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

Question 7:

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

I took GCSE media studies in High School and achieved a B grade; I thought I knew everything I possibly could about the subject, from the range of different camera angles to how the mise-en-scene arrangement is constructed, but I was wrong.

I feel that I have learnt a lot from the preliminary task, at the beginning of the course I already knew about different camera angles such as the three main types of close ups; Long, Medium, and Extreme. However, a “worm’s eye view shot/angle” I had never heard of beforehand. This is the opposite to a “bird’s eye view”, when you are looking from above the subject/object. The worm’s eye view is when you are looking up from the ground or surface – Myself and James Kent have used a worm’s eye view while filming our Thriller production. 


Throughout the preliminary task, I had to work in a group. There were a total of 4 members, Myself, James Kent, Jessica Moy and also Mandy Edmondson. Working in a group has developed my social skills to a higher level. The group and I discussed ideas calmly and made a good group effort towards the project as a whole. Working together, achieving together.


During the preliminary task, I learnt about the 180-degree rule, match on action, and lastly shot reverse shot. The 180-degree rule is a basic guideline in film making that states two, or even more characters (or any other possible elements or objects) in the same scene that should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. For example, if the camera passes over an imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it’s then crossing the line and can confuse the viewers as it is from a different perspective.

Match on action is when the camera cuts from one shot to another view that matches the action and pace of the first shot to create an impression of continuity. A shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character (A) is shown looking at another character (B) and then the other character (B) is shown looking back at the first character (A). This creates a since that the two characters are facing in opposite directions. The viewer then assumes that they are both looking at each other.

While filming our preliminary task, Myself and Jessica Moy where chosen by group discussion that we should star in our prelim film. I feel that my confidence to act on film has greatly increased because of this. During filming, Jess had a couple of laughing fits, and so did the rest of the crew. This then coursed us to re-film sections. In total, there were a number of different outtakes which where not used for our final edit. I have learnt that it takes time before you get a ‘good’ shot to use. On top of this, on one day filming, we came in a different costume. The difference in costume made us re-film everything which we did up to that point because otherwise there would be a continently problem within our prelim task. This could have confused our audience as there would have been a sudden change in costume.



From learning the techniques of match on action, shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule and continently, they have all affected my thriller production greatly so that I have the skill to create a processional production at AS level media studies.


The importance of planning, researching, constructing storyboards and focusing on the mise-en-scene arrangement/visual image than a complicated story within the thriller opening has taught me a great deal about the process of how a film is constructed and edited. For the thriller production I was in a group with James Kent, this was a good thing because we went to the same high school. We knew each other which meant we knew great detail about each other’s subject strengths and weaknesses. We both helped each other and have progressed together.


Researching the thriller genre was a challenge because there are many different types of sub-genres, such as the western thriller – “The Assassination of Jesse James” (2007) or even the mystery thriller – “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984). The thriller genre could easily be confused with the horror genre as both are suspenseful and contain the important element of tension.


Planning, on the other hand has been a great success. I’ve learnt how to display my work in a number of different technologies such as displaying PowerPoints on Slideshare and embedding soundtracks on my blog. This has increased my confidence and progression using more tech-based programs.


At the beginning of my group’s thriller production, myself and James Kent came up with an idea that our protagonist would be trapped in some kind of shipping container after spotting and walking towards an abandoned wallet. The protagonist would then be trapped within the container by having the doors slammed shut by a dark silhouette figure, much like the silhouette arrangement of Jesse James on the rail tracks in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (2007) and the silhouette of Harry Lime in the sewer scene from “The Third Man” (1949).

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 

Harry Lime in the sewer scene -
The Third Man

The figure would then become an enigma as you wouldn't have been able to see him/her because of the halo/chiaroscuro lighting around him/her. This idea became more and more overambitious and finally became impossible to film. I've learnt here that by using simple ideas, which my group did in the end can contain just as much mystery, suspense, drama and interesting plot narrative as are previous ones within the cinematography and mise-en-scene. This 'simple' idea was that our malefactor would approach our protagonist from behind.

Prelim Storyboard

Creating a storyboard was rather simple for me, this is because during GCSE media studies I needed to create them. However, while filming our thriller opening, myself and James Kent started to film new ideas, which where not included in our storyboards. Unlike the prelim task - we filmed everything that was included in the storyboard, and nothing else. 




I've learnt that by  filming new, fresh, and a selection of scenes which where not included in the original storyboard add towards the range and variety of different scenes/shots which could be used while editing. The PowerPoint presentation embedded below visually shows the progression of the storyboards for my group's thriller opening.

“Making a film is like going to war” – Ridley Scott

I completely agree, creating our thriller opening and preliminarily task was difficult at times because of the amount of effort and commitment to the project(s) - the pressure of trusting and relaying on someone else to turn up on a filming date or completing tasks in time, if not, the amount of work to do it yourself, storyboards, ideas, and camera movement.

At the beginning of the course, my analyses were weak, but I finally began to improve and increase my skills to produce more detailed analyses, which carefully explained the mise-en-scene with great precision thanks to my developing skills to identify intertextual references and also editing.