Media Evaluation Question 7

The main improvement from the preliminary task to Malus was completing intensive research to give a focus and an audience to fit the film around. This meant that we could consider things like sociolect and dialogue in more depth as well as having well though out costumes, hair and make up to make the most of character representation and setting the scene.

The preliminary task only required a few simple shots and so the progression to the production of Malus allowed us to delve into more complex cinematography using low angles, pans, tilts and long shots. This makes the overall media product look more professional and interesting.

I also learned how to edit in a more efficient manner, using the blade tool to change the volume of tracks in certain places, using filters, which work with the genre of horror rather than leaving each shot exactly the way that the camera saw it.

In the preliminary task we didn’t get chance to create an animatic storyboard which worked in our favour when producing Malus because we could visualize the way we wanted the film to look and then efficiently film it to make sure that we didn’t miss out any crucial elements of the film. This helped me when it came to my directing because I could refer to the storyboard to keep me on track with what I wanted to film and the reasons I wanted the shots to look the way they did. For example in the low angle shot of the witches feet walking past the camera I wanted to set the scene of the autumnal time of year, which is most associated with horror, by showing the orange leaves on the ground.

The progression has made my preproduction skills much more efficient and effective as I can now see the importance of planning and research in order to make the best possible product. If you throw yourself into a production without even a basic outline of what you want to shoot the film will become jumbled and make no sense.