My final evaluation for FMP

1. Evaluation
Rhys Sadler-Scott

2. Production Process Evaluation

3. Research
I think the main strength of my research was the amount of products I researched, each of
which held a different relevance to the final project I was planning, be it the
cinematography, tone, soundtrack, etc. I made sure to research an individual product for
each of these things, in order to create a very varied knowledge base and inspiration on
other documentary tropes and products. It was this new, in-depth knowledge that, I think,
let me complete the product as well as I did. Particularly, the soundtrack and
cinematography turned out much better than I think they would have otherwise and my
research into the trailer’s of several famous documentaries, like Blue Planet and Educating
Essex, allowed me to create a solid trailer for my own project, one that delivers the
optimistic, somewhat quirky tone of the documentary without giving away too many of the
details.
My poster was not quite as well researched, but had some strong work put towards it
nonetheless. My main inspiration for it was the poster for the lesser-know documentary:
School Life, which, like my own documentary, focuses on the lives of the staff and students
at a boarding school. The technique they had used of not showing the individuals in the
poster’s faces, while showing a snippet of the building they were studying in, created a
good amount of mystique and interest in the product. I attempted to replicate this with the
images in my own poster, with a twist of giving it a polaroid; School noticeboard feel, in
order to try and invoke the nostalgia of School days. I feel this was fairly successful, though
my poster is probably the weakest of my three main products.

4. Research
My audience survey was particularly useful as a good amount of people answered it
diligently in a manner that allowed me to use the audience research to influence my
product. For example, I learned that my film had a very wide age bracket, with people from
ages 16 to 50 showing interest in my product. This meant that I could attract a huge
demographic with the unique content of my Documentary. Most of them also admitted to
enjoying watching documentaries in their spare time, as well as a good portion saying they
would watch a documentary that focuses on the inner workings of autism. So right from the
beginning there was some strong interest in my product from men and women of a large
age gap. However, a slight majority of women showed more interest than men. Probably
due to the psychological exploration of autism involved in the product, which Women tend
to prefer more than men. As my research shows. There was a clear preference in the results
for documentaries of a longer length, which is why I chose to make mine ten minutes
instead of the more common two or five minute runtime. It also showed that my audience
preferred informative documentaries that showed the lives of the people it was focusing
on. Which heavily influenced the tone I chose for my documentary.

5. Research
I think the main weakness of my research was my lack of focus when researching my poster,
which led to the final poster not being up to the same standard as the other products I produced.
Though I did manage to get some very solid photography. And a nice polaroid feel to the whole
thing, I do feel that it could have been improved with more time, and research. The reason it’s
not as strong as it could have been is, in my belief, because I didn’t decide until fairly late in my
initial planning that I would do a poster for the documentary. And because the production on my
trailer and early documentary was taking up too much of my time to properly produce the poster,
which, in my opinion, led to a quality drop in comparison to my trailer and final documentary,
which were both worked on for much longer and fine tuned many more times than my poster.
This is understandable, as film projects are much more difficult and require more reworking than
print projects, but I still feel the poster could have used more work. I also regret that I was unable
to secure a second interview with a student or more footage of the kids learning in their
classrooms like I would have wanted. Though I am happy with the final product, I think the
building can often feel empty. This is mostly because of the fact that I was unable to acquire
permission from the school to film the classes until late into production. And my window for
filming was much smaller than I had anticipated. However, I am still happy with the final product,
as I think it still captures the school noticeboard feeling I was going for. But more research into
documentary posters could have made it even stronger.
I could also have planned the individual shots that would have been included in my documentary
better, as while I gave a general layout for the content of the main scenes that would be shot. I
did not give a very specific plan for what the filler shots and classroom shots would entail, which
led to the filming process being much more drawn out than I had originally hoped as I had to plan
the Documentary as I was making it, in order to ensure all of the scenes fit together nicely.
Overall though, this didn’t impact the quality of the scenes too heavily.

