evaluation

1. EVALUATION
Emily Grace Porter

2. PRODUCTION
PROCESS
EVALUATION

3. After I chose my genre and has a basic storyline I began doing research about my chosen
genre. The first thing I did was make a multiple question questionnaire on the website,
surveymonkey.com. I asked questions that would help me in my process of creating my film,
for example I asked 'In your opinion, which creates the spookiest atmosphere?' And the
answers that I gave as options included, 'audio', 'camera angles', and 'lighting'. The most
popular answer was audio and due to my time limit and popular demand I focused on audio
more than the others. Another question I asked to help my story was whether or not sex
matters. I gave the options of answers as, 'female, 'male', or 'doesn’t make a difference', the
most popular answer was male but only by one vote. I chose to feature a male protagonist
because it was the easiest option as I live alone with one male and I needed to film at night, I
also took the survey into consideration as it did prove the most popular answer.
I also did some secondary research and looked at blockbuster films in my genre including,
'Psycho', 'The Assassination of Jesse James by coward Robert Ford', 'Clownwise'. Each film
included a technique I wanted to feature and used them in a impressive way to convey the
genre and entice the audience. I looked at the montage sequence in psycho also known as
the famous 'shower scene', Alfred Hitchcock used a montage sequence for his more
distinguishing part in this film. A montage is lots of short take edited together to create one
contentious scene from different angles. I chose tis fil because in my questionnaire I asked
"which is more effective in a thriller/horror film?' With the options of answers as, "long takes",
or "short takes". The most popular answer was short takes therefore I chose to feature my film
with predominantly short/quick takes, this decision was also effected by my 60 second time
limit.

4. Once I came up with my story, through the help of mind mapping, mood boards and
research I was able to see in my head how my short film would pan out. Next I had to
take it out of my head and put it onto paper, I did this through a storyboard which I
hand drew. Along side drawing the storyboard I completed a shot list, I did this so
when it came to filming I'd helped myself out in advance because I knew exactly what
shots I needed and from what angles, there was no need for trail and error. I also
completed a structural breakdown, again helping me know exactly what I need to
film.
I had cast my one actor, and wrote a brief cast overview, taking about his appearance
and why I had chose him as my protagonist. Next I filled in location information, I
knew I was going to use my own studio flat for my location, therefore it was very easy
to sort out my location as no permission had to be required. I also knew straight away
the times I'd be able to film that fit both me and my actor, I had between 6/7pm-
10/11pm over the course of two nights, I completed a call sheet so I had it on paper
when and where id be filming. To prevent any misdoings or prevent an injuries on set
whilst filming with me and my cast I completed a risk assessment and gave a copy to
my cast member before we started. I highlighted the areas which the protagonist had
to be careful and aware, for example when boiling the soup there is always a risk of
burning yourself when using hot appliances, so by making my cast member aware of
the risks to him I was able to stop any accident's from occurring.

5. I timed everything in weeks:
Week 1 - Research/ Planning
Week 2 – Planning
Week 3 – Film
Week 4 – Film/ Edit
Week 5 – Edit/ Evaluation
By having this plan I was able to keep on track with my project.
Only one area took longer than needed that was the editing
process because it still is quiet new to me I wanted to take my time
and make sure I was happy with it when I was finished. I would of
liked more time to edit

6. I focused the camera angles to mainly film close ups, I liked the idea of showing
lots of information in quick, close up takes. I also think close up exaggerate
actions and heightens the tension with the narrative.
Other than close ups I chose a panning shot because I thought it would visually
be the best looking for transitioning my protagonist from the living room to the
kitchen in my chosen location, a studio apartment. It was quick and clean, all I did
was place the camera on a packet of papers and moved the corners of the paper
as my protagonist walked round the couch and through to the kitchen area. I also
wanted the panning shot to give the audience an idea of location, the audience
realise the protagonist lives alone in a small studio apartment, and therefore
builds up a character profile, they see he's single, lonely and just going through
his days.
I initially planned (as you can see on my story board) on using Birdseye view
shots for the shots of the soup alone and the ending shot of my protagonist on
the floor. But this couldn’t be done due to equipment and restriction. Above the
soup there was an extractor fan therefore I had to move the camera and the
tripod slightly right and sacrifice my Birdseye view for a slightly off Birdseye view.
With the shot of my protagonist on the floor I put the tripod on the kitchen bench
and placed it as direct as I could above my protagonist on the floor, I was happy
with my shot although I would of liked more of my protagonists body in the shot.

7. I knew I wanted my sounds effects to be very loud, especially the first major
sound effect the alarm, an alarm going off, everyone hates and no one ever
wants to hear it. I wanted the alarms audio to make the audience jump from the
intense suddenness of the almost painful noise. I also recorded the footsteps, the
cupboard opening and shutting, the tin opening and the soup bubbling myself. I
did these separately from the recording so I could place the audio recorder close
to the noise. With the footsteps I had my protagonist start close to me and walk
away and back to me so he appeared as he was walking in the film. And with the
bubbles I just heated another tin of soup and recorded it from start to finish
bubbling, the same thing with both the tin opening and the cupboard I just
recorded the cupboard opening and shutting and opening another tin off camera
with the audio recorder close. I also found this really spooky whisper audio, so
other than sound effects in two different places I feature this whispering noise
because it builds up as it goes along getting louder and more whispers are
featured and it created this whole dark and questionable atmosphere. Online I
found the thud audio and the soup being poured, all then I had to do was fit all
the audio alongside my footage, I chose to keep the whispering audio playing a
little longer than the footage with the title 'BAD SOUP', due to the effectiveness of
the title and noise together with a black background.

8. I liked the idea of having the whole short film as a long montage of quick takes,
mainly close up but not completely. In the montage even though each take is a quick
action, because every action gets its own take every action is seen by the audience
and taken in. The hard part came when I wanted to actually edit all the different
shots together and make it look clean and smooth. After trail and error I managed to
fit shots together allowing a realistic process of going through action of the process
of preparing soup. I originally wanted to feature a push-in when the camera was
placed looking up at the pan and the protagonist over the pan, but I couldn't do it
without the camera wobbling as I wasn’t able to get a proper hold due to the
restriction of the area. Therefore in editing I make the decision to leave the push-in
idea out of my final film rather than feature a wobbling push-in.
Getting the audio to fit the footage in editing wasn't difficult just time consuming as I
had to cut the audio to the parts I needed and fit it in perfect sync to the footage, to
do this I zoomed very closely on my timeline on premier pro and worked put exactly
when each action happened and a few trail and errors got the perfect fit.
At the end of the film I got inspired by the blockbuster hit 'Insidious' when they
feature the title on screen with load intense audio, there fore I did the same with
'BAD SOUP' and featured the whispering audio from the beginning but let it play out
longer as it gets more intense and louder. I also chose to make the writing red due to
the connotations of the colour being dangerous related to blood and horror and well
as being an intense red colour.

9. Making my short film be as realistic as possible was a major part I wanted to be successful at, I wanted it to
be realistic from he eyes of the viewer and that’s why I leave a lot of questions unanswered, because if I was
to answer them in the film the aesthetic level would drop hugely. For example, the soup is one big 'what is
going on moment', the protagonist doesn’t know what's happened and either does the audience and then all
of a sudden he was on the floor and more questions are added to the audience, what happened to him? is he
dead? What was wrong with the soup? What has the soup done to him? By leaving these questions open the
audience can have their own ideas and be tormented by the confusion and I don’t ruin the realism because I
didn't answer any of the major questions. I did this due to the reason of realism itself, I felt any conclusion
would weaken the authenticity value because there was no logic behind the situation so I intentionally left
everything open for the audience and therefore I feel I succeeded in what I intended.
Another moment in which it was really important I made as realistic as possible was when the soup starts to
change dark green and bubble. This moment was the distinguishing moment in my whole short film, this was
when the protagonist gets his first glimpse at things going bad. The audience's only indication before hand at
something bad was going to happen was the slight whispering audio which is played for a few seconds at the
beginning, but the big distinguishing moment for every party is the soup starting to change. I wanted to
somehow make the soup bubbles appear as if the they're what where creating the dark green colour that soon
takes over the whole pan. But to do this proved difficult, it took three attempts before I was happy with the
video. On my third attempt I allowed the soup to pre heat and just before I thought it was going to start to
bubble I tilted the liquid to one side of the pan and poured a small pool of green food colouring into the bottom
of the pan. Next I tilted the liquid back over the food coloring and placed the pan back on to the hob and
pressed record on the camera which was slightly off Birdseye view (I wanted to get the full Birdseye view but
due to extractor fan I was obstructed), a few minutes later a dark green bubbles starting popping at the
surface, and with a few stirs the soup slowly turned dark green in a matter which looked as if the soup was
changing itself rather than anything being added to it.

10. My audience needs to be open minded and excepting new and different ideas.
With my story being simple yet effective with questions that want to be answered.
I've shown it to 3 people and straight away they always asks 'what happened to
him?'. My target audience was 18-25 year old's and know after completion and
getting feedback I think my short film is more appealing to an audience between
16-20 years old, because I didn’t make the film as dark and scary as I wanted to
due to effects and timing problems. But I am very proud of my film and as a 19
year old I enjoy it. The 3 people I showed it to where the ages of: 19, 20 and 22,
therefore fitting within my audience but with the older half wanted more horror and
more scare, but excepted the 60 second time frame with one saying the short
timeframe make the alarm audio more intense and rememberable.

11. PEER
FEEDBAC
K

12.  What did you like about the product?
 Alarm audio was intense and remarkable, also the whispers added to
the suddenness of the alarm.
 Transition from couch to kitchen looked smooth and didn’t take up too
much time.
 The ending leaving questions.
 What improvements could have been made to the product?
 Darker atmosphere (lighting)
 Gloomier protagonist – bags under eyes, pale skin

13.  What did you like about the product?
 Panning shot transition - perfect transition
 The storyline
 The camera angle chosen, looking up at the pan and the protagonist
sniffing the soup
 What improvements could have been made to the product?
 Lighting darker
 Maybe got closer to the soup

14.  What did you like about the product?
 The process of making the soup (quick/ short takes)
 The whispering audio
 The alarm intensity and unexpectedness
 The sniff being what make the guy fall
 What improvements could have been made to the product?
 Better angle of the soup
 Darker environment
 Main actor appear more unappealing because it made me like him
and I felt sorry for him

15.  What do you agree with from your peer feedback?
 The need for a darker atmosphere to be more successful in the thriller
genre
 Panning shot being the best chosen transition from Livingroom to
kitchen
 The alarm being successful
 What do you disagree with from your peer feedback?
 The protagonist needing to look gloomier as I didn’t want the
protagonist to look like he was going to circum a bad fait.

16. I got the reaction I wanted with all the people who watched my
short film. Even though all of them wanted a darker atmosphere
they felt the story was strong and liked the audio being very
effective. What id take from my audience feedback if I was to re-do
to film, I would take more time on the editing and the 'darker
atmosphere'. But I am happy with my results and the response I
got.