1. PRODUCTION
MANAGEMENT
EVALUATION
BEN CLAYTON
YOU SHOULD USE THIS TO EVALUATE YOUR FINAL FILM
PROJECT. EACH QUESTION SHOULD BE ANSWERED FULLY, USE
SPECIFIC EXAMPLES FROM YOUR PROJECT WHERE NECESSARY
AND EXPAND ON THE POINTS TO FULLY EXPLAIN AND JUSTIFY
YOUR ANSWERS. YOU MAY ADD ILLUSTRATIONS AND ADD
EXTRA SLIDE WHERE NECESSARY, BUT YOU MUST ANSWER
EACH QUESTION.

2. PRE-PRODUCTION
The pre-production process was the planning and scheduling of the film. We were given documents which were
laid out to have guidance for us to follow to make a structure so that we could all work more independently
since they had information we would need. The first stage was thinking of the film idea which we had a process
of thinking of our own ideas and to make mind maps and anything which we thought of to keep note off. We
then were to go into deeper research into similar films, genre, audience and anything about the idea we had to
further add to it. This allowed me to understand what was needed to make a film like what I wanted and whom
the audience is for those types of films. The planning went very well as it isn’t something which can really go
wrong unless you don’t have the initial idea which I had. The hardest part for the pre-production was creating
the shot list. This was because of having to visualise every single shot within the film whilst thinking about the
location and how it will plan out and work. This made it difficult as I hadn’t been to the location for so long since
before. I ended up making a second shot list which had colour coordinated extra shots which would help fill the
film if shots were not going to work which I had planned and were not specific on location but just specific with
shot angle etc. this allowed me to have a sort of back up for anything which could go wrong with the location
having of slightly changed (path ways etc overgrown since it is within a forest).
My schedule planning went rather well for the main shoot day as I planned as I had made sure I had more then
enough people to come in case anyone bailed as one did but did not make a difference as was not an actor but
a camera man whom I got someone else to take the place. My only issue was that I didn’t schedule enough time
as we thought we had enough overall footage but because some was rushed towards the end meant I had to
schedule a second shoot day which was difficult since i had to alter my other schedules slightly for post-
production.
All the documents such as risk assessment and safety forms etc were easy to complete as over the college
course we have made these for every single task like the short film so I was able to use my pre-existing
knowledge of this and alter it to work with new locations etc.
I could’ve improved my pre-production by spending the time to work on the story of the film to make a stronger
more diverse plot which might sound more difficult but my issue was even though we were working of a shot
list once you start making it (as mine was a running film) it got very repetitive with things looking similar and it
seeming quite boring to watch if so boring to make. This means I would research more depth into films that are
similar and see what gives there edge of being different to the table and try add something similar to mine.

3. PRODUCTION
My production process of filming. This was quite difficult as always I felt much more confident about
my pre-production and planning which ends up not being as good as I expect effecting the overall
production. I had planned to get all my filming done within one day as it is within one location and
made more sense for the story of the film as it is set all in the same day so with weather changing
slightly etc would of changed the film. After the shoot day thinking it was successful found out that
we did not get enough footage to get the whole 3 minutes. This was due to some shots being
unusable due to them not being good enough or not in focus. This created issues as I had to plan
another film day to reshoot some shots which I needed. This meant planning another shoot day which
effected my time schedule. Another thing which created the issue of needing another shoot day was
not sticking to the shot list like I should have and thinking adding or not doing certain shots would be
beneficial when really I should have filmed everything within the shot list and extras if I wanted which
would’ve meant I might have had more than enough footage compared to not enough which is
something I can now implement into the next time of doing something like this.
I do have a lot of things I would’ve liked to improve during production. This would start with thinking
about who to choose as an actor/s who fits the role best as even though I did want the main character
to be smaller than the bad guy but I did not think since a lot of running the unfair pace which made
some of the shots where I catch up to him in the chase and then some how drop back behind in the
next shot not look so good as my actor was just physically unable to run as fast as me (I was the other
actor within the film). Towards the end of shoot day we started to get tired and were beginning to rush
things such as the fight which should have had more shots of different angles but instead decided to
try be quicker and film longer shots of the same shot which was not what I needed. This made some
of the most important scenes of the film the worse. I felt very positive with the first half of the shoot
day as we spent time and made sure we re-watched everything and if something did not come to
standards would re-shoot.

