Question 8: continued.

My group previously uploaded a video on this blog earlier today comparing our final thriller opening with one of the first preliminary films we made together as a group.

There were a lot of differences between the two sequences, and in watching them, we could really see the differences and development in our editing and production techniques over time.

Our skills with editing have improved massively since the beginning of the course: initially, we just used the basic skills of editing such as jump cuts and a various range of shots, whereas later, we learned to use different techniques such as over layering shots and creating a flickering white light in order to make the overall effect more suspenseful and/or suitable to the specific genre. (supernatural thriller)

At the beginning, we had problems with continuity and lighting; the editing did not run as smoothly as we would have liked (we fixed this problem as we improved in our skills while using final cut pro) The lighting was also too harsh and made the prelim look tacky and unprepared, we took particular care in the lighting used for our final project as we realised it's importance in setting the entire atmosphere of the movie, by creating menacing shadows etc.

There were a lot of errors in the prelim: as we were not used to filming, and we didn't have much time, there were often times when the actors as well as the crew would laugh or do something unprofessional.
The music we used was also very amature in comparison to the final choice of music used in the final production.

Finally, our choice of Mise en Scene was drastically different in the prelim and final production, initially, we hadn't planned which props to use or where the camera should be placed to get the most effective shot (e.g. we used a coat hanger as a murder weapon in the prelim as we couldn't find anything better at such short notice) As we developed our understanding, we came to realise the importance of props and other small differences to the final presentation of the production.