1. Emily Davis
Evaluation
I started my pre-production last year we learnt about script writing and commissioning first so that we understood script and how to write
them and what techniques people use. Then we had to start thinking about actually producing our own film so we practiced making some
scenarios up on a film generator where we picked a genre and filled in a few words, then a short synopsis of the film was put together. We
then started our ideas generation, I made mood boards of three different genres I’d like my short film to be about so that I’d have more
than one option when it came to thinking about writing a script. When I decided on my idea of slapstick comedy for my short film I then
made up some character profiles for the type of people I think would go well in my film. This was when I thought of a name for my film and
started to write a proposal and then a treatment which was when my idea grew and I could imagine it more. I picked the style comedy
slapstick because we had to make a silent short film with none or little dialogue so I think this style and idea worked well. Once I had my
idea we started learning how to properly write a script and looking at errors, this helped for when it came to writing my own so that it was
set out properly and that everyone who needed to could read it when it came to the production of the short film. To get us confident about
our idea and properly understanding it we had to talk to pitch our idea to our class and then they did a survey on us about us and our idea
I think this was good because they was our age audience.
We now had to think about our script and again about the production of our short film.I had to think about the budget with my group how
much everything will cost and what exactly we need for the production and pre-production of our short film. We had to sort out the cost of
props, locations, transport, costumes, crew and cast. I made a word document and put everything in their that we would need and showed
why, then I made the budget report or Microsoft excel to show the cost and total of everything that we need to shoot and produce our
short film with. We all worked together but created our own budget reports and supporting documents to show some of the things we
knew we needed. We then needed to assign roles to each other so we were ready when we would be producing our short film. Because
there were only 4 of us we split and shared some of the roles when some of us were of screen or not doing another job. Also because
some of us were willing to be in the film or do something we didn’t need to hire any cast or crew. We worked out the daily cost of hiring
equipment for when we were in production and how much travel and then food would cost when we were there.
To help us understand what producing a film in real life would be like we had to pitch our idea to 3 people to show we understood our own
idea and everything that came with it like cost, cast, crew, work and all the pre-production, production and post-production. I think this
helped us a lot because it helped us review how far we had actually got planning this film and how ready we were to produce it. After the
pitch we changed a lot of things and made them better as a group because we realised how much we hadn’t thought about and
considered when we were at the production stage.
We all started to write a first draft of a script using the practice and techniques we learnt. We all wrote a separate one with different
characters and different story’s, I wrote mine and then we had to do a second draft to make it better then we all read each other’s and had
to pick a final one we all wanted to work on, I think this was good because then for our final draft script we mixed together some parts of
everyone’s scripts to make the overall one the best. We ended up picking my script story and characters and added new parts
together.Once we got our budget and final script done we started to make the script into storyboards so that when it came to filming it
would be easy to work out what each shot was meant to look like. Me and Becky did half and half each and wrote down a description the
shot number scene and what kind of shot it was. This helped us a lot and we took out all the story boards every time we filmed. Now that
we had all the descriptions of the shots on the storyboards we had to match this to a location so we each did a location reconnaissance of
at least two for each scene change so that we could all talk and have a wide range of choices.As a group we now made up a production
log using Excel which was a breakdown of how much time we had up until the year finished and what we was going to be working on each
week, what scenes we were going to be filming when we were going to be starting the editing, adding effects and then music. This was
when I started my personal production log which I have been updating through the whole of production and post-production as a diary of
everyday with dates as I was working on the film, this helps me if I need to remember something because I can just read back through it
and find it straight away. Now we was getting close to production we had to do production schedules, call sheets and risk assessments for
our filming days which we all did as a group so we all knew when everything was happening, we all evidenced this on our own blogs.
Even though our film was silent other groups had some dialogue so we still had to do Task 3 where we recorded three different acoustic
environments to learn how to use the sound equipment. We then had to put these into after effects and change the effects on the same
acoustic recording three times for each of the three we recorded. This was very useful because when I actually came to creating my final
edit with the slapstick music I added I needed to add transitions and a few effects to get the right sound for my film edit and each scene.
