Pre-Production Reflection

During the first lesson of pre-production we were put into groups. The first thing that we did as a group was read the task sheet and the script ('Pop Goes...' by Gezza Floored) that was given to us in our preliminary task pack. After reading the script we went onto the 'Newlands Media Studies' YouTube page to look at some previous preliminary tasks that had been created by former Newlands pupils to see what was expected of us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsiVqaYVC7I After this we decided to go straight into storyboarding what we were going to film. During the storyboard process we decided what each person in our group was going to do (acting or filming). We also decided where to film in school as we knew (with the time period we were given) that filming outside of school was not going to be practical (location scouting).

Preliminary Task Sheet

Script (page 1)

Script (page 2)

Storyboard (page 1)

Storyboard (page 2)

As a team we all worked well with each other and everyone agreed on things such as the setting and types of camera shots would look good. We also managed to get the task completed in time due to the fact we were all organised and efficient. I also think we overcame problems quickly without getting stressed. For example, one of our panning shots took a long time to film because the camera would not focus on the person we wanted it to focus on and instead focused on the other actor. As a team we decided to try again with a different lens, which worked perfectly.

However there are some things that I would change next time around. On the first day of filming we forgot our memory card for the camera, this meant that we had to walk all the way back up to the classroom to fetch it, wasting valuable filming time. We also changed our location because it was not very practical. The beginning of our clip was going to be someone getting out of a car but due to school timings and the risk involved with this it was not going to be possible. Therefore next time around we need to be a lot more organised and consider locations a lot more carefully in order to save as much time when filming as we had to wonder around the school trying to find an empty classroom that we could film in. As a group we decided not to use any of the shot list sheets. I think if we had completed the shot lost sheets it would have helped us during filming in an organisational sense because it clearly shows us the order in which we need to set up the camera and in turn saves time. I also viewed some of the other preliminary tasks completed by students in another media class; they had all included music. I think if we had added music it would have enhanced our preliminary task in an atmospheric sense.