, we found a tool which automatically adjusted a lot of the background noise which we didn't want to be quieter, we also all learnt how to add sound effects which proved to be productive.

4.Evaluate production? What are the strengths and weaknesses and what tips would you give yourself for the opening sequence production?

• Generally we were thrilled with the end result of our production, our strengths were our overall continuity editing techniques and effectiveness, our camera techniques and shots were also very successful. 
• However, there were weaknesses, their were flaws in the continuity editing, such as the start of the video, where the antagonist is walking through the first set of double doors, there is a sudden jump to a shot where the character is in a different position, which does not correspond with the goal of maintaining continuity. 
• As a group, we have concluded that ensuring continuity in our final opening sequence is a priority, we have also decided that we should try to shoot all shots in each location or such in the same time period , as the weather could change or the actual environment could change (e.g. there may be less leaves on a tree at one point than there was two weeks earlier).
• We have also decided that to create a sense of realism, we must shoot the shots until we are happy that the actors did what they are needed to, and that they do not show that they are almost laughing or such when they should not be, on our preliminary task, we were working to a small time scale so it was hard to keep to this work ethic, but on the final project there is no such excuse.