Self-Reflection and Evaluation Production Task Term 2

Discuss your feelings about the production task: please justify your responses.

Are you satisfied with your trailer? (i.e. did it turn out as well as you hoped?)

I am not completely satisfied with my trailer, and I think that it could have turned out a lot better than it did. I didn’t put in as much time as I should have, and I think that if I did put spend more time filming and reshooting what I needed to, it would have been of a lot better quality and I would have been more satisfied with the final result.

Did the project require more/less time than you originally thought?
The project required less time than I originally thought, however, if I had spent more time on it then it would have been a lot better. My poor time management led to me leaving everything to the last minute, whereas I should have done it all early on then edited and re-filmed what I needed to without stressing. Editing this film took a lot less time than with my last film, and I think this is because I find it easier to use Final Cut Pro now. Last time it took a while as I was still kind of working out the different aspects of my shots that I could edit.

Would you like to change or improve any aspects of your final film (storyline, shots, editing, etc.)?

Firstly, I would like to change the dialogue of my film as it is bad quality and doesn’t completely match the person speaking it. I would also change the fact that my trailer is very linear, and I would do this by adding a voiceover, and more of a variety of shot types. I would also make aspects of the storyline more clear, for example, it is not obvious that the girl is in a detention room in the beginning, it just looks like a classroom.

If you could start the project again, what would you do differently?

If I could start the project again, I would make sure to film all of my film early on so that I have time for feedback and time to reshoot what I needed to. This would have made my film a lot better and I wouldn’t have been so rushed to get all the filming done towards the end of the project. I would have also made my trailer less linear, and certain aspects of the storyline clearer.

As this task focused on The Hero’s Journey, describe:

The specific narrative conventions, characters you included in the trailer?

In my trailer, I included the main aspects of The Hero’s Journey to make it obvious to the viewer that it was this type of film. The characters that are a part of the Hero’s Journey structure that I included in my trailer are the hero, the mentor, the goddess character and the villain, and these are the main characters of the actual film. The specific narrative conventions I included in the trailer are long shots in the beginning to establish the setting and to build tension, then fast paced shots towards for excitement.

How you used specific shot types to convey your story?

I used high angles when filming shots of the hero and in the beginning when she was sitting in the room, I positioned her so that she was on the right third of the frame and looking around outside of the frame to indicate that she felt trapped and show that she was not in control. When filming shots of the villain and other powerful characters, I filmed them from a low angle to indicate their control and power.

Whether the intended genre is depicted clearly or if this could be improved?

I believe that the intended genre of thriller could was clear in the trailer, however, if I were to improve this I would use the lighting more effectively in order to create more shadows, etc. such as hiding the villain’s identity with the use of shadows and lighting.

Personal reflection and evaluation: after your previous task, you were asked to reflect upon the project and identify aspects of planning, production and reflection, which could be improved.

Please explain which aspect you chose to focus on for this task and how you have made improvements?

After the last task, I chose to focus on improving my storyline. I think that I have made my storyline for this task a lot more interesting than the previous one, however, I still think I can improve on this. I tried to make the storyline of the film more interesting by planning it as soon as we got the task, meaning that I had more time to think and build on my ideas.

Reflecting upon your completed task, respond to the following points:

How did other people respond to your rough edit? Did you use their feedback to make changes to the film?

The people that I received feedback from for my rough edit told me that they could understand the storyline clearly and could identify the points of The Hero’s Journey clearly. I didn't really receive any criticism, however, when watching my trailer myself and finding things to improve on, I found that I needed to make the shots faster at certain points to make it more dramatic which I did.

Did you use the planning and analysis tools effectively? (i.e. ingredients list, storyboards, shot lists, etc.)

I believe that I used the planning and analysis tools effectively, especially the storyboards and shot list. I built my shot list off my storyboards which made it a lot easier to do, and I created a very detailed shot list which made filming a lot easier than it would have been without it. The shot list enabled me to do my editing more quickly as well, as I knew the exact order that my shots went in and for how long, however, I changed a couple of things around to make it look better.

Were there any problems or difficulties during filming and how did this affect your project? (Difficulties may include: shooting, technical, time management, teamwork, absences or editing, etc.)

The only major problem that I encountered was the fact that my laptop died on the Saturday before the final edit was due. This meant that I wasn’t able to finish my editing as I don’t have another Mac at home. However, I thankfully kept a backup of my Final Cut Library and all of my shots on my external hard drive so I was able to receive an extension for one night and just quickly finish the small amount of editing that I had left.

