Evaluation

Evaluation
Name: Oliver Guy

Student Number: B3010203
2 minute film: https://vimeo.com/112064211
10 minute film: https://vimeo.com/114873988

SpaceBoy 10 minute film

Overall I’m extremely happy with the final outcome of the final film. This was one of the first films that I was more then happy to show. Although we encounter problems on the way I’m very proud of every aspect of the film and I think it shows how much work we put into the production.  The module has taught me a lot, from how to structure a short film, how to develop a character but also how it feels to be on the other side of the camera in the acting/directing workshop we did. It was great to see how Kirean initial idea has developed and turned into this very beautiful and emotion short film.  

There are many strengths in our film but possible the most important has to be the narrative.  When Kirean first pitched the idea in our character development seminar, I knew immediately that’s the film I wanted to be apart of. At first it was just idea about a boy who wants to go into space to be reunited with he’s dead dad, that idea was so powerful and knew it could be turned into a brilliant short film.  When we first got into our production groups everyone pitched an idea, at first we didn’t chose to go with Kirean idea as we thought the logistics of getting a child actor would be too complicated. After Ellie found a child actor we really started to develop the narrative.  The plot its self is quite simple, there is only three characters and the film is quite easy to follow.  We wanted the audience to go on a journey with Dylan, from the excitement to him building his suit and playing on the equipment, to realisation that he might not see his dead again.  We chose to have the inciting incident at the end of the film so the audience go on the same journey as Dylan. If we showed the film in chorological order it would tell a totally different film.

Credit has go to Louie who played the role of Dylan, with out him the film wouldn’t have been possible. He performance was great and really understood the character. He had acting experience on a stage but not in front of a camera, he took direction really well and weren't afraid to ask questions. Beth did a great job as the director and gave him clear instructions on how to improve his performance. There where a couple of times that he looked into the camera and we had to redo the shot but it wasn’t a problem when it came to the edit as we more then enough footage to get round the problem problem.  Louie was the strongest act but we can’t fault Haley who stepped in last minute after our other actor couldn’t make the shoot. Ellie did a great job finding another actor so quickly this was a very stressful time when shooting as we almost had to cancel the shoot.   Haley only had an hour or so to get to grip with the scrip I thought she did a great job. On shoot I felt like the chemistry wasn’t really they’re between Hayley and Louie and it came across a little bit in the final scene but overall all I’m very happy with the performance of our actors.

Another big strength in our film is the cinematography (Kirean) I think the first half of the film looks really good, the two-minute film especially. The first part of the film uses lots of close ups so we cant really see what Dylan building until the suit on. Its very enjoyable to watch and the use of static and dolly shots make the film cinematically appealing. The contrast of colour is brilliant we have a nice warm tone at the start of the film when everything seems to be exciting and happy, however when we at the amphitheatre this warm colour and feeling slowly drains away as Dylan slowly realise. I think we where a bit unlucky with our second day of shooting and some of the shots could have look a lot nicer if it wasn’t for the weather.

The process of making the film had lots of stages.  We first sorted out narrative, how it was going to flow and how the character was going to develop. We then sorted out job roles. Beth the director, Kirean the cinematographer, Valarie the editor, Ellie the producer, Hannah the art director and finally I were sound designer and recordist. The idea wasn’t finalised until we had the main actor sorted, the director wrote the scrip, when everything was finalised shooting days would be arranged. The two-minute film was shot on one Friday and the 10-minute film was shot over two more days. After everything was shot we then went into postproduction where the footage was edited and then passed to me for sound design.

As my role of sound recordist and designer, I played a key part in all stages of the film making process. My role involved booking sound equipment, recording the sound on the shoot days, recording Foley sounds if needed, syncing dialogue and then final working on the sound design.  The sound recording was pretty straightforward but when it came to the sound design I felt like I was relining a lot on the editor, if she was late with her edit that had an impact on the amount of time I had to complete my section.  At first it wasn’t too bad but as we got closer to our deadline and we had deadlines for other projects the edit got pushed back meaning I only had a couple of days to complete the sound design.  This has been a common issue on a lot of projects I’ve worked on, and people don’t realise the time it takes. Beth and I worked really well together I thought and she gave me a lot of freedom when it came to the sound design, we both contributed with ideas about how we wanted the final piece to sound, but she let me have creative control which was great. When doing the sound design I began by finding and labelling the sounds before adding them to the timeline. I focused on the synch sounds first before moving on to the Foley sounds. I also created a two midi compositions for the film, these really help to create a space atmosphere I wanted. I’m really happy with the sound design considering the amount of time I had. Along with the sound contribution, I also helped on set getting room ready for shooting and setting up the lighting equipment, I also contributed to the idea, and got permission from Pocket Satellite to use they song in our film. As soon as we decided job roles I contacted them immediately as I knew they style of music would really complement our film.

There are a couple of aspects of the film that could have been better. The main weaknesses of the film are the shots at the amphitheatre, when we got there it was too dark to shoot and the lights we had booked out from stalls where having no real affect. Looking back I wish we spilt the shoot day into four days instead of the three, or we just managed our time a little better.  I’m not saying I dislike the shots I just think if we had more time that would have been one scene I would have like to refilm. There are also a couple of aspects I would like to change regarding the sound design. The part of the film where Dylan is in the space dome (the last scene in the park)  I think the sound design is quite messy, I love the way all the sounds are suddenly bought back in after the slide, but when he starts moving around the done, the sound gets lost and becomes messy. I wish I took a couple of the button sounds out or lowered them in the mix. I also think the mixing needs a little bit of work, apart from those couple of improvements I’m very happy with the final film.

