1. Evaluation
After many different ideas about my final project, I finally decided on creating a short film about
eating disorders. I have personally struggled with an eating issue, and I do feel it has caused
me medical issues. Going to counselling and having my social media filled with recovery
accounts helped me realize how out of control I have been. I wanted to create a short film that
focuses on the physical and mental effects an eating disorder can cause.
This is the first project that I have ever acted in! This was very unusual and out of my comfort
zone. Planning the different scenes was testing my creativity as I wanted to make sure
everything flowed correctly and how I envisioned and not miss anything out that is important.
I have documented my full process whether that was doing screen recording while I edit,
creating storyboards, scripts, planning sheets and behind the scenes of filming (type of shots).
All these different documentations helped to keep me in check, stay on track and to know when
to film, edit or plan. If I did not plan things correctly, I would have totally messed up the project
and I would not have created what I have.
Using the storyboards and scripts gave me a good understanding of what I wanted the final
product to look like.
For my editing I knew the structure I wanted the scenes to be in, as I wanted to portray the
teenager having her normal day. This meant I had to make it look realistic and how a person
struggling with an eating disorder spends their morning, afternoon, and evening. This does not
mean everyone who has or has struggled with an eating disorder does this every day, but I
know some of these activities people do tend to do from personal experience. added in key
information that helped me for when I was editing; adding in if the sound is non-diegetic or
diegetic as this meant I could put the audio over other clips in the timeline or if I did not need to.
I have done a variety of voice overs that I included in my script; this made the short film more
realistic as you got her own thoughts from different perspectives throughout the short film. You
also see what she is engaging in on social media that makes her think.
I used Premier Pro to edit my short film, this was the first time I have used the software. As I
have edited before, I adapted my skills and knowledge as it was the same, and the software is
not hard to navigate. I did not want the editing to take away from the meaning of the short film,
that is why I made the editing simplistic but also at a high standard. I have added in zooms,
voice overs, text, transitions, music, distinct types of sounds and camera angles. I have added
in a lot of different techniques that have helped me to be more creative and more experienced
within my editing.
For editing the last part of my short film, I wanted to add in a zoom in and credits; I was not
expecting this to take as long as it did. As I had not used Premier Pro before, this meant I got
help from my lecture while watching a YouTube video for guidance. These two editing
techniques took the longest time to edit and to figure out. I had to use a different credit template
than I envisioned, this was not a crazy change as it still meant that I could add in the same
credits, but they just looked different when appearing on screen.
2. I have had different problems that are not major but made me re-think a lot for the short film. I
would go through phases of knowing how I wanted a certain scene to look like and how I
wanted it to be played out, but I would change my mind. This meant I would have to change the
planning process on my storyboard, script, and my scene-by-scene planning. This meant I lost
track of what I was currently doing beforehand as I got distracted. This also meant I did not have
time management as I was constantly changing certain things. Eventually changing these made
it a lot easier to know what my end goal was but I should have thought harder about what it was
at the beginning.
I did my focus group and pitch presentation after I created my final product, because I wanted to
focus my time on my final project and do most things afterwards that I know would not affect the
project. The issue I had with this was I was ill while filming. I do not think this has affected the
audio but, if possible, I would have liked to have filmed it when I was not ill. As this was not my
fault, but I want to avoid it, I should film all the audio parts early in case I get ill. This is defiantly
a learning curve as I should not leave certain work to the last minute; I want to use this ‘issue’ to
help me priorities my time and to have better time management.
As this is a short film about mental health, I wanted the audience to connect with girl in separate
ways. I wanted them to see how easy it is to “fall” into an eating disorder when you are not in a
good state of mind, how cruel it is on her, how hard it is to choose recovery and how easily it
can be hidden. I want the audience to understand eating disorders more and be more aware of
them. I did not want to have a lot of speaking parts explaining what is happening in each scene,
I wanted the audience to see for themselves. I did this as it is easy to see someone struggling
when telling them while seeing but it is hard to notice when no one is explaining. This shows
how her life is normal on the outside, but knowing what she is going through shows how it is not
what it seems. This way, if they notice certain things someone does, they can help them earlier,
understand and support them.
One of the fundamental issues I have had is that my short film has gotten copyrighted, and age
restricted. This meant that my lecturer could not view my work, which was annoying, as I did not
know what I do to make her view it. I concluded I can download my short film from YouTube and
upload it to Google Drive. By doing this and making sure the permissions are changed, she can
now view my final short film. Once I have made the relevant changes, I will do the same process
so there are no issues.
I do feel like I could change the ending as I feel like it could be better. This is because I did not
film any clips of most of the recovery with food, I just did one video, and the rest were pictures.
Regardless of this it does capture what I wanted to capture, as this is an important topic in
general and for me. If I do need to make any changes or it is optional I am going to change the
ending just so there is more video footage rather than pictures.
3. In the end, regardless of all this, it all worked out in the end. I am incredibly happy with my final
product, and I could not imagine it looking any different. What I want to come from my short film
is to take away how important this issue is and how it is not talked about much. I have seen in
various shows and series that they mention eating disorders and there have been several types;
I am glad in the media it is being shown as a concert but in real life it should also be raised.
Evaluation of final product
Overall, I am incredibly pleased with how I have made my final product turn out. I did have an
idea of how I wanted it to turn out, but I feel like I completely made this short film better. I have
gone through a lot of different ideas, especially for the storyboards, scripts and ending; I feel like
if I did not make these changes then I would not have made a good enough short film, as I
would not have been happy with it.
I am happy with how I used different camera angles, editing techniques, different versions of the
short film; using script and short film drafts. I did use a range of mise-en-scene throughout
filming the short film as I was using different props such as food, phone, fitness equipment and
many more. Without this equipment I would not have been able to film half of the scenes in the
short film. I used a lot of different cinematography such as camera angles, what I wanted to
portray on the screen and how I knew the different camera angles were going to create an
amazing effect.
I had a lot of diverse ways I wanted to portray the actor as there are so many varied reasons
and factors for someone struggling with food/ eating disorder. I knew the type of eating disorder
I wanted the actor to have which was Anorexia as that is the one more familiar to me. I knew
that it was a short film which meant I wanted to capture everything that is generic of someone
struggling with anorexia but in a brief time. This meant I had different creative decisions that are
shown through my script and storyboard. This does not just show the development of the
storyboard but also the creative decisions that I feel like I made for the better; whether this was
to remove or include a scene which is what I did.
I am aware that I need to make some changes that I have tasked myself as I know I can
improve my work, especially the ending. I need to cut down one scene and potentially another
one just because it is long, and I do not want my audience to lose interest.
There is some work that I need to add and include in my blogger as I forgot about it. Doing all
these changes will help me gain more marks within my work and I will feel a lot more positive
about my work as I know this is one of my faviourite work I have created.
Images of each stage of my short film
4. This is a screenshot of what my “production + postproduction” looks like, I have a range of
editing screen recordings of every time I am editing whether this is editing updated content or
re-editing previous content that I wanted to improve. This was helpful for me and my lecture to
see what I have been doing when I am editing.
5. I got feedback from my lecture, and I written notes down on what I need to include as these are
from my drafts. This helped me to stay on track for what I needed to include and what I
personally wanted to include. I am glad she gave me helpful feedback as it meant I understood
what I needed to primarily focus on to improve my work for my final product.
6. Throughout this project I have experimented in editing. I added in zoom in and credits that I
struggled with which meant I had to watch YouTube videos and asked my lecturer to help me.
This was complicated even though it should not off be but after a long time we figured out how
to do it and created an amazing zoom in. In one way I am happy that it was complicated as it
meant that I had to learn how to use the software but also it gained me the knowledge that
every editing software has their similarities but also differences.
