1. PRODUCTION
MANAGEMENT
EVALUATION
BENEDICT TERRY
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
Broadly explain your pre-production process. What went well, what could be
improved? How did you organise and plan your film.
The first piece of work I did for this project was mapping out the route of the virtual
sets. I imagined what I wanted to see and sketched the layout of the sets on
paper. I decided for the film to take influence from Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”
by using a deliberately disorientating and impossible layout. This is exemplified by
the presence of infinite corridors that do not appear to overlap but the layout would
result in overlapping in real life. I also tracked the direction of my live-action actor
and the virus in the computer.
With the set established and actions tracked, I created a storyboard which
established which shots I wanted. I then wrote the shots down onto a shot list to
work out exactly how many shots I wanted and for how long I wanted each one to
last.

3. PRODUCTION
Broadly explain your production process. What went well, what could be
improved? How did your filming go?
Live-action footage was all filmed at York College. When the college is featured in
shot, it acts at the headquarters for “Oxford Inquisita”, a company bend on world
domination. The exterior features at the beginning and at the end while classroom
2F065 acts as a computer lab. Scenes inside the computer were filmed in 2F067,
the green screen studio. This made applying my live-action subject much easier
than masking, though some shots did require masking due to stretching beyond
the limits of the green screen.

4. POST-PRODUCTION
Broadly explain your post-production process. What went well, what could
be improved? How did you edit and produce your final piece?
Because of my heavy reliance on special effects, my post-production process was
significantly longer than normal. Some of these were straight forward and could
easily be applied in Premiere provided I rendered what I had made regularly.
These effects included Chroma keying, cropping, rotation and motion. The more
advanced ones were produced in After Effects. This was especially the case when
something had to be masked out of shot.
Sometimes during the After Effects work, progress was significantly reduced due
to the virtual sets being rendered in a heavy “.avi” format. To get around this, I re-
rendered the sets for the climax in “.mp4”. While this reduced the resolution, it did
make the virtual sets much easier to work with.

5. SCHEDULING
How did you plan the different parts of your production? Did you use any
specialist software or techniques? What problems did you have?
This was an area I fell in. I had only arranged around the pre-planned dates
organised by my tutors with little regard to change or unexpected interruptions,
delays or slip-ups. This was further impacted by my selective memory, where I
often got significantly side-tracked by other activities.
In future, I hope to remember to create schedules for my work so I know what I am
required to do and I can achieve within a certain span of time. This will, ideally,
counteract my selective memory and help me understand the importance of
scheduling.

6. INDIVIDUAL
PERFORMANCE
Assess your performance in your chosen roles. What did you do? How do
you think performed in this role? Can you think of any areas where you
could have improved your performance?
My personal reflection on my roles, both main and side, in the production were
mixed to a degree. Being a perfectionist, I dedicated a considerable amount of
time making the visual effects look presentable, which I achieved most of the time.
But I also feel the visual effects could have been improved in places if I had the
time. I also feel my acting in shot could have been better and I should have ideally
started the overall production earlier than I did to give me more time.

7. TEAM PERFORMANCE
Assess how your team performed, did you have any problems? Did they
undertake their roles effectively? Could you have improved performance?
How?
I would personally say performance in roles from my peers was good. Arran
effectively acted in the way I directed him. He also proved useful when both me
and Shahzaib could not operate the camera. Shahzaib also proved useful in the
time he was available.
There were some issues, though. With Shahzaib unavailable for the second office
filming session, both Arran and I sometimes had to leave the camera rolling
without supervision.

8. TROUBLESHOOTING
Think about the problems you had in your production [consider technical,
logistical, organisational and personnel related issues]. How did you resolve
them? Did your contingency plan work? How could you have improved this?
Considering the complexity of my production, there were bound to be issues, but
while I was rarely prepared for them I did find solutions for the majority of them:
- Sometimes the green screen shoots extended onto the carpet due to the
limited length of the green screen. I masked the carpet out of shot and make
sure the mask fitted around Arran as he acted. While this took longer than
simply adding another green screen, it still got the job done.
- Towards the end of production, the weight of the CGI backgrounds proved to
be an issue. However, I immediately re-rendered them from .avi to .mp4 format
which were easier to work with.

9. RESOURCES
You may have mentioned your acquisition and usage of resources in your broad
overviews above, however, are there any specific issues you encountered [getting
equipment, props, costumes, etc] that can discuss?
At my disposal were different forms of software. The main example was Autodesk 3DS
Max, a CGI animation software from which I could develop the virtual sets. I also had
Adobe Photoshop, After Effects and Premiere to help me develop graphics and visual
effects, as well as piece the raw footage together. I should also consider the obvious
case of hardware, which includes several different examples of computer suites, all of
which containing different examples of monitors, keyboards, mice and even switching
between Windows and Apple.
I also required equipment for filming and placing my live-action actor into a virtual
environment. This equipment included a camera with batteries and SD card and a tripod
to keep a steady shot. I also had a shoulder rig, but I only had it rented for one shot. To
easily place my live-action subject into the virtual set, I rented out a green screen studio
within college. Since the majority of shot in my film required the green screen studio I
did overrun my rent time on the last initial day of filming, but I did manage to complete it.

10. PRODUCTION
TECHNIQUES
Did you have to learn or develop new skills are part of your production? How
did this change or influence your choice of production techniques? Of the
techniques used which did you rate as the most successful and why? Which
techniques were not as you had expected? Why?
My student film relied very heavily on special effects. As a result, I did learn new
skills as well as new issues during the production process. Obviously, there was a
green screen used in the film to varying degrees of quality. In After Effects I had
the option of Keylight, which removed the screen but kept the shadows, making
my live-action subject appear in the set. In Premiere the option is not available, so
there is no shadow. Using colour key in Premiere also made the editing file very
heavy and difficult to render and export in large chunks. There were also
inconsistencies in size with my live-action subject in proportion to the CGI footage.
Sometimes the green screen did not extend far enough out for a shot, so I had to
use masking to remove the carpet that showed in shot while keeping my live-
action subject intact. In future I may request an extended green screen if I do any
floor shots.
In some masks I also added a noise grain on my live-action subject to show
infection alongside dismemberment when the virus attacks.

11. MONITORING AND
REVIEW
How did you monitor and review the progress of your project? Essentially,
how did you track the project to keep it on deadline?
This was another area I greatly struggled with as I currently have issues with time
management. I had little care about contingency and just expected everything to
run according to plan, which obviously it did not. I did not even create a timetable
to say when and for how long to spend on a specific portion of the film. Instead, I
went in hoping for only the best with little preparation or experience, so the final
result did have several issues.

12. EARLY VERSIONS OF
YOUR FILM
Explain the process that you went through in order to complete your final
film. This should consider your choice of interim screenings and what
feedback you received, how you used this feedback and whether it affected
your final film.
I first rendered the virtual sets in a primitive state of multi-coloured walls. Camera
angles were dictated by the storyboard as opposed to live-action positioning.
While the final result had notable differences, it did allow a first-hand view into how
the film would look.
The first draft I offered to my tutor, while it showed the footage, lacked any
soundtrack or sound effects. I showed my tutor that I was aware of this and I was
to add it in later drafts/the final draft, though I asked about other possible
improvements.
The second draft I also offered my tutor two days before the final version was
given. There were significant improvements, notably the presence of a soundtrack
and sound design to enhance the viewing experience. There was also the addition
of opening titles and closing credits. There were still imperfections that needed
sorting, such as in the sound design, where there were still places that needed
improvement or could be added to improve the quality. I also felt there could be

13. FINAL FILM
Assess your final film in the following areas; technical qualities, creative qualities and whether it fit your
plan. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each area and suggest how you could improve it
further…
Technical qualities
I tried to ensure what I produced played to my advantages. This happened to be in digital effects and motion
graphics. While it was suited to my talents, there were still areas that I could have done better on. I should have
ideally started my production earlier than I did to save me more from stress, though I did have a quality product
by the end of the two months. Alternatively, I could have considered another theme that did not rely so heavily
on special effects.
The visual special effects I used were Chroma key CGI, and motion graphics. Keying was most ideal for
implementing my live-action actor into the CGI virtual sets. With some editing, the actor is placed effectively
inside the digital computer sets. However, sometimes the green screen did not extend far enough out for keying
alone to work, especially on floor shots. As a result, complex masking had to be used to remove the carpet.
The CGI itself was constructed using Autodesk 3DS Max. Starting off as simple blocks, the sets were then
textured and illuminated. The same goes for the virus, though it contained more surface manipulation than the
sets. Admittedly, though, it is with the virus that shows that I am still currently an amateur at 3D CGI animation,
as I used a hierarchy on basic polygonal shapes.
The film also contains some examples of my own motion graphics. This is most prevalent in the opening titles,
where a static/distortion effect introduces each different portion over an ominous synth-driven backing track.
This is followed by the title that traces in followed by an illuminated grid behind it. Results are varied. Many of
the motion graphics are of a high quality. However the transition from the opening titles to the opening shot was
rushed and is easy to see due to outstanding low quality compared to everything else.
I also directed the sound design of the film. I decided that, due to the theme of entering a computer, that the
majority of the sound effects and the soundtrack would be electronic. I created all of the music myself in
GarageBand on a MIDI keyboard. While I did include some of my own sound effects in the film, most of them
were imported from freesound.org. Some of these were edited in Premiere to more match what they were
portraying. In general, my sound design is generally very good in my opinion. However, I could have planned
my soundtrack beforehand, which would have improved the quality, though the experimental nature of the music
suits the environment effectively.

14. FINAL FILM
Assess your final film in the following areas; technical qualities, creative qualities and whether it fit
your plan. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each area and suggest how you could improve
it further…
Creative qualities
My student film stands out significantly from other student films. For starters, there is the sheer amount of
special effects used in proportion to scenes that do not use them. But there is also the presence of 3D CGI
for use as sets. While others use image backdrops, the 3D CGI backdrop gives a more distinctive
appearance in comparison to my peers. It also heightens technical quality by having my live-action actor
interact with the environment in which he has been placed. It is, however, easy to tell that the person who
made this is still learning how to handle digital graphics, as there are notable issues with layering. In future, I
would make sure that I start production before within two months of the deadline.
Fit original plan
I had intended to tell a story of a man getting trapped in a computer created by CGI animation software. I
expanded on this to relate to current events, this being the Cambridge Analytica data swiping scandal. I
decided that the man would be one of their workers getting sucked into a computer and ends up changing
his moral alignment.
As my original intention was, I was able to include CGI in my student film to show what I was capable of. The
shape of my virus looked better than my initial concept art and my sets followed my concept of binary code
walls and several different sets to create a deliberately disorientating experience. Some details were not as
advanced as I had originally imagined, though, such as the illusion of infinity, as the continuous walls meant
the binary on the floors was different, which completely broke continuity.
Green screen was also effective in its use in my project. It made the job of applying my live-action actor to
the CGI environment a lot easier. However, there were several issues with this method. The screen was not
completely linear, so I had to use multiple colour keys before I was told about Keylight in AfterEffects. This
also leads into shadow inconsistencies. Because Premiere does not have Keylight and I did not have time to
apply After Effects, shadows constantly switch between existing and not existing. I also had several size
inconsistencies with my live-action actor in the CGI environment. This being constantly changing size inside
the CGI environment. Given enough time, I would set a specific size and stay with it by adjusting the camera
in the CGI software to better suit sizes.