Discuss whether you undertook adequate and detailed reflection to support your work? (Look at your blog and consider if it looks like a term’s worth of work) 

I believe that I undertook an adequate amount of reflections on my blog to support my work for the term, however, I think that I should have done a bit more. I forgot to do a reflection after every single time that I filmed as I was too busy editing, however, I still think that there are enough blog posts to support my work. Next term I aim to improve on this by completing more reflections throughout the task.

Assignment Completed & Handed In

I have finally been able to complete my editing and finish my assignment. I had a couple of free lessons yesterday, so I was able to complete the editing throughout the day with the school laptop that I borrowed. At home, the only thing that I had to do was watch over the trailer again and make sure that everything was all good to submit. I ended up only adjusting the volume of the dialogue over the background music so that the viewer could hear it better, and at school I finished the colour correcting that I had left.

This has probably been the most difficult task yet, and I am really glad it's over. I think that the task itself was quite challenging due to the fact that it was a trailer and I found it really hard to make it non-linear and trailer-like. However, I also made it hard for myself by managing my time poorly and having a storyline that included so many characters. Having five characters made it really difficult as I had to rely on four other people to act in my film (only four because I acted as one character), nobody wanted to act, and it was hard to find times when they were free at the same time.

Overall, I had fun filming the trailer, and I tried some new things with the editing such as overlays which made Final Cut more fun to use. I can't wait until the next project as I think it will turn out a lot better than this assignment if I focus on my time management, plus other aspects including lighting, as I plan to.

Laptop Problems

On Saturday morning, I was editing my trailer and I started having problems with my laptop. It kept shutting down every five or ten minutes, then taking another five or ten minutes to turn back on again.  This was really frustrating and I didn't know why it was happening - it had starting happening throughout the week, except it only happened once every one or two days, not once every five or ten minutes. I checked my storage to see if this was the problem and it said I had over 30GB free, which isn't a lot but I thought it was enough for my laptop to at least function normally. I moved another 20GB from my laptop onto my external hard drive, which left me with 50GB free.

I decided to leave my laptop alone on Saturday and come back to it at night to see if anything had improved. After I went back on it again at night, I was editing for about half and hour and everything seemed fine with my laptop. But after that, my laptop started freezing and turning off again. After a little while of this, my laptop turned off and wouldn't turn back on. After trying to turn it back on for ages, I left it and came back to it in the morning to find out that it still wouldn't turn on.

This meant that I was unable to complete my editing over the weekend, which was really frustrating as I was almost done and I only had a couple of colour corrections to do. I explained my problem to Mr Andrews on Monday morning and I was given an extension until the next day which allowed me to complete my editing with a laptop I borrowed from school.

I was so so happy that I had saved a copy of my Final Cut library, as well as all of my footage onto my external hard drive so that I didn't have to start my editing all over again, and only had a tiny bit to complete. Even if I hadn't saved my library onto my external hard drive, I still had all of the footage saved so I would have been able to restart. I can't imagine how stressful it would be if I hadn't kept a backup of anything. After this complication, I have learnt the importance of always keeping a backup of all of my work as anything can happen to my laptop at anytime.

Finished Filming!

I finished my filming this week and I'm so happy that it is all done!

I think that I left it a bit late to finish my filming, and I will definitely be focusing on my time management for the next task to ensure that I have it all done really early and that the only thing I will need to do the week before the final is due, is the editing and any re-filming. I think that my film would have been of a better quality if I had done it earlier as I wouldn't have been as rushed as I was and I would have been able to put more effort into the different shots.

I have been editing my trailer after each filming session, and I have completed most of the editing. The only thing that I have left to do now, is adding in the audio and doing some colour corrections. I am mostly satisfied with how it's coming along so far, but like I said before, it could have been better if only I had managed my time better and got the filming done earlier.

Filming During the Week

During the week, I filmed the majority of the filming that I had left to do. It didn't take as long as I thought it would to film, however, I think that if I had filmed a lot earlier, my trailer would have been better as I could have spent this week editing and re-filming what I needed to. For the next task, I am going to make sure to film early on so that I have a lot of time left to receive feedback on my rough edit and to reshoot and change aspects of the film that I need to. 

My shot list has really helped me film quickly as I know exactly what shots I need to do and how long they go for, as it is really detailed. I think that if I didn't have a shot list, I would be even further behind with my filming.