My Production Reflection

1. STAGE 5
PRODUCTION
REFLECTIONS
Your Name

2.  This proforma is to record how you worked on your production
 You should complete this each week during production
 Consider all relevant areas that you covered that week
 Think about what worked/what didn’t work/how you can improve
and actions for the following sessions/weeks

3.  In week 1, we created mood boards and developed ideas for our short film. At the start of the week, we learnt lots of
new terminology that would help us explain our shots and techniques we have included later on in our film. This
also allowed us to plan in more depth such as the colours used as these all connote to a meaning/feeling. I decided
to create a drama film about my Granddad who is lonely at Christmas. To resolve this problem, the family buy him a
rabbit to keep him company. I also created a mood board for a psychological thriller, however I wanted to create
something different as everyone makes a horror or thriller. I also thought that a drama would be easier to film due to
the family and other props I have available. We watched lots of different short films and analysed what we liked and
disliked about them. This allowed us to decide what techniques we would like to incorporate into our own short
drama film. I found this task helpful as it highlighted new techniques that I had not seen before in other films. After
this, we had to record different sound effects around college and edit them on top of a clip from Shaun Of The
Dead. I don’t think this went very well as it was difficult to record perfect sound effects. In the future, I would like to
spend more when recording so that it sounds better. I did not enjoy this task, therefore when producing my film I will
get sound effects online or use the noise on the clip filmed. Finally, we filmed our own short film in groups. This
gave us practice of type of shots we would like to feature and sound effects we would like to include in our film. I
enjoyed this task because it allowed us to work practically and highlight to us how much little time 60 seconds really
is. Another reason why I found this task helpful was because I got to work with new people that had lots of different
ideas for shots and angles that I would like to use when producing my short film.

4.  Week 2, we began our primary and secondary research for our short film. Firstly, I developed my
primary research by conducting an online survey on SurveyMonkey. I asked questions that would
benefit my production. For example, I asked “What do you dislike about drama films?”. This
allowed me decipher what to avoid when creating my short film. This survey was answered by all
media students studying short films as they are also the desired age range for the target audience
of the short film we have to create. To improve my primary research, I would ask more questions
about drama films rather than an overview of other genres as this did not help me with my
production. I then began my secondary research. I did this by researching the highest rated drama
films and found out different statistics as well as what the audience are like using YouGov. An
example of a film I researched was Juno. I used websites such as Wikipedia, YouGov, Rotten
Tomatoes and IMDB as well as watching the trailers on YouTube. Next time, I would like to focus
on 2 films to research as I thought that my notes were scattered and short. I discovered that the
audience tend to be young and female that enjoy reading and music. After that, I researched the
different BBFC. I researched what had to be included for a film to be under that specific age
category. From my research, I think my film will be a PG as younger viewers may find it upsetting.
Then, I analysed 3 different products that are similar to what I want to create. I researched Up, The
Man On The Moon and Edeka. This highlighted to me what techniques were used that made these
films and adverts so successful. This went well because I made notes of what techniques, props
and colours I would like to feature in my film to make it more emotional and heart warming. Finally,
I reflected on my filming, audio and editing process from the previous week. I don’t think this task
went well because I found that I was writing similar things for each topic: it became repetitive.

5.  In week 3, I started my pre production for filming. Firstly, I wrote a structural breakdown of my film
as well as my story development. In the future, I would like to spend more time thinking about this
and the cast as I found out later on that it would be difficult to have all cast members at the
location for filming at the same time. On Storyboardthat.com I created a 6 shot storyboard of my
film. I enjoyed this task because it was another form of an example of my ideas that I could see
visually; I also think this task was successful. To improve my storyboards in the future, I would
like to use a different website so that I could create more shots, I would also spend more time on
the storyboard as I did not draw the shots exactly like the shot list ,( close up, medium shot,
crane, over the shoulder etc.).After that, I wrote down an in-detail shot list. This included what
type of shot it is, what happens in the shot visually and audio and the duration of shot. Section 3
is about the cast information, location and contingency plan. This is where I wrote down several
things that could go wrong and what effect this would have on production. For example,
equipment could be lost or broken. Therefore, this would delay production and post-pone filming
to a later date. In this section there was also the risk assessment. An example of a risk would be
if my rabbit escaped or chewed through wires. The solution to this would be making sure that the
rabbit is in the cage when not needed and that all wires/cables are kept out of the way. I then
filled in the production schedule where I wrote down my production on each day. On the call
sheet I wrote down the assembly point and the shooting schedule. I think all pre production went
well as it allowed me to feel more organised for filming and what props/ costumes I would like the
actors to wear. Section 4 was all about sound: diegetic and non-diegetic sound. I listed down the
sound effects that I wanted to record as well as the link to the background song.

6.  At the start of week 4, I began filming. I borrowed equipment from college over the weekend so that
I could film at home with my family. I filmed the shots in the beginning of the film and the shots at the
end and this took roughly 1hour and 30 minutes. I think this task went well because I took several
videos of the same shot to decide what angle and lighting I preferred best. In the future I would like
to take home a microphone so that I could use my own sound effects. After filming, I began editing
what I had so far. I used various different transitions, ( fade in/out, dip to black, dissolve). I
downloaded sound effects from YouTube as the microphone on the camera did not pick up the
sounds clearly and loudly enough. For the background music, I used a royalty free track called
“Prelude No.18”. The song is just a piano playing which is relaxing and emotional. I would have liked
to have used a song called “Skinny Love” by Birdy, however due to copyright reasons this was not
possible. I would like to improve my editing by editing the brightness on the clips as well as adding
in more transitions and sound effects so that it looks like a professional short film. In the future I
would like to film more clips at the location so that I have more of a variety to chose from, whereas
sticking to the shot list so strictly restricted other ideas being incorporated. In the future, I could also
change the order of the film so that there was flashbacks and jump cuts. For example, in my short
film, I could include a flashback to when Granddad lost his wife as this would make the short film
more interesting and emotional.

7.  Over the weekend, I finished filming my short film. I filmed the scenes including the family arriving
for Christmas dinner and presents. Filming lasted roughly 1 hour and featured me, my mum, my
brother and my Granddad. After this, I imported the footage from the SD card into Adobe
Premiere. I put together the sequence with various transitions such as film dissolve, dip to black
and additional dissolve. However, because these shots were filmed on a different camera, the
lighting is much more warm and bright. Therefore, whilst editing I had to create a separate layer
on top of these clips that had a fast colour effect, brightness and contrast, hue and saturation and
RGB curves. This task was difficult because I got annoyed that the clips did not look similar or that
they were filmed on the same day. I was also annoyed that I did not film a shot of getting the rabbit
out of the cage as it just suddenly appears. Once I had finished editing the film and had exported
it, I finished writing my evaluation. Here I discussed what went wrong with my product as well as
the strengths and weaknesses. One strength was that when filming over the weekend, I managed
to collect my own sound effects to be incorporated into the film such as when we were sat at the
table eating Christmas dinner. For example, in the future I would stick to the shot list so strictly so
that I could incorporate more shots that were crucial to the story and the development. I enjoyed
this task because it allowed me to look closely at the end product and discuss what could be
improved the next time I make a film so that the same mistakes were not made. Overall, I liked
creating my short film; coming up with ideas and creating storyboards was fun but difficult. Even
though the task was not as smooth as I would like and I did experience difficulties along the way, I
still enjoyed it and I am quite happy with my end product.