The document provides a lengthy evaluation of the author's final major project creating a short film. Some key points: - The overall technical quality was let down by digital noise visible in shots due to high ISO settings, though post-production color correction helped. - New skills like script writing were developed, while others like pre-production planning were improved. Cinematography skills increased but some shots were shaky. - Editing was challenging but a learning experience, though color correction differences between scenes were noticeable. - Overall the project increased the author's film experience and skills in areas like script writing, cinematography, and editing, but some aspects like the plot reveal could have been strengthened.

1. The Final major project has finally come to an end and in this I will be evaluating how I personally
thought the process went and whether or not I’d change anything along with the quality of the
final product and since time management was a key factor in the production process I will be
concluding on how I managed my time and whether or not it was done effectively and could it be
improved upon.
Starting with the overall technical quality of the product, in my opinion I believe this is what let me
down in the overall process. In order to get the best quality I opted in to use my friends camera
which was able to record high quality footage whether that be 1080p at 30fps or 720p at 60fps, I
had a lot of choice however since my premier project was set up for 1080p 30fps this was the only
option I could choose, though I would happily choose 1080p over 720p in order to get the best
viewing quality for my audience. I tested the footage at home to see how the quality was to make
sure none of the shorts were blurred or inaudible and fortunately for me none were however I
believe this mistake I made was not checking every shot because when I imported them into after
effects, I distinctly noticed digital noise which was visible in other the majority of the shorts. This
is due to the use of a high ISO in order to get good lighting quality within the shots and even
though this was the case, I ended up having some shots ruined due to the digital noise. I wasn’t
exactly happy when I noticed this error and since I was pushed for time for editing it meant I was
not able to reshoot so I looked into post-production to help edit my footage. There were shots
which could easily be covered however there were other shots which were “beyond repair” as the
digital noise was very obvious. This was the only issue I had regarding the technical quality of the
product because overall I think the quality of the product would have been visually appealing to
the audience since of the high camera quality. It is hard to say whether or not the camera itself
was the problem or the settings in which was were chosen for the camera, unfortunately I wasn’t
able to replicate the settings on another camera in order to give myself a fair test so I just blamed
myself for the camera settings rather than the camera. The post-production on the other hand
went more smoothly than I anticipated since there were not many shots which could/needed to be
edited since post-production wasn’t able to account of the digital noise within the shot, I edited the
shots to make them appear more vibrant to the audience so the scenes are more visually
appealing to viewers which was done through the use colour correction however one issue I
encountered with this is how it made digital noise stand out more so I had to try and balance this
out so scenes were visually appealing but was not spoiled by the digital noise. The music on the
other hand was different and was fun to pick out, which was done through You tube’s royalty free
music, when it actually came down to picking the music it actually started to get difficult as the
music was not the standard I was expecting although that is what you get for selecting free music.
It was difficult to pick a few songs which stood out to me which best represented the film for the
thriller and mystery genre however I finally came down to the conclusion of three songs which
represents the feelings in the film, for example the beginning of the film featured a soft build up as
opposed to the ending which had an sad and dark song to represent the mood of the protagonist.
Overall, the quality of the product could have been improved upon due to the likes of the digital
noise and the lack of music which was available to download however if this was to be improved
upon I believe that it would have been visually appealing to the audience and portray the story in
clear detail, just unfortunate that little key details have an impact on the quality of the product
When it comes down to the production skills on the other hand, through this project I have
developed thoroughly on some skills and even learned new skills which would help in a career in
the film industry, in this section I will be openly discussing what I have learned and what has been
developed upon and how they helped to make my content a reality. Many skills remained from
previous assignments such as developing a plot and then producing this content to suit the eyes of
the audience, I think this was a key skill to retain due to the fact of how important the assignment
was to the course and it being a piece of work which I have developed from the ground up.
Starting with new skills that I acquired from this production, first comes in the form of script
writing and even though I have done another form of script writing in my music video, it was just
to describe the plot of the music video alongside the lyrics however in this production I have
learned the element of script writing for film productions although I know this is something that
could be improved upon due to the fact that it was not to a professional standard. This is due to