4. POST-PRODUCTION
Adobe Premiere Pro (APP) was the software I used to put together my sequence and do
all the editing I needed for my film. I started by laying out in order the footage so I knew
what I was working with and how long my movie was currently. This was when I realised
straight away that I was going to need to film more. APP had everything I needed to
make my film from all the visuals and all the sound. As I am very used to using APP
from previous projects and within my own time made this the fastest and strongest part
of the overall making of the movie and meant that I had more time then needed planned
for the post-production. This meant that I was able to dedicate some of the spare time to
more filming to complete my sequence after finding out it wasn’t complete by laying out
the footage within APP. I was very disappointed with the audio out come as I was
thinking the natural ambient sound would’ve been picked up more and useable but with
the camera being moved a lot and ran around with meant the wind created issues and
meant I had to use royalty free music and sound instead which I was planning anyway
but not for the throughout the film. As I was able to shoot on my own equipment and not
the standard college kit I was able to use my 10-18mm lens which is really good at
taking in the light and getting nice detailed shots meant it was benefited by the good
weather but sometimes too much with shots being too bright or losing some of the
colour I was wanting. This didn’t matter as I was able to use within APP colour/lighting
corrections that allowed me to get the mood and feel from the shots which I didn’t get
on the day of shooting. Even though it was a challenge working with some of the
footage I had got I still felt that the overall post-production went very well and I was able
to over come any problems or challenges.

5. SCHEDULING
Scheduling itself is very simple and easy to do as I used a very simple
method of tables on power point which meant I could create basic easy to
follow tables for myself and the team to understand. As I was given a start
and end date for the overall creating of the film meant I was able to use just
power point for creating my schedules and no specialist software which may
have been more time consuming and not essential compared to other parts
of production and if you can understand and follow a schedule why make it
complex.
My issue was sticking to the schedule as I had planned my self quite evenly
split time for all parts of the making of the film. This was a mistake as I
should’ve dedicated more time to the actual filming and less to the post-
production as all this meant was going off what my schedule said and
started to create confusion when I was doing things back to front. Such as
reshooting or needing to shoot more.

6. INDIVIDUAL
PERFORMANCE
The roles I played were director, camera man and actor but mostly director and
actor as I only helped with the reshooting parts of the camera work due to not as
many people being able to come to those dates as they weren’t planned on paper.
I believe that I did very well for all 3 parts. I was able to plan everything and get
together a team who liked the idea of what I was wanting to make and be involved
making my director role start well but when it came to shoot day and playing both
actor and director is difficult when you are trying to direct yourself as well as the
camera men and actor which I felt I started to take easy routes and not doing
things properly which I felt would’ve not happened if I had more cast and did not
have to play a role of one of the actors. This is one thing I feel I can learn from
and that is being to cocky, thinking I am able to do everything when in reality the
more people the better and that is fact. When it came to the acting I felt I created a
very strong character by staying focus and within the characters role even when
having to direct others and help with camera shots which didn’t have me in them.
I felt when it came to me reshooting shots and me being a cameraman for them
that I pulled them off very well and that’s due to the whole film being envisioned
by me and how I want it to look when your using the tool to create what it looks
like is way easier when someone is trying to do what you want them to do.

7. TEAM PERFORMANCE
My team was meant to be myself, Jamie, Matt, and Charles. Making a team of
4 but for shoot 1 which was the main shoot only had 3 of us as Charles
could not make it due to some personal issues. This was annoying as it
meant I had to get Matt do the majority of the camera work with little help
from myself and Jamie. I found we acted well myself and Jamie for the
majority but when it got to the fight with sticks it was hard to keep focus and
take it serious making it take long due to re-filming lots of times and it was
also very tiring for the majority as it was mostly shots of running which also
didn’t help with having to fight after hours of running on a hot sunny day.
The camera man Matt did very well and managed to keep up with running
shots and holding the camera all day whilst changing between different
tripods etc, I must say would get the man of the match for team effort. As we
were all mates we did enjoy the day and it was an experience as well as the
hole filming (a good day out) this made it good for us but did effect the
overall production slightly as we were very relaxed not rushing, which may
help with quality in some ways but also effect how much work we could
have got done.