7. Planning
The strength of my planning is that it was very through. I was careful to consider
every aspect of my documentary and the techniques that are most commonly
used when looking at school documentaries, as well as the genre in general. This
wide variety of sources for what a successful documentary often looks like, has
heavily shaped the tone and style of narration and shots I employed in the final
shoot. For example, the format and angle of the individual interviews that feature
in the final film. All of which are done in the same style, i.e. an eye level camera
focusing on both them and the presenter in order to see both sides of the
conversation as it takes place, something that is very common in current
documentaries. The largest strength in my planning is that from the beginning, I
knew exactly what I wanted to do, what sort of documentary I wanted to make
and how long it was going to be. So I was able to base all of my planning around
these facts. This ensured that I did not have any unnecessary sources,
experiments, scripts, or shots and that in one way or another every piece of work
I filmed made it into one of my final pieces, thanks to this thorough planning. I
also had the good fortune of being able to secure the rights to my licensed
soundtrack early on via communication with the artist on Facebook, and knowing
what music would be involved in the scenes really helped me to film them after
the fact.

8. Planning

9. Planning
• I had also planned early on the cinematography of the film; static
shots from many different angles showing the presenter walking or
talking to his interviewees or exploring the building, as well as
several, sometimes specially lit panning scenes establishing specific
parts of Breckenbrough to make the documentary into a cohesive
whole. My style sheets and production experiments all had an
influence on my final product. Sometimes minor, but all are present
in some way, shape or form. For example, my attempt at music
mixing allowed me to better understand how to score and edit the
music for the soundtrack of the documentary and my ghost survivor
interview allowed me to best understand what works and what
doesn’t when filming an interview, which was a very major part of
my final documentary and therefore a very crucial experiment to
the success of the the documentary. This is why overall, I consider
my planning to be a success.

11. Planning
I think that since my planning was one of the stronger aspects of the project for me,
there aren’t too many weaknesses to it, at least not in terms of how the documentary
was impacted. That being said, I think the script could have had a few rewrites to
account for the longer than expected shooting time as it was difficult to follow such a
rigorous script when the opportunities to film any given scene were surprisingly
scarce. I also think that more planning could have gone into the layout of the poster,
since no second attempts were made after the first mock-up of the layout, which
resulted in the finished product only marginally resembling the original planned
layout. This, luckily, wasn’t the case with my final documentary, which closely
resembles my original plans in both tone and cinematography.

12. Time Management
I think my time management went very well, all things considered. Though the final
project didn’t follow my schedule as closely as I would have liked, I was still able to
complete all the tasks outlined on it in the time given, just in a different order than I
had planned. This was mostly due to my shooting opportunities being more scarce
than I had envisioned and because it took longer than I had expected to obtain
permission from the headmaster of Breckenbrough School to film the students during
their lessons. During the times I had originally planned to perform this shooting on the
schedule, I instead spent the time working on my poster or sharpening and refining
the footage I had already shot. This way, I was able to ensure that I was always busy
with something and therefore didn’t neglect any aspect of my production. I think it
would be difficult to improve my products with additional time, as due to the long
gaps in shooting, I was able to refine them to a much better point than I might have
otherwise. So in a way, my schedule being disrupted was beneficial to my final
products.

13. Time
Management

14. Time Management
If I had been able to devote more time to this project. I think that most of that
time would have gone towards refining and improving my poster design.
Which as previously mentioned, didn’t quite meet the standards of my other
other products in my opinion. Though it is still perfectly serviceable and works
for promoting my film, I think it could have used more detail and, most
importantly, time dedicated to it. I also would have like to produce more than
one poster for the film as I think it’s difficult to sum up the documentary in
just one poster, so it might have been good to make one or two more. Finally,
I would have liked to have been able to include more footage of the students
at Breckenbrough learning in their classrooms or playing outside. But time
constraints and small windows to film prevented me from getting quite as
much footage as I would have wanted. This wasn’t a huge detriment to the
film proper, but I think there are moments that the film and the building feel
quite empty that could have been prevented with more time. Overall though,
the project was completed well on time and I am still happy with the three
finished products that I was able to submit.