As our final part of pre-production we had to again establish all the production roles cast and crew. This took a while because we had to
get people to act in the film and there are three characters so it was hard finding people. I played one and another group member played
the other and then we had to ask someone else. When we got all the job roles sorted we went out filming. I think all my pre-production
shows exactly how I got to my final edit of the short film and it explains the process and the struggles we had getting our final edit. We
changed a lot of things throughout it and even during production and I evidenced this all in my production log and explain why we do.
Sometimes we changed things because they improved the film or just because we couldn’t do what we originally planned.

2. Emily Davis
Next we then started our production part of the film in the new college year in September. As a team we went out and started our filming, I
brought along all the storyboards and the script so that we got everything right and knew what shots to film and using what type of shot.
We filmed in order and every week but sometimes we had to do re shoots if the shot didn’t look right when we looked back. Every time we
finished a shoot we renamed them and put them in our shared documents so that our entire group could import them into their own
premier pro editing projects. Throughout the whole of production we were all editing our own short film edit so we was mixing production
and post production together. We all worked on our own edits when we weren’t out filming. As we filmed in new locations we took pictures
of each of them and pictures of our cameraman filming. I put this into a word document and wrote about why we used this location, which
scene it was for and if it worked well or not. We had to plan days for re shoots because a lot of our early shots weren’t properly in focus or
wasn’t the right contrast. Through the weeks some people didn’t turn up for filming so it was harder to get the last parts done without the
whole group so other people had to take over the roles of director and cameraman. Some days we had to shoot scenes with only some of
the characters because of missing people. When people were missing I just worked on my edit in college and also did some editing
practice with some shots of someone making a cup up tea, this helped me practice making shots look smooth, the length of them and
right when they are joined together.We was nearly at the end of production but because two people from our group left it meant we lost
two characters so we had to cut production short and work with all the footage we had. This was when I created a rough edit and rendered
it exported it out and put it on YouTube, then wrote a summary of what had been done so far what still needed to be done and what things
I was going to change and put it on my blog with my final edit. We ended up not filming the last scene and some of the reshoots. However
I worked with the footage I had and worked out how to make the film still look professional for me and gave it a new ending. Because our
production was cut short I had more time to work on my own short film edit.
This is when I started just working on post-production. I finished my final edit with all the footage we had and rendered it and then
exported it out. This was so I could import it into After Effects and work on making my film black and white and look aged. I added lots of
effects to see which ones looked best, I concentrated mostly on the colour of my film so it looked old to me. Because we didn’t finish all of
production I watched the film through with the effects and didn’t like the way it finished so I changed around some of my clips. I opened up
my original premier pro project and changed all the scenes around I started off with the last scene and went backwards and this looked
better to me and made more sense because the ending didn’t get filmed. In the script there is sections where I have added titles saying
what’s going on in the scene or what a person is thinking or meant to be saying. Because it’s a silent film slapstick comedy used this
technique so I also used this to make my film more like an actual slapstick comedy. I used illustrator and pasted in an original slapstick
comedy title I found online and then I traced around the bits I wanted and added my text, I made all the titles black with white text because
they were going to black and white anyway. I added all the tiles to my edit as I got to the shot they needed to be next to. When I changed
the ending I added two more titles to my edit so that it made more sense. I then rendered my new sequence and put it into after effects
with the effects I added before and then rendered it out so I now had my new short film sequence. I now thought about music. I had
already listened to a lot and researched the style. I went onto YouTube and converted a few that I liked in mp3’s so I could use them for
my short film. I imported my rendered new short film sequence into a new premier pro project so that I could now concentrate on editing
the music to my short film. I used the RealPlayer at home to trim my tracks to how long I wanted them and when I wanted them to stop
and link together. A main skill I learnt is to work with what I’ve got because of some actors and crew missing some days we cut production
short so I changed my film around and made it look as professional and finished as I could.
