Task 7. What do you feel you have learnt in the progression?

In comparison with an October 2009 preliminary task, we progressed massively forward on working with ‘Monroe's’ opening.

Preliminary task

To match all new and more developed stuff which we did it’s worth to remind ourselves what we did on our preliminary task. Our media teacher Guy presented us a storyboard according to which we should film small pieces of video from different angles and frames such as close-up, middle shots or wide shots.
Then, we were faced Final Cut Pro application at the first time and started to cut the necessary pieces of video to create a small film after with different angles and frames. That was our preliminary task. Comparing with production of ‘Monroe's’ film it was much easier and now the whole process of planning, shooting and editing become more complex and sophisticated.

Development

The first difference was that we started the making of the film with the only Gabby’s bare idea about conspiracy theory film. From the very beginning, we started our planning and developing all necessary aspects which we would need for shooting such as looking for a necessary sound background, props and costumes for actors and the whole idea how we should film it. We managed to make our own storyboard and some set sketch drafts with key frames and angles and techniques such as pan move to have a visual representation how our film should look like. After finishing the whole planning process which took about a month of preparations we went to shoot. All props, decorations and other sustainable parts were right on their places and also with help of the shooting script which we had written during our planning, we managed to film all necessary parts quickly.

Camera techniques and Editing

Our camera techniques became much more sophisticated because we moved from easy wide-medium-close frames to an elegant sequence with a visual narrative which is remarkable especially in the first scene where we told all Marilyn story with help of mis-en-scene elements and camera move.

After that we went to editing room and there is a place where we can notice an enormous difference between our preliminary task and creating the full product.
Fist of all we were already familiar with Final Cut Pro, so we managed to do all the basics such as creating the log bins and choosing the right pieces for editing pretty fast. Then, we put all pieces of video into the timeline in order to create a film sequence.

Sound

One of the biggest differences between our film opening and the preliminary task was a presence of the sound background and the titles. Our preliminary task had only a small piece a dialogue; however in the main product we need to have much more different sounds which have their special role in creating narrative part of the film.
Our group found lots of Marilyn Monroe songs and also an old-fashioned American broadcaster voice, so we put them into the first scene and thanks to them, we told a story about Marilyn Monroe’ glory and her mysterious death without any word from character, just the sound and mis-en-scene part of the scene filled by posters, newspapers and a suspect board. Furthermore, all mis-en-scene part was much more sophisticated compare to the preliminary task because our group managed to get formal suits for actors and pink dress and elbow-length gloves for actress who played Marilyn to make our film really look like a professional product.

Titles

The title part of the film was absolutely new to us and, that is why, we met some difficulties at the beginning, but soon we solved them and succeed in creating all titles from distributor name, actors and filming crew to the final title of the film name. The titles gave our film a perception that this piece of video is a real opening for a future Fox Searchlight product.

Software

Finally, the last part which differ our main product from the preliminary task was the usage of other applications such as SoundTrack Pro to create an exact sound of TV or of the large room and also Adobe After Effects thanks to which we succeeded in creating a real old 1950’s colour for the second part of the film so Marilyn's live performance in it was much more convincing.

In conclusion, I can say that during all our planning, shooting and editing processes we managed to get more skills in producing much more complex and sophisticated product in comparison with our October preliminary task, and we used more skills, more applications and their features and, what is remarkable, consumed much more time to create a product which now you can see on Youtube.