15. Technical Qualities
(Poster)
The positioning of the
people in the posters is
very similar, both do
not look at the camera
and are focused on the
building ahead of
them.
Both posters feature
the title of the
documentary, and
quotes from the film
as the only words on
the poster. This is
done to make the
subject matter more
mysterious and
intriguing for the
viewer.
For the comparison between the posters, I have chosen the poster for the similarly
themed documentary “School Life.”
Each poster features the release date of
the documentary at the bottom of the
page. Meaning it will likely be the last thing
the viewing audience will see, after they
have studied the rest of the poster.
Each poster has a heavy
focus on darker hued
colours. Primarily
browns and greens. This
was done to give the
environment in the
posters a warm, homey
feel and helps to set the
light tone of each
documentary.
Each poster has made
use of contrasting
colours to draw focus to
something specific, the
Breckenbrough poster
uses red on a white
background to draw
focus to the
photographs, the School
life uses blue clothing
against a green wall to
draw focus to the
people. Each of these
techniques helps the
viewer understand what
the documentary is
about.
Both posters feature a light
source coming from off the
side of the poster,
throwing the colours and
people into sharper relief.
The style of the posters is very different in that the School Life poster
has been made to look like a screenshot from the film, whereas the
Breckenbrough poster is styed to look like a school noticeboard with
none of the shots featured on it actually appearing in the finished
product.

16. Technical qualities
(Trailer)
https://youtu.be/1nlyl1Y7ZqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmU0jEHq0m0

17. Technical qualities (Trailer)
There are a surprising amount of similarities between the trailer to my documentary
and the trailer to the mockumentary series “Cunk on Britain.” Firstly, each uses a
grand, uplifting soundtrack to give the trailer and the product by extension, a feeling
of gravity and importance. This does very well to hype up the films without relying on
action packed shots. They also feature usage of voiceovers to give an idea of what the
documentary will be about, however, there is a difference here in that; in Cunk on
Britain. The presenter provides all the voiceover narration. Whereas in my trailer, the
interviewees provide most of the voiceover, in order to show what the tone of the
documentary will be. The two trailers are most similar in their 3 part structure,
interviews, presentation and narration. The presenter is shown talking to people
relevant to their chosen subject, and talking to the audience about it, as well as
narrating in order to give some information on whatever location they might be in.
this is a structure both trailers demonstrate in order to show the structure of the
respective documentaries. The main difference between the trailers is that my trailer
is quite serious and lighthearted in tone, with the reflexive style of the documentary
clear from the start, whereas Cunk on Britain is very obviously a Mockumentary, albeit
a very well shot and styled one, so that it is difficult to tell without paying close
attention.

18. Technical qualities (Final Film)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7zxvct7nNE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_WzVVndUCY

19. Technical qualities (Final Film)
There are a good amount of similarities between my final documentary and the 2012
short documentary “A place like this.” Which features an old man coming to terms
with his past and his mortality in the comfort of his well maintained garden. The way
the interview of the documentary; static camera at eye level with the interviewee, is
shot, bears a huge resemblance to the interviews in my own final film. A place like this
is also intercut with footage of the garden and the old man’s surroundings, much like
how my own work is cut up with footage of the building and students in their lessons.
Another similarity is the soundtrack, which subtly changes depending on the scene or
subject matter of the interview similar to how In Breckenbrough :ASLTL, a different
indie track is played for every interviewee, each song holding meaning to the tone of
the interview. There is a minor similarity in the credits, which use a white font over a
green, garden like background. The main difference between the two documentaries
is subject matter, A place like this focuses on history and the life of one individual,
while A strange life to live, focuses on current matters and the lives of many different
individuals. Another major difference is length. A strange life to live is almost twice as
long as a place like this, which gives it much more time to get across the message it is
trying to deliver and, on the flip side, makes it harder to keep the documentary
interesting and engaging all the way through.