2. the fact of lack of detail and poor character development on my behalf however since this is my
first short film I believe that it was worth the attempt. From this, I would be able to improve upon
my next piece by taking note of what I did correctly and incorrectly to make sure I do not make
the same mistake for my next script. This was the only skill which was learnt from the ground up
since the rest were just initially developed upon, whether this be in production, pre -production or
even post-production. Since I started with pre-production I’ll start with this for this section, many
aspects I was already aware of when I first started to develop my idea such as the use of
production diaries and location reconnaissance reports in order to explain where I have chosen to
film, when and why I chose this location. I think the difference here is that these documents were
improved upon more thoroughly which allowed me to focus more thoroughly on my final major
project which in my opinion improved the quality of the content to professional grade standard.
Production was different compared to my two previous film related products as my skills regarding
cinematography had improved due to the likes of film studies, I was able to apply this knowledge
of cinematography to improve the quality of the shots which I think my previous film related
content was lacking however one downside to the cinematography within my shoot is the fact that
some of the shots are shaky which break the escapism aspect of films therefore not solidifying the
bond between the audience and the film which is something I can improve if I was to redo this
shoot. Post-production was the most enjoyable but stressful process when it came to this project
due to trying to edit shots which would stand out in a vibrant element though not too much which
distract the viewer, editing has been something I’ve always had a keen eye out for and a film like
this would help improve my editing skills when it would come to future projects however I have
always found visual effects difficult due to the fact that each scene may vary, for example the use
of the colour correction was difficult as each scene had different lighting conditions even though
they were shot within minutes of each shot so adjusting the colour correction to suit every scene
proved to be difficult which may be noticeable within the film however I am unable to comment on
this due to not completely understanding why some shots are brighter than others, the only factor
which I believe may have caused this is due to how the camera was focused however this is just
an idea. From this I will be able to use the knowledge from editing my previous film related
content as well of this to help improve future edits and from this I will be able to take into account
what worked and use this to create a product in which would keep the audience engaged and
interested and take note what didn’t work and work to improve this. Overall, there are some skills
which were acquired and some which were more thoroughly improved upon in order to create and
develop my idea to the small screen.
I decided to create a short film due to the fact that this was something I believed I could create in
the time scale that I had been given, furthermore I developed this idea due to the fact that I had
never attempted a short film before so this project was presented to me as a challenge that I
would need to accomplish with many boundaries that I would have to overcome. What helped me
overall was my knowledge of film studies and how I could apply this to my final major project
though I thought this have helped increase my experience for later life since I am hoping to
pursue a career in the television and film industry in which I stated in my project proposal form, in
this section I will be evaluating the difference between my final product and my intended proposal
form and how they vary and how they are similar, this would be done by evaluating the synopsis
of the idea as well as the intended target audience and how I intended to meet the needs of my
target audience. I decided to create a media product which featured a linear narrative which would
be simple for audiences to understand the concept and the ending would give the audiences a
shock due to the plot reveal, this didn’t go as I expected since the plot reveal wasn’t as
outstanding as I would have hoped which I think is due to the fact that not many scenes were
used at the end to develop the plot. I mainly relied on audiences to understand the plot however I
don’t think this was effective since the scenes did not explain the ending to the audience which
would make audiences confused, I could have improved this by extending the ending to explain to
the main protagonist where he is which hopefully would reveal the plot more effectively yet include
enigma codes which would keep the viewers engaged. The synopsis of the idea had also changed
in order to appeal well to audiences as I believed my original idea would be too confusing however
in retrospect I actually think that my original idea may have worked out better in theory. My

