
Tom's Media Portfolio
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Since the Preliminary Task that I helped to make at the beginning of the course, and throughout the main task of the course, I have improved in a lot of areas. My understanding and use of all of the different technical areas, as well as the representational and editing areas have developed significantly over the past year.
First of all, the quality of the initial recording was significantly better, as we used a far improved camera for the final product (a Canon 600D instead of a Canon Legria HFR306), and also exported the final cut at a higher quality filetype. This allowed the final cut of our main product to have a higher framerate than the preliminary task, which removed the slight blur that's noticible in the preliminary task.


Examples of the increase in quality between the prelim (left) and the final cut (right), notice the slight blur on the prelim task on a relatively slow part compared to the smoother running of the final cut
One of the other improved features pictured above is the increase in use of editing, such as with the above right GIF whch has the CCTV overlay on it. At the time of making the preliminary task, I had very little knowledge of Sony Vegas Pro 11, and only knew how to cut and edit together clips at the time, apart from which I used no other visual editing technique. This is compared with the final cut which used multiple editing techniques such as fades, dissolves, superimposition and colour drain, which I learned bit by bit as I went through the course (more info on which can be found in Question 6).


The contrast between the minimal editing of the prelim task, and the use of colour drain and light rays in the final cut
Moreover, on the technological side, the Mise En Scene improved between the preliminary task and the final cut. The most improved part of this is the lighting, as the preliminary task only relied on natural light, whereas we used professional lighting set-ups for the final cut, which helped to set the atmosphere and mood that we were trying to achieve. Furthermore, for the final cut, we worked more on the setting and costume, since the preliminary task was mostly what we were wearing on the day of filming and it was shot in a classroom, but the final cut we purchased a costume from eBay and we used lighting to hide that the setting was still a school corridor. As a side note on another topic, the Camerawork was the aspect which was the best in the preliminary task, as we had a good grasp on various angles and their effectiveness. The final cut only added the askew angle and dolly zoom since it fit the genre.


The difference between the lighting, costume and setting between the prelim task and the final cut
The soundtrack of the final cut was more refined than that of the preliminary task, as we did more research on sound in the final cut, as well as created some of our own sounds (footsteps, breathing etc.). The preliminary task had no score, as we didn't have much time to find an appropriate track, and the peice was fine as it was. Comparatively, we did research on the final cut's score (click here) to find out which track was most effective for the piece. We also used sound editing software (Audacity and some of Sony Vegas Pro 11's sound editing features) to change the score and sound effects to how we wanted them.
In the final cut, we paid more attention to representations as well. The preliminary task was not created with any specific representation in mind, as the only purpose of it was to show off three filming elements (match on action, 180 degree rule and shot-reverse shot). However, with the final cut, we included representations of men (the guards), women (the main character) and the mentally unstable (the main character also), more information of which can be seen on Question 2
Overall, I am impressed with how much I've improved during the course, and the evidence for how much I've improved is shown in the distinct change in quality between the preliminary task and the final cut. The final cut is more refined,uses more media techniques, and has much higher production quality than the preliminary task, which was comparitively very basic in every aspect. To conclude, I am pleased with my progress throughout the course, and look forward to advancing even more during next year's course.