Our approach to group work mainly involved use meeting up to discuss pre production, developing the idea and any big decision we had to make like location or which actor we wanted we made as a group. On the first two shoots everyone turned up and played a part even if that was just helping to set up equipment or help to carry it. When it came to post production we mainly kept to our job roles.

They’re where a couple of occasion where I feel like a couple of members of our group didn’t really pull their weight or contribute in meeting. On the last shoot day only three of us turned up which was a very annoying, one of our actors pulled so we where all stressed, Ellie couldn’t make the shoot but told us weeks in advance and she was the only who found the replacement actor. To my understanding the others didn’t have any excuse for not turning up. This looks really unprofessional, I understand that it was the final shoot, one had already completed her job role and the other job role doesn’t start until after the shoot. It would have just been nice to have more people on set to help move equipment or have input to filming. Apart from this one day I think we all worked well as a team.

The process has taught me a lot about filming making. The first being that not everything will go to plan, there will always be hiccups when making film and it’s the way you deal them hiccups that make the difference. When the actor pulled out hours before our shoot, we could have just accepted our fate and cancelled the rest of the shoot day but we persevered and we eventually found a replacement. I did everything I could have possible done, we all did and we found good actor to fill the role. When shooting we had a lot of problem with microphones, which messed up a lot of the recording in the two minute film, however I went out of my way to re record these sounds. 

Overall I’m very happy with how the team work together, we put a 100% into every aspect of the film, both in the pre production post production, from planning right through to editing and final presentation. As a group we didn’t stop working until the day of presentation, we did the correction literally an our before we was supposed to hand so everyone could have an input, I think you can see the amount of work we all put in from the quality of our final film.  Personally I have really liked working with this group of people, in pre production we all contributed to idea, but when it came to the postproduction I was given creative control. I showed the group the quality of my work in the two minute film, that gave them confidence to just to leave me to crack on with the 10 minute edit. I have to admit it was very last minute and there are a couple of areas of my work that could have been improved but considering the time frame I had to work with I’m over the moon with what I’ve produced.   Apart from that one day where members didn’t turn up to the shoot, I  think the group has worked very well together and I hope the rest of them are as proud of me at the film we have produced.

Presentation

Before the final presentation, we still had to finalise the colour correction. Valarie had been working on it but didn’t want to export the final version until we was all happy with it. The colour correction looked good just the last scene where it looked slightly blue. Apart from that the rest of the colour correction was fine. While the film was exporting we talked about what each of use was going to say. I was looking forward to seeing everyone film but also listening to the feedback.

We was the third group to present our film, we talked a little about the problems with actors. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t receive any feedback but everyone seemed to enjoy the film.

Sound Plan and Tutorial

Today was our last tutorial before our presentation, I was a little disappointed I didn’t have anything to show Chris as todays tutorial was about the sound. Valarie had almost completed the edit, which was great, we had seen little sections of the edit but today was the first time we saw all of it together. I was really happy with the edit the transition form one location to another worked really well, the footage looked really nice and thought the ending was very powerful now you could hear what they where saying. There where a couple of shots that as a group we weren’t keen on but we almost had a complete edit, we decided that we would spend rest of the day and get it finalised.

For the sound I explained what I hoped to do with each section of the film.  The first section I wanted to keep the same as I thought it worked really well. As he walks out of the door the music would stop and a new Midi composition would start, this midi composition would play though out the piece but would constantly change. When he's walking I wanted the footsteps to be really dramatic, heavy like the space suit is making it difficult to walk.

When he gets to playground I really want to take all the normal background noise out of the mix, no cars, just him by himself in his spacesuit. The only time I want to bring the out door noise in is where he's on the slide, i want to build up all sounds around him before dropping them out of the mix when he gets stuck. Hopefully this will be quite funny.



 As he gets to the amphitheatre i slowly want to bring more and more or the outside sounds back into the mix e.g. the traffic. The midi composition would slow drop out of the mix as he Dylan starts to realise that he might not see his dad again. Before it cuts to louie in the living room, in the background there will be the sound of a siren from a police car, this sound is what triggers the flash back.

The flashback starts with Dylan opening his eyes, the sound of the siren will continue until the policeman nocks on the door.  you also hear the sound of the mum washing up and the sound of the telly.

For the final scene it’s going to be mainly just atmos and the dialogue. However I might bring the song back in.

In the tutorial Chris talked about the ending that it needs to be something a little more as it just ends. We all stayed after the tutorial get the edit completed, there where a couple of shots we all agreed on that we thought didn’t need to be in film, the shot of him walking to swings and the transition between the 2 minute piece and the new footage of the room didn't really work. he had a big discussion about how we could end the film but we didn't film any real ending, in the scrip it ends with sylvan looking out of the window. We found a shot that worked quite well with Dylan looking out of the window and then he blinks. Out all the shots thats the only one that could have really worked as the blink could of signed the end of the flashback. I do like the ending, and it works quite well but the blink is so quick i don't think a lot of people will notice it. overall I'm very pleased with the final edit and the rest of the group seem happy my ideas for the sound design which was great.  Before we exported the final film we added Valaries cute animation  for the credits, which looked really good and was great way to show the credits.