Task 7-Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

when looking back on my preliminary task there are four main areas of improvement, these areas are:
Planning and preparation, the used of camera work, sound, the used of final cut pro and after effects.

The planning that went into my final task was much more complex and detailed than the planning of the preliminary task. With the preliminary task we found a convenient location and took any two people who we could find who were willing to participate. We then used any props that we could find in order to give the scene meaning so really there was barely any planning evolved with our preliminary task. Our Thriller opening sequence on the other hand had weeks if not a month of planning put into it. The first thing that we had to do was to come up with the idea and once we were set on our idea we had to decide whether we were going to attempt to film on location or build a set for our sequence. As we decided to film part of our sequence on location we had to phone a set of locations and ask their permission to film at their location. As the other part of our sequence was going to be filmed in a built set, we had to draw up a series of set designs so that we had an idea of what we wanted our set to look like, we then storyboarded of sequence, drew up a shot list and a dialogue script. We then had the issue of casting and rather than picking at random we had to find people who looked the part and portrayed the characters in the way in which we wanted the to be portrayed as. Once this was done we had to acquire all of our props whether we borrowed them of purchased them. And the final step was to build the set. So as we can see the planning of our Thriller opening sequence was much more in depth and complex than our preliminary task.
The use of the camera in our Thriller opening sequence was much more complex and planned than our preliminary task. The setting up of the shot was much more complex in terms of eye line matches, looking space and head room. In some of the cases we used tracking shots or zooms where as when we filmed our preliminary task all of the shots were fixed shots so we set up the camera in a fixed position for the entire of the scene. The rules of camera work such as the 180 degree rule were obeyed and kept to as we had a much better understanding of it and how if disobeyed it can make a scene very confusing.

The use of sound in both of the tasks was hugely different as in the preliminary task we only used the inbuilt microphones and added no sound effects or music but in our Thriller opening sequence we used a directional boom 'mic' in order to get a better quality of sound. We also used sound track pro in order to add electrical sound effects and to give the scene more of an atmosphere.

Our use of final cut pro and adobe after effects was also vastly different. In our preliminary task we only used final cut pro so that we could use straight cuts to fit the shots together. Adobe after effects was not used at all. In our thriller opening sequence however we used final cut pro in much more detail. We used titles to give our sequence a professional feel we also used transitions to join both of the scenes together in a smoother way and to allow sound to fade out and back in.
Adobe after effects was used to colour grade the sequence to give the first half of it a sepia tint to make it feel like old footage. We also used it in order to create our title card and give it an electrical feel in order to make it stand out.
Overall I think that my film making skills have vastly improved in terms of planning and preparation, camera work, sound, and editing since my preliminary task.