The way I edited my film looks really good because I made sure I didn’t use the same shot for too long so my film wasn’t just a few long
shots. I cut together clips that showed different angles to give viewers a look at every angle of this situation in some cases. I edited the
clips together first and then I started to add my titles as I got to the scene. I edited these in by using the fade transition sometimes to make
it fade in to the title and then fade out back into the next shot in the film. I sometimes a used transition from shot to shot to show time has
passed in this certain scene. When it came to editing my music together I put all the bits of songs where I wanted them and then used an
audio transition between each music change that faded one song out and then faded the next one in so everything sounded and ran
smoothly. Then when I imported my project into after effects I added an aging look to my film to give it that old style jumpy look. Then I
gave the whole film the comedy slapstick black and white colour.
I used a wide range of editing techniques because I edited the shots together firstly then started to add my titles which on some I faded in
and out. When I added my music I faded them in and out from one to another so it wasn’t just a sharp change and then at the very end I
faded out my music as the film finished so that it didn’t just stop. Then I added my final effects to the whole film in after effects to make my
film black and white and look old, I think this defiantly made my film look more professional.
I used a few transitions just on some shots to start with. Towards the end I have a fade out then fade in to the next shot to show that time
had passed when one character was meant to of gone into a flower shop then come back out with flowers so that we didn’t have to film
him buying them and walking in and out. When I added my titles to certain parts of footage I faded out from the shot to the title and then
faded out to the next shot I did this in the middle to show that it was a little bit later in the day. When I edited my music I used a transition
on each one to link all the music together so it sounded smooth. Then I added a fade out on the end so it didn’t just stop really loud when
my film finished.

3. Emily Davis
When I’d edited my whole film and added the music to it I then imported it into after effects. I used this programme to give my film the
slapstick comedy old black and white look. I used colour correction to change it from colour to a dark black and white. It made my film look
finished and more professional. I used an effect on my final edit in after effects to make my film look aged and jumpy.
In all our shots through the whole film all the characters are wearing the same outfits have the same hair so the characters defiantly kept
continuity in the film. The locations we filmed at all stayed the same and when we did reshoots we filmed in the same place and continuity
was kept through the whole film.
I used RealPlayer and trimmed the tracks I converted from YouTube for my soundtrack. I then emailed them to myself, downloaded them
and then imported them into my premier pro final edit project. I put all the tracks where I wanted them to go then I used the audio effect …
to make the songs link together by fading out of the first one to then fading into the next one. I played around a lot with my music and I
think it all sounds smooth and goes with each scene and mood.
From creating this film I have learned that editing needs to look smooth. You can’t jump from scene to scene I used a lot of transitions to
fade in and out when I changed my scene which I think worked well. You need to make sure a film has continuity so it looks the same
each time even if you film on different days and I think with our film we did this and with my edit I did this to. When we was doing the
production of our film when I wasn’t on the camera I helped with the filming which taught me a lot about how to use it, focus it properly and
set the right contrast for our location. I used After Effects in post-production so I learnt how to add effects and change them so I could get
the right look for my final film. One of the first skills I got from making this film was script writing, I had never wrote a script before or
thought about it. I learnt all the techniques you use and how you write in the characters, dialogue, speech etc. I did lots of drafts of my
script and because my film was completely silent with no dialogue I had a lot of action so had to figure out how to write it in a way that the
director and cameraman could understand when filming.
If I were to film this again first I would make sure cast and crew were more reliable so that we fully get through production. I’d make sure I
started production earlier so that I could have extra time because pre-production can be done quicker and easier because it doesn’t need
lots of equipment and people like for the actual filming. I wouldn’t change the pre-production process because we was ahead of everyone
else working on their films but I would change how much time we wasted not going out filming after we had finished all our pre-production.
I would book cameras earlier and make sure all the group always knew what day we was filming so that we could just get the equipment
and go. I would want to make us do more filming when we were at certain locations and not just finish after doing one scene because this
could of saved going out more than we needed to. When I was writing a script I’d want to make sure I had a scene interior just in case the
weather was bad one filming day then we could film them bits but only if it fitted with the film. I think it I did all of this my final product
would of looked more professional because production would of gone better. However I wouldn’t change the film or script if I were to do it
again because that was the story and our whole group should have been able to work around the film instead of changing scenes and
shots to make it easier.