Short Film Evaluation - David

Our assignment was to create a short film in small groups following any genre we wanted. To start with we individually came up with our own film ideas, to do this I created a mind-map with different genres, themes, characters, plots (etc). This was so that I could see a range of little ideas in which I could then form a more completed storyline from - I ended up choosing to use the horror genre as I found that it would've not only been the easiest to convey but also had a more themes and sub-genres that I could try and explore. For example, the plot that I came up with also had a thriller and somewhat drama, sub-genres within it.

After I had gathered an initial idea on what my film would be about, I had to make a treatment which involved writing about the genre, plot, opening, ending, narrative, influences, and any draft titles. At this point I had a quite solid idea, the only loose end I had was the title. From here we had to present our idea to our group (my group consisting of Mia, Lily, and Tom); we each explained our idea and at the end of all our presentations we discussed what idea we wanted to go with. We made our decision based on what was not only the most developed idea, but also most realistic in terms of what idea we could do with the facilities we had. As a group we agreed that we would do my original film idea, which was quite similar to Mia's however slightly more developed, which everyone liked.

Our next step was to completely solidify the idea, so tie up any loose ends such as the title. For this we did another mind-map as we found them to be the most effective method. We all came up with various titles that we felt were appropriate, we then used the internet to find syllables for those words to have an even larger choice of titles. As one of the themes within the film was drugs and addiction, we started looking up other names for drugs, which lead us to purple haze. We took away the purple, and was left with Haze which we all voted on being our favourite as it was short and simple, but also tied in well with the film.

Once our idea was more thought out we had to all create a group presentation as we had to pitch our idea to the 'producer', this meant that we had to talk about our individual roles, the opening/closing scenes, our target audience, locations, props/costumes, influences, sound, and needed resources. We split up the parts of the presentation equally, and all worked on it together, along with presenting our individual slides during the pitch while all answering questions at the end. From here the 'producer' gave us feedback on the good parts of our idea, as well as any things we needed to improve, such as really pushing the genre conventions, to make it be an effective film.

As we had the approval of the 'producer' we then began more pre-production planning; for this we needed to create more in-depth final storyboards, location schedules, risk assessments, and daily shooting schedules (which were done on each day of filming). As for my role within the pre-production I created the storyboards, and daily shooting schedules, but I also took it upon myself to make a poster, and backup plan, and shoot location photos. Pre-production planning was a vital step in order to make a successful short film as it is essentially the foundation of the whole project, its where we took our ideas and planned them all out visually to make sure that not only was it what we wanted, but was it going to work. For example, the location shooting was a quite important step as it meant that we could see where we would be filming, therefore we would know if we had locations for all our scenes, the things within these locations that may or may not have to be moved, along with what angles will work within these locations to achieve the best aesthetically looking film too.

Furthermore, the daily shooting schedules were important as it meant that on each day we knew where we were going, what we were shooting, how we want it shot, and what we needed to bring when it came to props. This prevented us wondering round the college not really knowing what we were filming that day, and then filming random shots which would not be beneficial and helpful when it came to editing our films individual. This way we wrote down from the storyboard what scenes and shots we needed to be done that day (we also would film extra shots for backup), and then when we did begin the editing process we could basically slot in the shots in order of the storyboard.

Now that all our pre-production planning had been completed it meant that we could start the production process and start filming. I think our filming sessions went really well in the fact that we knew what we needed to film, and then toward the end of each session we would put the clips in a safe place. After a few filming sessions when we believed we had shot everything we needed, we then went through our footage and reviewed it in terms of what shots needed to be reshot due to bad framing, movement, or lighting, as well as what new footage we felt like we needed to film to create a fuller narrative. We decided that we needed to reshoot only a couple shots, just to make them aesthetically more pleasing, but we more so wanted to film more shots of one specific scene so our audience had a bit more narrative, so that they would find it slightly easier to follow. From here I created two more storyboards for this, and we began filming again by following our new daily shooting scripts. We repeated the reviewing process for our new footage, and as we felt like we had enough of successful footage we made the decision to begin post-production and start editing our short films individual.

For the editing process I decided to use Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 as it was one of the software’s available within college, and I am also familiar with the programme, as I have used it before. Due to the fact that I have used this programme before I found it quite easy to use and edit my film with, the only difficulties I had was that the audio and video were not synced for some reason when put into Premiere Pro, therefore I used my initiative to solve the problem by unlinking the video and audio and then dragging certain sections of the audio around to match up with the video. Although this may have been tedious to do, it was a vital step within the editing process as if the audio was so blatantly out of time, like it had been, then the whole film would look very unprofessional. Another difficulty I had when editing was creating a shot where the actress (Lily) is staring back at herself - when filming we posed Lily in one spot, and then without touching the camera at all, we positioned her on the other side of the frame looking back at herself. I knew that filming it like this would have been needed (which it was) however I didn't know how to actually put the two clips together to make it seem like both Lily's are in the same shot. To overcome this I simply used the internet to search up how to do this technique, using a video tutorial found on YouTube I managed to achieve the desired look, which in turn tied the whole film together and I felt like gave it a more professional standard.

Another situation that arose when editing was the ending of my short film as although I had already spoke about how it was going to end (during the pitch to the producer) I felt like it wasn't actually what I wanted once I saw it all edited in front of me. I felt like the ending was too abrupt in a way that didn't actually help the narrative like I thought it would. To solve this issue, I thought up other ways that I could end my film, but still having an effective ending as that was something I said that I really wanted within my short film. Overall, I do think that the ending was successful, although it wasn't how I had originally planned to end; this isn't a bad thing as ultimately the way I did decide to end the film was better. I think that this is due to the fact that it gave me the opportunity to try another technique (rewinding clips) therefore adding another level of complexity to my film. 

Overall I am quite happy with the final outcome of my short film as we mostly kept everything to what we had planned, therefore this allowed the how production to run very smoothly and not have as many hiccups that we could of had if we didn't plan so thoroughly. Furthermore, my film met all of my initial expectations; it fit effortlessly within the genre and had a smooth running narrative. It fit within the genre (horror, thriller) because I think the use of the narrative with someone unknown following the character added to the creepy factor of the film. Furthermore, due to the imagery and locations it also added to this - the quiet woodlands that we filmed it added a spooky atmosphere. Likewise, the sound and music also added to the conventions of the genre - sound effects such as an eerie wind and voice whilst the character is being followed gave off a very tense ambience for the viewer, which added to the genre nicely. Likewise, the lack of dialogue also went well with the horror genre, as if there was a lot of talking then the narrative would be quite bland (as everything would be explained in a blatant manner) and it would thereby take away from the scary/tense atmosphere I had already created. Against my original expectations I actually think that it was somewhat better than I had originally hoped in terms of narrative, due to everything stated above. 

Like mentioned previously, the ending was something that I wanted to make a big emphasis on, relating my influences to the film 'The Usual Suspects'. In terms of the ending of that film and my film, I believe that they are definitely somewhat similar, as they both make you alternate how you see the whole film. You're lead to believe one narrative, and then the twist ending makes you see the whole story in a different view, which I was pleased that I could pull off to an extent. My film ending wasn't as shocking as 'The Usual Suspects' however as this was just meant to be just an influence, my ending was definitely everything I wanted to be and I believe it to be very effective.

Following along with how the ending changed your view of the film, this means that the audiences’ reaction to my film would hopefully either be slight shock or even understanding. By this I mean that as we are lead to believe one narrative, the change of narrative at the end could either shock the audience and/or help them put the pieces together from the non-linear elements within the film (flashbacks). Additionally, as it is a horror, I would like to think that the audience wouldn't necessarily feel scared, but more so tense and on-edge due to the stalker vibe that is presented throughout the film - to be on the edge of the seats (so to say) in wonder who's following the character, why they're following, and mostly, what they're going to do once they catch the character. 

To conclude, I think that the strongest parts of this project was our thorough planning as it meant that during the production process it was done in a very efficient and productive manner. Likewise, this also allowed us to get a lot done in a short amount of time, giving us extra time to make any changes or improvements, which ultimately improved our finished products. The downfall for this project however was possibly the fact that although our film definitely fits within the horror genre, this could have been solidified more through various methods. For example, we didn't have a big use of mise-en-scene in our film, and this is a vital aspect of film production that can improve a film - therefore I think the one thing I wish I had more time to improve upon would be making a bigger emphasis on mise-en-scene to add to the horror genre. However, overall I am pleased and somewhat proud of my finished project as I think my group and I worked very well together in an efficient and effective manner, which lead us to creating individual and professional short films.