Project Evaluation
It's been a long journey to get to the end of this unit feeling happy with what I have produced. I have enjoyed learning all the new aspects on story telling and I am pleased with my outcome. Of course I have many things that I wish I had done differently throughout this unit however all in all I am proud of my end product - which is something I thought I'd never get to feeling about my work!
I have really enjoyed writing my script and learning how much input it takes to prepare your story before you begin writing. From the sessions with Steve Coombes to producing ideas, I have learnt so much about how to produce a script. I have found that to write a script the most important part is the preparation because without the preparation, its nearly impossible to write a good script with detailed characters. Something I would love to do differently next time is allow myself more time to develop my script by ensuring that my characters have enough depth to them. I feel that throughout my script the characters aren't showing the audience what I want them to. Its hard to put into words how I want Jimmy and Rylee to come across in the script but I just felt like something was missing between either their relationship with each other, or their relationship with the audience. I can't quite put my finger on it but I think its definitely something to do with the depth of the characters. I will ensure that a situation like this is prevented in the future by creating character profiles for each character I am writing about and really focusing on what it is that each character wants. I think that by doing this first, as opposed to deciding on what the conflict is first, it will allow me to move that goal post further away from the character and a conflict will emerge itself, depending on their situation. I think that the most important part of deciding on their 'wants' is to find out how much the character truly wants it and how much is at stake for that want. I feel that Rylee and Jimmy didn't really seem to have a want that they were desperate for which maybe is what is the missing link for my script. When I write a script next time, I will ensure that I do further preparation to help build my characters motivations and personalities.
The script feedback session with Steve Coombes was incredibly useful to have as he really helped understand what my script was like to someone who had never read it before or knew anything about it. His feedback was helpful and he gave me some excellent ideas which added some nice moments to my script. For example, Steve suggested that I gave Evangeline more of a role throughout the script as what is suggested in the beginning is that Jimmy is not over her death yet. He felt that her character was never really explored enough for Rylee to have written about her in his assignment. This got me thinking about ways that Jimmy could spark conversation about her whilst not evading his personality. I feel that by changing the time setting to Christmas in 1980 I was able to continue the theme of the Christmas truce as well as including motivations for Jimmy to talk to Rylee about Evangeline.
I have really enjoyed learning how to use Final Draft as it makes the script look professional and I will continue to enjoy using the device. I found that it really helped me to understand how to format a script, which is something that I have struggled with in the past when writing screenplay scripts for a different course. One thing I have struggled with when using final draft is ensuring that I include production scene heading numbers which is something that I have forgotten to do on many occasions and only realising after printing. To avoid this in the future, I will create a post it note and stick it somewhere where I shall see it before printing, to ensure that I remember the scene headings.
When it comes to filming, I have really enjoyed the experience. I feel that I had done enough preparation to be confident in what I wanted to shoot, however I had to make compromises that were maybe to big so that it effected the overall shoot. I had to compromise on the location of my shoot as the care homes didn't feel comfortable having a film shoot take place in their facilities. I had to film in a dated conservatory which although didn't look too bad on film, it was very restricting in what I could do with camera movements and space without revealing that it wasn't actually in a care home. Next time, I will definitely allow myself to push the boundary of time to get a better location and professional actors. To do this, I think I should organise myself better by creating a timeline or an organisation list so that I know what I have to do and when i have to do it by so that if any questions arise by either myself or others, I will be able to answer them confidently.
I was in charge of the camera throughout the shoot and after going through the editing process, I realise that I haven't got enough coverage. Most of my shots were medium shots or two shots and I realise now that it really doesn't add anything when I come to editing. I know that I lacked in confidence when I was shooting and maybe I should have followed my story board as it labelled to me what kind of shots I wanted for each, however I forgot to change the frame size as I was too focused on checking the camera was in focus and that everyone else on set was happy with what they were doing. Next time I will definitely recruit someone who is more confident on the camera as it's very difficult to keep on top of everything that is happening whilst filming. I don't regret being the person to film as I really enjoyed the experience and I got to know the cameras more. I was happy that all of my shots came out in focus and looked clean.
When I reviewed my shots on the computer, I found that I had a major sound issue, mainly with Josh's lines being too quiet. To avoid this next time I will ensure that I am constantly looking at the sound levels on the camera when filming and remember that I can change the sound volume levels on the side of the camera. I attempted to amend the sound on Adobe Audition however I found that it created a large amount of static noise when the characters talk. This was nearly impossible to get rid of and it resulted in me re-recording a voice over of Josh to insert over the top of editing.
With the editing process, this has been my favourite part as I have been able to see my project come to life. I have been able to portray my trailer in many different ways which I have really enjoyed exploring. I feel that I have been able to take on board feedback quite well and act on it efficiently showing significant changes from my first edit to my final edit. One thing I have definitely learned from this is how important organisation is in Premiere Pro. One hour before the deadline I lost all of the voice record in my final edit and had to re download the footage that was thankfully still on the SD card. To avoid this panic next time I will ensure that all footage is saved in a secure place and labelled clearly!