20. Aesthetic Qualities (Poster)
I think overall the poster turned out to be visually pleasing. With a “School
noticeboard” aesthetic, that fits the subject of the documentary well and lends itself
nicely to the several poster grade photos I had taken. The font is the same type that is
used throughout the documentary and the trailer, linking the three together nicely,
and the large sketched out letters are reminiscent of a child’s drawing, further
enforcing the school days effect. I used the red drawing pins on a white polaroid
background to try and draw focus to the right areas, that being the pictures inside the
polaroid's. I think this effect works nicely to break up the poster. I added a light source
coming from the right side of the picture to put the colours into sharper relief, I think
this technique worked nicely to give the poster some depth. I included snippets of
dialogue from the documentary and trailer on the bottom of the polaroid's, in order to
give it another connection to its source material and to give a stronger indication as to
what the film will be about. Though if I were to make a change, I might have included a
tagline that confirmed the poster was about a documentary. Since as it stands, it’s
difficult to tell what the poster is actually advertising. I might also have taken the time
to find a better background for the wall. As the wood paneling does not blend with the
rest of the poster as well as it could, in my opinion.

21. Aesthetic
Qualities (Poster)

22. Aesthetic qualities (Trailer)
I think the strongest aspect of my trailer aesthetically is the soundtrack. Koethe’s upbeat
“Have to” is a perfect match for the quirky, lighthearted, oft inspirational tone of my
documentary. I’m very pleased I was able to obtain the rights to his music for my
project. The quality of the shots and audio I got was usually very good, sometimes even
exceptional, but there were several issues with both focus and hiss in the audio that I
was unable to iron out in the finished work. The fast editing style I employed blends
together very nicely with the fast paced soundtrack and, I think, gives the trailer a
feeling of excitement and also helps to hype up the audience to see the finished
product. There were several shots when each individual that features in the
documentary is shown in quick succession. I think this works well to give the
documentary the impression that it’s an ensemble piece, with several people taking
part. I’ve also left the actual theme of autism out of the trailer, in order to build the
mystique of what the focus of the documentary will be and build the excitement of the
audience to see the finished film. Though I think some of the shots linger a little bit too
long, like the shot of the presenter looking at the head near the end, or some of the
extended drone shots. Though this doesn't’t mitigate the overall pacing of the trailer.
There were also a few moments where the cuts I hade made in order to make the
soundtrack trailer length were audible. This is not a glaring issue however, as the cuts
are still masked by editing and dialogue, so that most have to be listening out for them
to hear them.

23. Aesthetic qualities
(Trailer)
https://youtu.be/1nlyl1Y7ZqA

24. Aesthetic qualities (Documentary)
Visually, the final documentary looked its best when shooting outside, as I had the good fortune of shooting on
very bright, colourful summer days. This is especially evident in the drone footage and my interview with Elly
Frith, where several bright flora and fauna were visible and the scenes were all saturated with rich, homey
colours. This improved the overall cinematography in my opinion, as it allowed each and every scene shot
outside or near a natural light source to be saturated in sunlight and therefore give the documentary a much
more positive feeling. The drone footage itself was shot on a very visually pleasing day, with little to no wind,
so the conditions were absolutely ideal. The footage turned out very smooth and the deep browns and bright
greens of the building and its grounds made for a very appealing colour scheme, which remains throughout the
documentary. There are occasional cuts in the documentary itself to an older film, produced seven years ago.
Focusing on some of the old students of the school who had returned to describe their life and experiences at
the building. I included this footage to give more exposition on the life of the students, as well as to provide a
contrast between the better quality footage of my own film. I think this technique worked well, to give the film
a feeling of nostalgia and reminiscence of School days, a theme that is heavily present in the documentary,
besides autism itself. Most of the shots in the building are well lit, however, there was an iso issue with my
camera halfway through production. This had a notable effect on some of my footage. Which was quite a bit
darker and less focused than other scenes shot within the building. Unfortunately, my tight schedule did not
allow for reshoots of these scenes and they remain (Edited to make them more consistent) in the final product.
There is also the occasional issue with hissing audio that I was not able to remove completely, but these issues
rarely become too noticeable and don’t detract heavily from the quality of the audio, which is usually very
smooth and easy to understand what is being said.

