Just from the picture above, it should be clear to see my leap of progress from preliminary to final piece. As the preliminary task was done with no research or no planning, I didn't really know what I was doing. I think it's fair to say enthusiasm got the better of me, and one valuable lesson I learnt was the importance of planning. Jumping in straight at the deep end made my preliminary piece look unprofessional and shoddy. Another key lesson to learn was codes and conventions, not just of horror, but of good film in general. The preliminary task shows a blatant disregard for all aspects of film (whether it be framing, acting or editing, it lacked them all).
My technological proficiency has also greatly improved, further ensuring I will never reproduce a work of that quality again. I can now film and edit to a reasonable standard thanks to extensive planning and practising.
I did no market research for the preliminary task so I never got the chance to learn a big (but ultimately depressing) lesson of the media industry: everything is a product. Everything has a target audience, and arguably exists only to make money. With no such direction behind it, the preliminary task was clearly lacking.