Overall I am very pleased with what I have produced and feel that I have made the best out of the footage I had. I have enjoyed this experience tremendously and am very excited to move onto the next project.
I have really enjoyed writing my script and learning how much input it takes to prepare your story before you begin writing. From the sessions with Steve Coombes to producing ideas, I have learnt so much about how to produce a script. I have found that to write a script the most important part is the preparation because without the preparation, its nearly impossible to write a good script with detailed characters. Something I would love to do differently next time is allow myself more time to develop my script by ensuring that my characters have enough depth to them. I feel that throughout my script the characters aren't showing the audience what I want them to. Its hard to put into words how I want Jimmy and Rylee to come across in the script but I just felt like something was missing between either their relationship with each other, or their relationship with the audience. I can't quite put my finger on it but I think its definitely something to do with the depth of the characters. I will ensure that a situation like this is prevented in the future by creating character profiles for each character I am writing about and really focusing on what it is that each character wants. I think that by doing this first, as opposed to deciding on what the conflict is first, it will allow me to move that goal post further away from the character and a conflict will emerge itself, depending on their situation. I think that the most important part of deciding on their 'wants' is to find out how much the character truly wants it and how much is at stake for that want. I feel that Rylee and Jimmy didn't really seem to have a want that they were desperate for which maybe is what is the missing link for my script. When I write a script next time, I will ensure that I do further preparation to help build my characters motivations and personalities.
The script feedback session with Steve Coombes was incredibly useful to have as he really helped understand what my script was like to someone who had never read it before or knew anything about it. His feedback was helpful and he gave me some excellent ideas which added some nice moments to my script. For example, Steve suggested that I gave Evangeline more of a role throughout the script as what is suggested in the beginning is that Jimmy is not over her death yet. He felt that her character was never really explored enough for Rylee to have written about her in his assignment. This got me thinking about ways that Jimmy could spark conversation about her whilst not evading his personality. I feel that by changing the time setting to Christmas in 1980 I was able to continue the theme of the Christmas truce as well as including motivations for Jimmy to talk to Rylee about Evangeline.
I have really enjoyed learning how to use Final Draft as it makes the script look professional and I will continue to enjoy using the device. I found that it really helped me to understand how to format a script, which is something that I have struggled with in the past when writing screenplay scripts for a different course. One thing I have struggled with when using final draft is ensuring that I include production scene heading numbers which is something that I have forgotten to do on many occasions and only realising after printing. To avoid this in the future, I will create a post it note and stick it somewhere where I shall see it before printing, to ensure that I remember the scene headings.
When it comes to filming, I have really enjoyed the experience. I feel that I had done enough preparation to be confident in what I wanted to shoot, however I had to make compromises that were maybe to big so that it effected the overall shoot. I had to compromise on the location of my shoot as the care homes didn't feel comfortable having a film shoot take place in their facilities. I had to film in a dated conservatory which although didn't look too bad on film, it was very restricting in what I could do with camera movements and space without revealing that it wasn't actually in a care home. Next time, I will definitely allow myself to push the boundary of time to get a better location and professional actors. To do this, I think I should organise myself better by creating a timeline or an organisation list so that I know what I have to do and when i have to do it by so that if any questions arise by either myself or others, I will be able to answer them confidently.
I was in charge of the camera throughout the shoot and after going through the editing process, I realise that I haven't got enough coverage. Most of my shots were medium shots or two shots and I realise now that it really doesn't add anything when I come to editing. I know that I lacked in confidence when I was shooting and maybe I should have followed my story board as it labelled to me what kind of shots I wanted for each, however I forgot to change the frame size as I was too focused on checking the camera was in focus and that everyone else on set was happy with what they were doing. Next time I will definitely recruit someone who is more confident on the camera as it's very difficult to keep on top of everything that is happening whilst filming. I don't regret being the person to film as I really enjoyed the experience and I got to know the cameras more. I was happy that all of my shots came out in focus and looked clean.
When I reviewed my shots on the computer, I found that I had a major sound issue, mainly with Josh's lines being too quiet. To avoid this next time I will ensure that I am constantly looking at the sound levels on the camera when filming and remember that I can change the sound volume levels on the side of the camera. I attempted to amend the sound on Adobe Audition however I found that it created a large amount of static noise when the characters talk. This was nearly impossible to get rid of and it resulted in me re-recording a voice over of Josh to insert over the top of editing.
With the editing process, this has been my favourite part as I have been able to see my project come to life. I have been able to portray my trailer in many different ways which I have really enjoyed exploring. I feel that I have been able to take on board feedback quite well and act on it efficiently showing significant changes from my first edit to my final edit. One thing I have definitely learned from this is how important organisation is in Premiere Pro. One hour before the deadline I lost all of the voice record in my final edit and had to re download the footage that was thankfully still on the SD card. To avoid this panic next time I will ensure that all footage is saved in a secure place and labelled clearly!
Overall I am very pleased with what I have produced and feel that I have made the best out of the footage I had. I have enjoyed this experience tremendously and am very excited to move onto the next project.
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