Evaluation of my Preliminary Task

Evaluation

After filming my preliminary task, I discovered that preparation is extremely important, as it keeps mishaps to a minimum. As my filming was drawing to a close, I found that the single memory card that I had brought with me had filled. Even after deleting as much off the memory card as possible, I was unable to complete all of the shots I was expecting to cover. This proved to be troublesome, as the more experimental or interesting shots were left out and led to the movie possibly seeming less interesting. A task that I faced was to keep the camera focused on the bar alone, as the room was the basement of a house. This issue was heightened as the back of the bar bore a mirror that mad it difficult to use a generic over the shoulder shot. I feel this challenge was capably dealt with, and I believe the set was successful. One scene midway through the film was impossible to shoot in the first session, as there was no viable window to use as well as the shortage of space on the memory card. I was able to shoot the fifteen-second clip during school time and it turned out to be a small and insignificant problem by the end. The location turned out to be a massive issue, as the original location of the bar had to be scrapped after it became too much of a hassle to drive to, being a two hour drive away. This meant a location was needed quickly in order to complete the piece in time. The place was found through my mother knowing a friend with a minibar in her basement. This turned out to be a perfect replacement and we were able to film within the week. Through the filming the camera is motionless, reflecting the static nature of the staging. I tried to create a sense of unease and disorientation by making the dialogue fight against the background noise, so that the audience would need to lean in to listen to the story, increasing our sense of being an eavesdropper at the bar.
I also used the shot where the actor is partially concealed by the large bottle on the counter. This had the dual function of increasing our sense of disquiet, and creating a visual metaphor for that character, who can be seen to be lost in alcohol. At first the two actors barely look at each other. But by the end the honesty between them has increased their intimacy, and their looks are far more direct. The double take the man at the bar gives is the strongest example of this. He literally looks twice at the bartender, surprised by his generosity.

When editing, I found putting the film together far easier than I expected, most likely due to the fluency of the filming, as when the film was being shot, I had two perfect videos of almost the entire film from two angles there were close to no mistakes. This meant I had two sources in which I could constantly rely on and turn back to. For me, the general editing was not very difficult, seeing as it is a drama piece with not much action.  Although I had a limited amount of shots to use, the shots had close to no mistakes and the actors made only a few.

When the editing was completed, most of my peers praised the film, however personally I felt as though it was not as good as it possibly could have been, Therefore I decided to show it to my parents friends to see how a completely different demographic of viewers would react to the film and what feedback they would give, seeing as they had more experience of a wider range of films. The feedback was positive other than one viewer believing that the scene mid-way through the film seemed out of place. After this I slightly adjusted the length of the clip, and I believe that now the film seems more fluid. The film was then  elected to take part in the Harrodian Film Festival, and managed to take the second place award.

If I were to re-do my preliminary task, I would have planned in far more detail, working out my actors quickly and planning a date weeks in advance. On top of this I would bring backups of equipment, therefore making sure mistakes or problems come up less.