Final Evaluation

Over the course of the term I have come a long way in terms of my ability to be confident when I have an idea and to further it by creating a clear plan of how to achieve it. I have become much more able to communicate ideas and adapt to new problems that can occur on set that I have not planned for. I have found that making floor plans of where actors walk and their positions very helpful when planning where cameras should be positioned as well as looking for the 180 line which is something I have found quite difficult in the past to understand. 

During the preparation stages, I had difficulties in finding actors for my drama piece and had to pull in many favours when it was very close to the time of my shoot. There was also a problem with securing equipment for the days that I originally wanted to shoot on, causing me to reorganise my shoot days and ensure my actors and locations were happy with the new dates. To avoid this next time, I will organise my shoot dates immediately and book the equipment, then organise actors with an advert on Casting Call Pro. I will then focus on other preparations such as script, costumes, location securing and permissions. 

I found that the Steve Finn workshops really helped me to communicate my ideas with my crew for my Drama film and I felt organised and ready to shoot. He was a great person to meet and hear about his experiences and his advice when watching us direct practice scripts enabled me to improve how I chose to shoot my films and direct my actors. He taught us a lot about how to gain a lot from one shot by developing a standard two shot into a depth of field shot that looked aesthetically pleasing and added drama to the scene as well. I have attempted to use Steve's advice of bringing characters into a scene in interesting ways through scene three of my drama. Miranda enters the house and comes into the living room when Brendan comes out of the bathroom. I chose to dolly back and pan to get a two shot of Brendan coming into the scene and then track them both walking more central of the living room. This worked particularly well and is one of the scenes I'm most proud of from the drama. 

I found using music in my drama necessary to enhance the tension however choosing the right pieces was tricky. It was difficult to find the right suspension music for the scenes where Brendan would follow Nick and mug him and for when he pursues Miranda in the house. Everything I looked at was too "horror movie" for what I wanted. I finally settled on something that worked well with the piece and had just the right amount of subtlety to create the ambience and tension needed for the scenes. 

I really enjoyed the whole process of recreating a television drama and found that I have gained new confidence in directing people to make them understand my vision for the piece. I'm very pleased with how my drama has turned out because I can see an improvement between my Storytelling unit and my Directions unit films. I have a lot more coverage in 'Secret Smile' than I had in 'Jimmy's War' which makes me happy! 

Here is the finished 'Secret Smile' adaptation. 

Originally,I found it quite difficult to come up with an idea for my self portrait. I wanted to show something about myself that didn't require me telling but to show the audience. This required me to really think about my sound design and ensure that I could make the audience see and almost feel something similar to how I feel in the film. For example, the beginning of the film contains sounds that really annoy me and cause me a lot of stress, such as the sounds of someone eating loudly, the sound of a pen clicking and a pencil tapping against the table. By having enhanced sounds it heightens the feeling of agitation allowing the audience to feel a sense of annoyance along with the film. 

Filming my project was quite fun, it was great making the foley's for the sounds and coming up with ways of shooting the scenes to make the feeling of aggravation come across. I had difficulty with the weather and struggled to get a scene with the sun coming through the trees whenever I planned to shoot. In the end, I cut the scene altogether because it didn't add anything to the film itself. I also found that I had a scene that needed a green screen which required much more preparation than I had given myself so again, this had to be cut. After watching rough cuts and Fine cuts, I personally don't feel like it is missed from the film however it would have been a great thing to test out and add to the film. In future I will consider carefully each shot and decide on how much planning each one will need when I come to shoot. 

I have enjoyed the experience of filming with no dialogue because it has enabled me to understand the importance of storytelling without telling the audience through dialogue but to consider other aspects of film making that give tell the story, sometimes in a better way than with dialogue. In future, I will try to find ways of telling a script without the dialogue to see how to tell the best visual story. 

Here is my finished Self Portrait: