Kieran Beal reflects on the production process of his film. He drew inspiration from shows like Black Mirror and Sherlock Holmes as well as the video game We Happy Few. His initial plans had a large budget in mind but he scaled back to what was realistic. He chose to use a Guy Fawkes mask for the antagonist to represent something sinister and unknown. Some of his location and camera shots did not go as planned, such as having to pause a follow shot when a door closed on him. Editing involved using Premiere Pro and After Effects, though some effects did not work out as intended. Finding actors and scheduling equipment caused delays to his production schedule.

1. Production Reflection
Kieran Beal

2. Process- initial plans
-In order to get the concept of my film I drew inspiration from some of my preferred TV shows
such as black mirror and Sherlock Holmes, however I also used inspiration from all aspects of
the media including video games, particularly the game 'We happy few' set to be released in
late 2018. Once I had generated the concept for film I wanted to decide what I was going to
include in it, and how I would go about doing it. The best way I believe to go about doing this is
to have large amounts of ambition for the film, picturing it as something that would have a
large budget backing it, once I had that vision I then start to think more realistically about what
I can actually do, and how I can best meet that ambition with what is actually available to me,
this is my thought process for all projects I do to make sure I meet the furthest extent of my
ambition.

3. Process- stylistic choices
My antagonist using the Guy Fawkes mask was a deliberate and specific choice, this is because
this mask in particular has always been associated with something sinister but also represents
an unknown entity, which is what my antagonist is all about, the unknown paranoia and fear in
the back of my protagonists mind, and the mask covering up their face also goes a long way to
dehumanising them. I also came to the conclusion that the Guy Fawkes mask made it a useful
close up to use in my poster and my DVD case cover, close up shots with not a lot of
background detail, instead focusing on the one person or object in the foreground, is the status
quo when creating a poster or DVD cover for a psychological thriller, as a result I used a close
up of my antagonist with a dark colour scheme, which I believed would go a long way to solidify
in the audiences minds what kind of film this is. However if you pay attention to my film and
my other products alongside it, it is noticeable that the person I used to model for my poster
and DVD cover, isn't the same person I used in my film, which is a minor detail that I would've
changed if I could, however this is just for continuity purposes that I don't believe would affect
the overall quality of the products that much.

5. Process- location and camera choices
My film started off in the lamb and lion inn in York, the first shot past the establishing shots is
an over the shoulder shot following an extra into the hotel for the camera to focus on my
protagonist, for the most part this shot ran smoothly, however there were a couple things that I
would've improved upon, most importantly was the interruption during the follow shot, for a
few brief seconds the camera stops and faces the wall, this happened because when I was
following the actor with the camera, they opened the door and walked in, however the door
then closed on me and I had to stop and open it, which is what caused the interruption, in
hindsight it would've provided a better shot to prop the door open during that scene for
smoother shot. The other thing that I would change about this shot (which is something I
could've changed for most of the film) is that many of my shots aren't steady at all, I did initially
book out a steady cam as part of my kit to help with this issue however it wasn't available and I
couldn't reschedule to shoot a different day, as a result a lot of the shots in the film that
required a steady camera are quite shaky, and I think this ruins the affect of many of the shots.
The shots that did require shaky cam became so shaky in parts that it was actually difficult to
tell what was happening in the scene, so I would've likely actually put a bit more control on my
shots with deliberate shaky cam. Location was temporarily a major issue before starting
production for my film, my initial filming location was the Random encounters café, however
they were going under renovations at the time, I also called a couple other cafes near exhibition
square to see if I could film there however they were also fully booked on the day, eventually I
was able to book a filming time at the lamb and lion inn at York.

6. This is the shot at the beginning of
the film where my initial plan was
to have a smooth camera
movement following my actor
through into the hotel, but at this
moment during the film I had to
block the door from closing on me
which created the pause in
movement that you see onscreen.

7. Process- editing
The primary editing software that I used in my film was Premiere pro, however I did use royalty free music off of garage
band but most of the digital effects that are seen in the film were created in premiere pro, however I did have to watch
many YouTube tutorials to learn how to do them (I have sourced the links to them in my proposal and research. There was
however one effect that I couldn't pull off in premiere pro, that is the cloning effect towards the end of the film, this effect
was done through After effects, this is software that is dedicated to creating the finer aspects of digital effects, rather than
premiere which is more aimed at editing the film as a whole. Creating the cloning effect was a long process that took up a
lot of production time to complete, despite this the air still rippled around the clone, this problem could've been avoided if
I had kept the camera steady during the shot however since it was not completely still for both shots where I filmed
walking down on both sides of the alley, I had to use after effects to try and merge the two shots together. Another issue I
had with the editing was the lack of continuity with many of the shots, due to a lot of the footage in crucial parts of the film
being unusable for various reasons, I was forced to use transitions to fill in the gaps. Because of this many of the cuts in the
film appear to be quite jarring and unnecessary.
A third issue that I have had with the film is sound, editing the sound together itself didn't prove to be too much of an issue
in the end, but the quality of the tracks sometimes leave something to be desired. A key point of this as an example is
about half way through my film, where due to restrictions on the sounds that I could use I had to use a generic
'suspenseful' sound from garage band, however the problem with this sound is that it has been used so much by other
means and people at this that point it's more used for
Comedic effect rather than any real suspense, and this is a problem because I don't want my film to include any moments
of comedy, it's supposed to be suspenseful and serious from beginning to the end and I believe this sound effect that I have
used conveys the wrong feeling to the audience. In the event that I could change this I would certainly go back and replace
this sound for something far less generic sounding to help separate the audio of my film and make it something unique.

8. Process- editing

9. Process- editing

10. Process- editing
This is one of the most noticeable examples of jarring editing in my film, this was caused by the
footage in between these two shots being mostly unusable and as a result had to include this
transition to try and fill in the gaps between the shots, the main issue was that I failed to keep
the camera in the same position for both the shots that I wanted to include in the scene, so I
had to get rid of them.

11. Process- actors and equipment
This proved to be the most troublesome part of production. I had very specific days where it
was possible for me to film, and it was incredibly difficult to find people who could help with
the acting in my film on those particular days, I was eventually able to find the right amount of
actors to use in my film however I did have to postpone production of my film for 2 weeks
before I was able to find them, despite this production was still completed on time. The day of
filming was also a very hot day (22 degrees centigrade) and considering that my film contained
a lot of shots involving the chase scene, it became somewhat physically taxing on my
performers to sprint through city center, as a result taking care of their physical state in
between shots was crucial, in order to do this I organised it so that there was regular breaks in
between shots, and always made sure that my performers had water to keep them hydrated.
Equipment was also an issue for about a week, due to a late booking I couldn't get out any
equipment I needed the time, the second time I was able to get most of it out and I decided
that I couldn't postpone production for another week and wait till I had everything, however
because of this rushed production schedule I believe that my film has suffered in substance,
mentioned previously I didn't get the steady cam equipment for my film because of the late
booking, if I were to go back and shoot some of the scenes again I would make sure that this
time I do have the steady cam available, that way any shots that are supposed to be steady are
as they were intended to be, I did also have a shoulder mount available to me on set at the
time however it wasn't functional and as a result I wasn't able to use it, so next time I will have
to make sure that all of my equipment is working before I take it off site.