Chris Forrest - Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task Evaluation from Chris Forrest
We began our task by discussing different genres and themes, we were aware that this wouldn’t affect our overall grade, but we thought this would give us a clearer idea of what we wanted to achieve with our film, for example - shot types and dialogue. After a short period of time discussing what appealed to each member of the group, we agreed on a thriller. We came to this decision based upon the interesting shot types we could use, it also gave us an excuse to use less dialogue, which none of the members of the group were keen on doing. Another reason for choosing to do a thriller was to get some practise in for the thriller task we will be assessed on after the preliminary task.

Our whole film was inspired by a scene in John Carpenters’ 1978 film Halloween, where the main character played by Jamie Lee Curtis is being chased around a house by Michael Myers. The scene contains parallel editing between the two characters throughout, which proved to be a big inspiration in our overall product. The Halloween clip is available to watch on our blog.

After we had a vague idea of what was going to happen in our film, we began the storyboard. Jamie and I would sketch out what was going to happen in each shot, and then Dave would write down our ideas, shot types and how long the shot would last. This part of the task seemed to run rather smoothly, we had no idea clashes; we all seemed to be on the same wavelength concerning what was going to happen in the film.

During the filming process, we encountered several problems. At the time, I was suffering from a mild form of food poisoning, meaning I was absent for some of our filming time. Another set back was when we taped over half of our shots, resulting in us having to redo them, putting us behind schedule. Due to these set backs, we didn’t have enough time remaining to make the last sequence in the film turn out like how we wanted it to. In the storyboard, it shows the victim flicking his lighter to illuminate the room, showing the killer standing directly infront of him. We were all excited about filming this shot, but because of the lack of time, we had to make do with the torch on the camera, which didn’t fulfil our original expectations, but as a result of this, we now know that managing our time appropriately is very important, and we won’t make the same mistakes in the task we’re being assessed on after the preliminary.

One thing we were particularly pleased with was the use of match on action in certain shots; it was used when the victim dropped his keys, and then it was used two more times with door openings. Surprisingly in editing, it didn’t take very long at all to get these match on action shots up to a high standard, which was fortunate as we had lost a lot of time with the problems I have mentioned above. Another thing we were pleased with was the amount of different shot types we used effectively, such as – Extreme long shots, Close ups, high angles, medium shots, extreme close ups, pan shots, over the shoulder shot and a tracking shot. The tracking shot turned out better than I had first thought, and it proved to be a nice touch to the finished product.

At the time, we weren’t sure how to use ‘Garage band’ so our film lacks edited sound/music, although it does contain a few sinister notes played by string instruments at the end when the title of the film fades onto the screen.

Although our film wasn’t a complete failure, I believe - as a group - we are capable of much more. We were unfortunate with absences and having to redo several shots, which left us with very little time to make a product of high standard. In a way, I’m glad this happened, as it has shown us that we have to be careful and make good use of the time we have been given to complete the task.