7) Looking back to preliminary tasks, what do you feel you have learned from the progression form it to the full product

Our First preliminary task was to create a short a thriller movie using a deck of cards. In this task we began to adapt and develop the reverse style editing of the movie Memento. We were heavily influenced by this movie. We didn't have much choice of where to set the card game as space and time was limited and we had to film in college so we didn't really pay attention to mise en scene. We attempted to make the room dark so that the mood would be thrilling. We used over close ups to show facial expressions and emotion and we used over the shoulder shots to demonstrate atmosphere and to get the characters point of view. As this was our first task there were somethings that went wrong. While editing we found that the room was too dark that it was very difficult to see anything also, there are a couple of continuity errors; when the cards are being dealt from the over the shoulder shot you can see one player has cards and the other doesn't where as in other shots she does have cards. Also, there is a continuity error with lighting. We then took this in consideration for our next task.

For our next preliminary task we were to create a match cut sequence, this was very basic as we had limited time and space, the story was very basic for this exact reason and we wanted to concentrate on the match cuts more than the story. We took in consideration the faults we had made and though we didn't have much of a choice of where to go to film as other groups were doing the same activity at the same time we did first of all try some where but then it was too dark so we moved and made the best of what we had. This task gave us a chance to practise our editing skills. After these two tasks we took away the mistakes we had made so we could improve on them. We also learnt that we have had lack of mise en scene but for our film we would add things as we didn't have time to think about the mise en scene before.

The reverse editing was a very important factor in our sequence as it emphasises and adds to the story of our character. The match cut task allowed us to perfect our editing skills and learn how to do create a match cut right.

In our finished sequence we used the time well and we created mise en scene that add to the protagonists character, which tells us about her and what she's been doing. In the mise en scene we added things such as books to hint at what is going on before Alice speaks. The use of the mirror was very important as in the mirror is a true reflection so with this in mind we based the whole thing around the mirror. We have learnt that every aspect of the filming is important that no stone should be left unturned to make sure everything is how it should turn out. In this case, we didn't have extensive time to film and then edit and then film again or however many times we needed to. Though this was our final product there are somethings which even now I feel could be improved on if we had the chance. For example, a few of the camera pans stick which might not be a very big deal but it doesn't exactly flow very well as the movement is a bit like a robot. Also after going to edit we would see that some of the shots that we have could be filmed again like the pressing of the ipod and the final pan down.