25. Aesthetic qualities (Documentary)
• “FunSized;” The font that was consistently present throughout both the trailer and the poster is
used heavily in this product as well, in the main titles, the quote in the beginning, the names of the
interviewees and the credits. This font has, in a way, become the trademark of this project. It’s
large, childish, but still effective style being perfect for a documentary about a special school. The
indie soundtrack, Scored by Koethe, was perfect for the contemplative, inspiration tone I was
attempting to capture for the film. However, I neglected to put his name in the credits. This was
mostly due to timing, as well as forgetfulness on my part, and I hope to be able to correct it in
future. I would also have liked to have obtained more footage of the children and lessons at
Breckenbrough. But as previously mentioned, a tight schedule and permission difficulties prevented
me from doing so, which can occasionally make the documentary feel empty in my opinion, which
can affect the tone at times, as the school is supposed to be full of students Overall though, I think
the final film is very aesthetically pleasing, with well lit, visually appealing shots and a different look
on autism and disability than is common in most mainstream media.

26. Aesthetic qualities
(Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7zxvct7nNE

27. Audience Appeal
As I discovered from my questionnaire on SurveyMonkey; there was a very wide and
broad demographic for interest in my Documentary focusing on the school life od
autistic adolescents. My age range was particularly wide, interest spanned from ages
16-50 in a survey of 26 people. The large majority of these people described their ideal
documentary as ‘well researched’ and something that gives information about an
obscure group of society. I was very careful to research Breckenbrough School and its
ethos carefully, as well as other documentaries by veterans such as Bettany Hughes
and David Attenborough. So this aspect of the audience appeal has been well met, in
my opinion. As well as giving information about the school life of high functioning
autistic children, which can be obscure due to modern media’s indication towards
focusing on lower functioning autism in other similar programs. Building on this; 75%
of people who took my survey expressed a desire to watch a documentary in their
recreational time, showing there is a demand for this type of product from my
audience. Two thirds of my surveyors were female, showing that there was a greater
interest from women in my product. This was most likely due to women generally
preferring more psychological television than men. I.e a film that explores the inner
workings of autism, but there is still a relatively strong interest base from men.
Showing that my subject matter can appeal to both.

28. Peer
Feedback

29. Feedback 1
• What did you like about the product?
– I like how the trailer gives you a lot of information on what the documentary will
teach you, it is factual enough for you to make a choose whether you want to watch
it or not, but doesn’t give too much information to make you think “There’s no
point watching that now.” The documentary itself really gives you insight to the
world of high functioning autism and how schools cope with students that have this
way of life.
• What improvements could have been made to the
product?
I feel the poster could have more information about the school i.e. contact information,
images of the students and teachers themselves etc. other then that, I feel it is a good
piece of work.

30. Feedback 2
• What did you like about the product?
– The film trailer is very impressive and I enjoyed every second of
it. The music the trailer used was immersive and beautiful and
really is helpful in setting the tone that you are trying to portray.
The shots were also done very well which makes the film feel
very professional.
– The poster is also a work of art; the editing on the images is
masterful.
• What improvements could have been made to the
product?
– Some more detail could have been put into the poster though.

31. Feedback 3
• What did you like about the product?
– I liked basically everything about this product, because it looks very
professional and it feels like it could be a real documentary on TV. The poster
also looks professional and it fits in with the ‘school’ theme of the project,
because of how the images are pinned on to the board.
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– The poster could have included more information
about the school or more information about what
the product actually is.

32. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer feedback?
• I agree with the assertion that my poster should
include more detail. There is no real information about
what my documentary really is and this is an issue.
Aside from that, my response has been all positive,
which I am happy about.
• What do you disagree with from your peer feedback?
• I don’t really disagree with any of my feedback as I
think the issues they raised were all very valid points.

33. Peer Feedback Summary
Based on my peer feedback, I would go back to
my original poster design and see if I could
insert a tagline or some other piece of
information that would better illustrate what it
was my poster was representing, because all of
my peer feedback pointed this out and it is an
issue that negates an otherwise solid
production.

34. Bibliography.
1. BBC 2. (2018). Cunk on Britain: Trailer. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmU0jEHq0m0. Last accessed 21st June 2018.
2. Tall Story Films. (2014). A Place Like This (Documentary Short Film). Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_WzVVndUCY. Last accessed 21st June 2018.
3. IMDB. (2016). School life (2016). Available:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5475022/. Last accessed 21st june 2018.