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

For evaluation question 7 i have added annotation's to my final main task explaining what i have done in each frame of my main task and specifically mentioning if we had not used any techniques we have now in our preliminary task. I also explained why we used the different types of shots, angles, editing and music and how it had a special effect for the audience while they watch our opening.

After comparing our preliminary task to our main task, we have made many improvements ranging from our filming skills to our editing skills. The reason for these improvements were we had much more time to plan our story-line, shots and angle, characters, locations, costume and props.

Preliminary Task Criticisms:

• We did not plan our story-line well enough, this was a downturn because people did not understand our story-line until we explained it to them.
•  We did not have enough dialogue and sound variations, this really disengaged our audience as a result, because they were unknown of what exactly is going on.
• The amount of shaky camera work during the filming process was a real concern. Once we started filming, the shots were continuously shaking. It looked very unprofessional, but this mistake helped me to learn when construction our main task.
• We had to use repetitive transitions because we didn't take enough shots to make the continuity editing look professional.
• The location's were confusing to the audience because we had to film in school, whereas our location was supposed to portray a prison. This was another downturn from our lack of planning and research

After looking back at our preliminary task, and getting feedback from our peers and teacher on the production, it was clear we had made many mistakes, these ranged from filing skills, shots, angles and location. These mistakes however made us learn and understand and proved a valuable learning curve when constructing our main film opening. We have now all  learnt to do planning and research more carefully before producing a piece of work, and to also see if any shots need to be re-filmed. One thing we were all happy with, when viewing our preliminary task was our editing skills, this was because our filming wasn't the best but after editing our piece looked much better than what we had originally filmed. These early learnt editing skills helped massively when editing our main task because we already knew how to do most of the editing with iMovie. 

Analyzing AS Main Task- Improvements: 

• We used a more unique editing style and also used a variation of shots, this was our unique selling point. We have also highly improved on the aspect of codes and convention of each shot and shot angle compared from our preliminary task. This improvement required us re-filming quite a few times, but the effort paid off in the end. 
• We used the tripod at all times, the use of a tripod meant the audience was not distracted by the shaky shots, that appeared during our preliminary task. It made the construction look a lot more professional, and was very easy to set up, and carry.
• Our continuity editing was also improved, and really added to the intensity of the production, this was one of the most challenging aspects I encountered during the editing process. 
• We were able to add more music which helped to portray different kinds of atmospheres within different frames, for e.g when we showed the flash back in our main task we added a soundtrack which had the feel of sadness, we found this from 'incomptech' under the feels of sadness and uplifting. The music really created an mystifying atmosphere, which was the primary goal when choosing the specific soundtrack, it formed really well with that specific frame, and faded out into the next soundtrack during the end of that frame.

After conducting this evaluation  it is clear  to see the huge difference between the two pieces of work. My main task shows a better deal of editing, professionalism, shot composition and camera techniques than my previous preliminary task. Overall AS has highly improved my directing and film production abilities, these skills are highly valuable when i go onto the A2 part of media. With all relevant skills and experience conducted, i am confident to produce and even better piece of work than i already have.