8. TROUBLESHOOTING
I found a major issue being lack of camera equipment which might seemed
strange due to I used my own camera equipment for the most I was hoping to be
able to book out a Steadicam and a slider which would have helped me get a more
stable overall film as it was all free hand apart from still shots which meant we
had to make do with this creating a style for the hole film to feature like this with
fast manual swiping the camera transitions etc which did go with the hole running
but for the shots being followed etc a camera man running with a fairly light small
camera makes it very shaky, losing the quality of some shots if they had the help
of a Steadicam.
I also found it hard to stick to the shot list due to change of environment from
when I last visited my location of filming which was late winter so wasn’t too
grown within the forest with more paths. Due to filming mid summer the forest
was very over grown making some shots where I planned to film unable making
the shot list more difficult to use. I did do a good job of using different areas and
changing some of the shots to make it fit still and almost get enough footage with
only needing to do a little amount of reshooting and extra shooting.
My contingency planned in a way of having a list to prepare and make sure I had
everything I needed with spares of everything (batteries, SD cards). As I was not
bringing the mask for my character I also remembered to ring the actor making
sure he was still able to bring it which I would have forgotten personally as I was
only thinking about what I needed to bring.

9. RESOURCES
The only issue I found within the costume was getting a mask for shoot 2 as
the second actor for that day did not need to be there which meant that we
had to used a black t-shirt and thigh it around my face which we managed to
pull of due to the shot being in the dark making it unable to tell on camera
that it isn’t the same mask we used for the rest of the film.
I also had planned to have a diverse use of shots through out my film to get
the boring repetitive running after running shots so I thought my
implementing interesting shots with changes would try take away the
repetitiveness which we were only able to do by using 2 different camera
lenses and tripods of my own as the equipment within college was being
used for other peoples film during when I got a schedule done for filming
where all my cast was free.

10. PRODUCTION
TECHNIQUES
The main new skills I developed during the making of the film was acting as I
had never been acting in front of a camera before. I may have made some
YouTube content talking to a camera and had played in small shows as a kid
which you would think would help for this. Well it is a different scenario
when you are pretending something isn’t there (the camera) it makes it hard
to act and not look at the camera or think about it, as this is not what I was
used to whilst acting the audience is live and can not be redone when its
done so its in the moment but due to having people tell you what you need
to do also being myself as I was also the director. I felt I did well within the
acting and did make this easier to myself when planning as I new I would
find difficulty finding actors so I knew I would be acting and by choosing a
zero dialogue movie made it easier as that is one of the hardest things about
acting.

11. MONITORING AND
REVIEW
This was a challenge for me due to the amount of work it took but I have
managed to keep my schedule just with some slight changes on the way but
still keeping to due dates and making sure that I edited the schedule when
things were complete by either erasing them or highlighting in colour done
so that it is clear what I need to be working on. I also made sure if there were
work I could not get done in time with the college schedule, I broke into my
private schedule outside of college and put in the extra time on things such
as editing since I also have access to the same software as college but also
slightly more productive due to my computer being slightly faster which
made editing especially beneficial to due whilst being at home.

12. EARLY VERSIONS OF
YOUR FILM
After completing the first draft of the film which was a very raw basic draft of
just being the shots in order with no sound added or colour corrections etc.
I wanted feedback from peers on what I can work on or change to make a
better film. After getting feedback I did soon agree and see what they were
on how the differences would actually make a better movie. Even though at
first you can take it the wrong way as I did since it was my film I did
understand that it isn’t being harsh or anything just necessary for me to do
better. I decided that the ending was very blunt and happened to quickly
which was due to the rushed fight of the ending but also not a very clear
ending which I was told by friends and peers.
I decided to change the ending but not by changing anything which had
already been filmed, I kept all that. But adding more to the end and
enhancing it so that my film would reach the length it needed to and gave a
more clear ending and more understand of what the overall film is about.

13. FINAL FILM
The film has definitely come out differently from what I was expecting to
get from it. This was majorly due to last minute filming to extend my
duration of the film by adding a further extension to the ending which
did actually help give a stronger better ending too. My film was also
effected due to changed in the original planning such as camera
equipment and the amount of people who made it to the shooting days
but did still manage to complete a film with a start middle and end. I felt
that the acting was very strong and well done for 2/3s of the film but
towards the fight section I felt it dropped but managed to pull it off by
adding an ending which introduced extra characters who were also very
good actors. I felt my weaknesses was the lack of time during the
shooting with not putting enough time into some shots and spending
the time to make sure the shots were perfect before moving on which
did have effect on the overall look of the movie with some looking very
well shot being very positive but some being let downs. I felt my overall
idea was creative and good fun due to this being a basic idea of a
typical running film to be done by students in the passed but
implemented with other typical ideas such as dreams and inceptions
and creates a not very typical film giving it its own unique touch.