Creative Critical Reflection 2

How have your production skills developed throughout the project?

Podcast

For critical reflection 2 I decided to create a podcast it can be found on either one of the links below.  

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https://youtu.be/u6f7KCUFzoY

How have your skills developed from the Prelim tasks until now?

My skills have developed immensely through different Prelim tasks, one of which being Prelim 1: Types of shots. This project helped me understand the different types of camera shots used in film and media to portray character emotions and how it relates to the audience. Furthermore, an example of the different types of shots is the establishing shot, this helps the audience understand the location of the film and mood. My group and I applied this shot to the opening sequence we created and it helped the audience to apprehend the tone and location of the opening sequence. Additionally, the establishing shot helped hook the audience due to the tone and conveyed the theme of fear as it was a dark and rainy night. Moreover, Prelim 4: foley was also used to get the theme of fear across to the audience. This was achieved by adding special sound effects created through foley of the protagonist knocking against the glass door to add an eerie tension in the opening sequence. The convention of sound was the use of non diegtic sound that was applied throughout the majority of the opening sequence to assist in hooking the audience and providing significance to the theme. 

How did your production skills develop during the pre-production stage?

In the initial stages, I learned the basics of mise-en-scene and how significant of a role lighting plays when portraying and making a character stand out. Secondly, I learned the different types of sounds for example, dialouge and how it transmits story information and progresses the narrative; music and how it heightens emotion or action; sound and audio effects (foley) and how it aids action scenes besides adding a sense of realism and silence and how it creates tension while drawing attention to the visual images. However, there were a few mishaps that did not go according to plan. For example, one of our group members dropped out and this caused us to change our cast, location, and crew. Not only that but also our first and second time shooting the camera equipment was dysfunctional which resulted in both shoots being wasted. Finally, our third shoot was successful as we managed to get functional equipment along with a cast and crew who fitted the roles of the necessary antagonist. Although, during our final shoot it started raining, something that was unexpected but it ended up supporting our genre (horror) and the theme (fear) by giving a clearer picture. My group and I learned that it is important to have a plan b as media shoots can be unpredictable with expected weather, dysfunctional equipment, and last cast and crew dropouts. 

Overall, do you believe your production skills have developed?

I believe my production skills have improved drastically since this project started. First of all, I have learned new terms in sound such as diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, and how big of an impact they can have on the audience. Furthermore, I have learned how to apply these sounds to my opening sequence to help create meaning. For example, in the opening sequence, my group and I added a non-diegetic eerie sound to manipulate the audience's feelings and create tension among them. In addition to sound, my cinematography skills have also developed from not being able to know how to use a camera to being able to control lighting, knowing the right angle, and creating emotion through shots. This was done through an establishing shot where the group and I used street lighting to distinguish the rain which in turn helped convey the genre clearly. In conclusion, along with cinematography and sound, I learned the importance and how to use the correct lighting. Lighting helps portray the character's facial features and shows their significance of them in the scene. For example, during the kitchen scene, the protagonist can be seen through the window while the background is completely dark and there is a bright light focused on the protagonist. This makes the character seem important along with dominant and catches the audience's attention due to the difference in lighting.