Preliminary Tasks

In class we got a chance to watch some of last years preliminary tasks. We focused on what we thought was good and bad about each of them. All of them were very different and each were effective in their own ways. The first task we watched was by George and Jack. I found in this one that the introduction music worked well and was very effective, the lighting was a very dark effect which worked well and linked well to the thriller genre. The intro music then suddenly cut and went to complete silent which worked well, they didn't show the faces of the characters at first which also was effective. They had a close up shot of Jack's mouth of him saying "sit down" this was effective for me as someone in the audience as it was very clear and it enabled me to feel what kind of mood he was in. I felt the improvements that could have been made were things such as the use of the camera was shaky at times and this could have worked better by using a tripod. The other thing was the music when one of the characters was exiting, it did not fit with the scene at all and didn't make it as tense as it could have been.
Next we watched Callum and Zoe's piece, I liked that it was set at night time, this created a very mysterious setting. The street lights added an interesting effect as they were filming somebody being followed the street lights made it feel much more real. I felt this was one of the weaker tasks as the sound was not very good at all and the camera shots were very shaky.
The next task was by Livi, Tilly, Claudia and Ellen. I very much enjoyed watching this task as I felt it had the most excitement. The lighting in the scene worked well, mainly the flickering lights as this added a mysterious, creepy effect. The close up shots of the girl lying on the stairs were effective and what made it even more effective was the blood on her wrists. There were a couple of shots that were shot through the doors, and as the doors had a grid like effect it worked really well and it gave a caged look. The music they chose was also a good choice as this worked well and blended with there piece. I found they could have improved on the quality of their filming at the end as it was such a great start it was a bit of a let down when it came to the end.
Next was Cissy, Chloe, Asia and Jasmine's task. The intro music worked well. This task was very different from the others and I felt it didn't have much of  a thriller feel to it. They spent a lot of time interviewing one of the characters which was a nice idea but I just felt it didn't have as much to it as the others did. There was no element of excitement or horror.
After we watched Matt and Lauren's task, this was also another one that stood of from the others. The music worked really well especially during the shots on the stairs. The beginning of their piece was very random and didn't really fit in with the rest of their task. Towards the end when Amy was found in the cupboard tied up, I felt this worked really well as she portrayed to the audience how scared she was. The improvements that could have been made in this were definatley at the beginning. The didn't need to involve repetitiveness and this just confused me as one of the audience.
Josh and Victoria were up next, this one was interesting to watch and I felt as if I really needed to concentrate. The darkness of the scene worked well however at certain points it was too dark to the point where you couldn't see anything. The effect of hearing her footsteps walking up the stairs also worked very well as it created a lot of tension. They could have improved the sound of their scene and also there could have been pauses during the conversation at the end, it would have made it much more exciting for the audience.