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

The learning from the preliminary task helped me a lot during my main task.  Although the scales of the tasks were different, I was able to use knowledge I had learnt from the preliminary task effectively during the final product process.
I have learnt that necessary planning and preparation is essential when trying to make a successful sequence.  We meticulously planned our sequence, firstly by creating our animatic.

 I learnt that an animatic is the very first presentation of your film, which helps you adjust shot duration, overall timing and really just what the sequence will be like.  An animatic is definitely something I would recommend to somebody who is creating an opening sequence, or media product of any kind.

In our prelim, we made only a basic shot list, so when we filmed our sequence we were confused as to what shot we were doing and which ones we had already done.  For our real product we made several lists for our production:

Shot Log

Props List

Script

Shot List

Location

One thing we did take from our prelim was the use of only one location.  This proved really manageable as it saved us a lot of production time, which allowed us to focus on the camera work itself, rather than having to travel to different locations.  It also made the narrative much simpler; the audience could grasp a good understanding of the location from our master shots in the sequence.

Editing

Our preliminary edit was rather easy as the sequence was in real time.  We thought it would benefit us to have an easy linear edit so it didnt get too confusing and saved us time for the rest of the project.  However what we didnt take into account were titles, special fx, grading and music tracks, all of which were in our final product but not our prelim.  Therefore I have learnt, that the more complex you make your sequence, the more difficult it will be when in post-production.

Overall I think the most valuable thing we learnt from the prelim process was the importance of teamwork.  Once jobs were equally delegated between us in our prelim, things really did get easier, and allowed us to be a little more creative as a group within the short time period we had.  This was the same for the real product.  We kept in contact greatly throughtout the project so everybody knoew what was going on with the sequence and when things were going to happen.  We arranged daily meetings throughout the project both for organisation and planning, but also for creative sessions where we would all share our ideas on the sequence.