The Drama...
The concept of our work was to take our character, Flynn on a journey of himself and change how he views life going from bad to positive. We had to take him on a journey and decided to take him on more of a self reflective journey. As this was the theme we thought this was the easiest way to get it into 5 minutes. You can see throughout his transition and he becomes more positive.
The concept of our work was to take our character, Flynn on a journey of himself and change how he views life going from bad to positive. We had to take him on a journey and decided to take him on more of a self reflective journey. As this was the theme we thought this was the easiest way to get it into 5 minutes. You can see throughout his transition and he becomes more positive.
The influences came from films such as 500 days of summer, submarine and Amelie. The intended audience would be 15+, mainly females with the target channel being film 4 as they show more independent films.
As an audience watching the piece, I realised that some parts worked better than others. I think that the dialogue was a bit off and you could clearly tell it was dubbed over in parts. Whilst this worked for the narration it didn't have the same feel with the conversing parts. I also feel that the music could have been improved by being used more at key parts. I originally felt negitavely about the music but feel it really adds a nice touch. However, the syncing of the sound and how we'll you can hear the sound is successful and a real pro point. Overall, the edit is smooth and clear and straight away grabs your attention with the first shot. I do think here we could have tightened it up a little more especially in the montage scenes. These are the main things I would change if I could go back to the edit. I personally think that the footage shot looks clear and bright but can sometimes just be a bit out of focus especially on the close up shots. In terms of the story I still think it's lacking development and you sometimes can't see how I intended a gap in time to show the journey. This could have been improved by more variety of shots and costume changes as it didn't seem as important until the viewing.
I think to improve we could have had better communication and expressed our concerns in a more professional manner. This really slowed down the process especially changing the idea. I think that as a producer/director I was prepared and organised as I knew to expect problems from knowing what happened with the first idea. I feel that I was more ready for issues and communicated more efficiently with my team. I do still think that the Communication wasn't perfect but still achieved what it needed to.
I feel that overall, our project ended up being really successful. We were well organised and well prepared for all areas of filming. For example, we filmed during the Easter holidays as that was what worked best for the actors. We knew that we couldn't book out equipment from the university for these days so luckily we had our own equipment. We also decided that due to no sound equipment it would be easier to just re-record all the sound separately as we had already planned to do Flynns narration this way. I think we were all prepared for a change of idea and I think that making sure you have a contingency in place was crucial for us and made sure we had something to fall back on.
We did end up having a few small issues throughout our process but were quickly able to turn these around and create our film efficiently.
Firstly, we had been put in a small group with 4 members so we decided it would only be fair to share out the 6 roles between us. Me and Myles both took on 2 roles - Me as director and producer and Myles as cinematographer and editor. This worked well as me and Myles both worked on developing the idea throughout. Chris and Nyle both shared out the sound roles as this is where they felt they would excel. This made the process easier even though we all had a very large amount of work to do. By helping each other with ideas and communication it made it an easier process. We also picked roles we all knew we could get done quickly and really well.
Our teamwork was an evolving process. We all know that as a team in the beginning we should have expressed our concerns in a better way as we were all unsure how to discuss the problems of the first idea without upsetting anyone. We definitely learnt from this and communicated any concerns or ideas in a positive way and worked better in our individual roles. I think that I did work well in a team and learnt a lot from working with different people. I do think I could have communicated better and not let my own opinion hinder anyone's work which sometimes I feel it did. I often come across as opinionated and this was something I had to work on.As the director/ producer I feel that my own contribution was strong. I was well organised and prepared through the process but I do think that there was room for improvement. I worked through the entire process and definitely contributed a lot but I do think that this lost its way a bit when working in a team. I can improve by being calm and thinking more about how to word my concerns to the team. In the process I learnt a lot both technically and creatively. As it was a role I had never done before I felt it was important to research into the role and make sure I was capable of doing all the work. I have learnt the importance of communication and teamwork and how to direct a team in a motivational way without being harsh. I learnt a lot about bringing a script to life and how to visualise it in shots and developing it from direction to production. This was a steep learning curve for me and I do think although here was room for improvement, I did do enough to make a successful piece of work.
The Documentary...
The concept of the work was to raise awareness of rare cancers and how they don't just affect the child, they affect the entire family around them. We filmed Eleanor from Liverpool on a journey and interviews with herself and her daughter to raise the awareness. We wanted to show the family together in a comfortable environment to make it seem natural and put the family at ease as obviously it was invasive. The inspirations came from local Liverpool news articles. We went on the Liverpool echo website and came across the particular story and felt inclined to help. I think this piece has no set audience as it's about all ages. I would say, this is more focused on parents though.
The finished piece of work was a success overall. Watching it back, we did see a lot of room for improvement. However, what I do think was the main success point was how we dealt with the sensitivity of the project with it being about cancer. What I noticed when watching it back was how well the story itself flowed. However, I did notice several parts that could have been improved. Firstly I think that the sound could have been improved. I was the sound recordist and encountered many issues with the sound especially as we suddenly lost it all off the equipment. This meant we could only use in camera sound that was muffled and poor quality. This affected the film. We also had similar issues with the camera work which looked totally different when watching it back. The room we were filming in was dark and we had limited lighting options. If I were to make this piece again I think that I would improve by changing those 2 errors and also including more detail about the cancer itself as this was sometimes overlooked and didn't feel as important especially as the focus was to raise awareness. The way we presented key facts also didn't work as we'll and was hard to digest against all the other information. The on screen text felt distracting to me and isn't something the audience noticed enough as hey were more focused on the documentary itself. I feel that to improve the piece could have been more structured and told more of a journey as at times it feels a little rushed. Perhaps the nature of this story meant that we needed longer than 5 minutes to really get to the emotional core of the story.
The process of making the film in my role of sound took the 3 days we were in Liverpool. I feel I had a small contribution to the film in this role and felt I didn't really do well. I would have proffered to be more involved in the production process. I think that I was well organised and prepared for my role and knew to prepare for losing sound by setting up more equipment and checking the in camera sound. This obviously suggests that I had envisioned things differently at the planning stage. I think that I did my work well and tried hard in a role I was struggling to understand as I don't find sound particularly easy.
My contribution was there especially in the production and planning stages but not as much in my role. I was eager to plan and develop the idea and figure out how to tell the story. I thought it was important to contribute here as the story was really sensitive and difficult. I have learnt a lot in this process and project especially in my role of sound. Encountering the problems I did definitely helped me to learn more about recording sound making it a bittersweet process. I didn't know much about sound so recording it was difficult, mainly in the set up phase. I learnt quickly how to set the equipment up for clear sound and on play back it was clear and crisp. Losing the sounds really hindered my confidence and I think affected the rest of the process for my team. However, making sure I had other options was essential and really helped. Learning about the equipment was a steep learning curve for me and I do feel that I succeeded but I am disappointed that I wasn't able to show this due to the equipment breaking. I feel I wasn't able to show how I developed and learnt how to record sound in an effective way. However, I know that I did my role successfully and know it wasn't my fault we lost the sound. I constantly checked the sound was there and played it back several times and I am still unsure how the sound was lost. I have also improved my student ship and how I view teamwork by working in a well organised group. All members of the team contributed and worked together really well and we're well organised. This was really successful and made us all motivated and get along well. To improve though, I think a different method of communication was needed as sometimes some members struggled to keep informed without the use of Facebook. When it comes to teamwork I think I do well at communicating ideas and opinions but struggle to keep totally informed with the progress. I think taking all his into consideration will help me improve in the future and be a learning curve for me to think about.
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