3. original idea was to feature the main protagonist preparing for his job interview however towards
the end the protagonist would realise that his best friend had been a figure of his imagination and
that he had been living in this fictional reality however I changed the idea to make this all a dream
in the protagonists head as he would wake up towards the end and realises that it was all a figure
of his imagination however this didn’t work out as I was intending it to unfortunately. What I think
went wrong with this edit is how the ending didn’t effectively explain the plot to the audience
therefore the audience were left confused and unaware of what was going on, I think more filming
to expand upon the ending would have concluded the film in a better light, other than that I think
the story stayed true to the original proposal. I used many elements of the film to appeal to my
intended target audience, whether that be use through genre or through the mise en scene to
appeal to my target audience. I believe that my target audience is predominantly young male
targeted due to the fact that they are stereotypically the people who are into the mystery genre,
there is also the element of male orientated actors who play students therefore attracting young
male viewers, there is also aspect of the lower class audience which would be attracted through
use of lower class mise en scene like the chosen location w hich portrays a lower class home which
I believe is an effective of drawing in a certain target audience by using certain locations. In
conclusion I believe that my final major project didn’t differentiate much in comparison to the
original brief however I don’t think this was the correct decision on my behalf to change my idea
around though the updated version could have been improved by extending the ending to fully
conclude the film rather than leave audiences confused and guessing what happened.
Throughout the final major project, I have used many forms of time management in order to keep
myself up to date on what I need to complete and what has been completed. One main example is
the use the production schedules which are updated weekly which highlight what key tasks are
need to be completed on said week, the useful addition of these production schedules is that they
are colour coded to different tasks so it is simple and easy to ready as well as keep tabs on what
should be completed. The difference with a task like this is the fact that they are weekly updated
so I am always are of what needs to be completed and what should be completed by a certain date
and If I believe that there has not been enough time allocated to a certain task then I am able to
adjust this to how I see fit, which can be seen on my blog. In this task I have distinctively labelled
how the task has been going like for example, green highlights that the task is going positively
whereas red highlights issue that maybe the task is overdue or has been removed due to certain
issues and amber just signifies neutral. In order to keep myself up to date, I tried to check these
weekly so that I was never far behind however this didn’t work due to the fact that all the work
that I had to keep up to date was too much therefore if I tried to keep myself up to date with one
tutor I ended up falling behind with another and vice versa. One other task that I used in order to
manage my time was the use of a production diary which was updated every week w hich I would
distinctively write what has been completed and what I want to be completed in the next week as
well as the next month and so on, the problem with this task was the fact that I fell behind due to
not updating it frequently, I would miss out on certain weeks which I would only fill up on a few
weeks down the line. This continued throughout the year however towards the end of the unit, I
had less work to deal with which meant I was able to focus more thoroughly on this task therefore
resulting in me being able to submit my work before the deadline. I think the main issue regarding
this task was the fact that I had multiple pieces of work to work alongside this which meant I was
always struggling to keep up to date and therefore falling behind, I did enjoy working on this unit
it was just the fact that I had multiple units to complete as well of this so what have made this
unit more enjoyable and less stressful would be less work to focus on. This is the only constraint
that constantly made my struggle throughout the course however when progressing into the
industry, this is going to be something I am going to need to improve upon whether or not I want
to succeed in University along with the film industry. If I was to redo this assignment, I would
definitely allocate more time to this unit rather than other units due to the importance of the unit.
For my final major project, I conducted a survey in order to get responses regarding the content I
had created and whether or not the film met the expectations of the audience as well as the genre
conventions, there were not many respondents therefore this cannot be considered a fair test

4. however these answers will give me a broad idea of whether or not my film meets the
expectations of the audience.
My first question asked my respondents whether or not they believed that my film fit in effectively
with the mystery and thriller genre and overall I was surprised to see the answer as I was
expecting a mixed result of answers but surprised to say that it was mostly positive with 4/5th
’s
being positive with only a single answer being negative, overall I think that these responses work
within my favour.

5. My next question asked my respondents whether or not they think the character development was
good, bad or could be improved upon and overall I am surprised to see that the “Needed
improvement” was the more common answer with a majority of 3/5 answers leading to this
response, however I do believe that the character development within the film could have been
improved upon in order to create an effective plot.

6. My next question received a variety of answers as I asked my respondents whether or not the film
met the expectations of the genre conventions and suffice to say that that no answer came up on
top with both Yes and No scoring the highest with a total of two answers for each, these answers
allow me to reflect upon my work to think what could have been improved on my film and this is
definitely something I can work towards improving next time, creating a film which meets the
genre conventions. Unfortunately from this response, it shows me I was not fully aware of the
genre conventions of what was expected of the film therefore disproving my research.

7. I then asked my respondents what they thought of the narrative which was chosen for the film and
unfortunately this didn’t go as I was expecting since all the answers are mostly negative with some
stating they didn’t like it and others stating that it was confusing. I was sad to see these answers
however I am able to learn from my mistakes for my next work to create a feature which is simple
for audiences to understand.

8. My following question asked respondents whether or not they believed that the ending of the film
worked well and to be honest I was expecting a mix result of answers as I believe that I made the
ending and the plot difficult to grasp therefore ruining the experience of the film. I think what
would have made it more effective would have been to inform the audience of how the film
concludes rather than letting my audience second guess themselves, I allowed my respondents to
write their own suggestions and received one answer which stated that the mise en scene could
have been developed more which I do agree because I do not think that the location which was
chosen best represents the scene I had in mind.

9. My next question asked what would the respondents change about the film and in order to get the
best responses I allowed the respondents to write their own responses and I did receive mix
reactions from a clearer understanding of the story to multiple problems regarding the film. One
stated that the video quality could be improved upon which I agree due to the fact that the digital
noise ruined the visual quality of the film, they also stated that the cinematography could be
improved upon. What I learned from this is that I should have looked thoroughly into camera
options as well as locations which best represent my film, I could have also made the film more
understandable to the audiences as I believe this wasn’t made clear enough.

10. I then asked what they would rate my film out of ten, with ten being the best and one being the
worst and overall I was surprised to see the mixed responses. Some respondents rated the film
high (Nine) and some rated it low (Two and Three) alongside some mixed responses (Six and
Seven) so surprisingly there were a wide variety of answers which show me that my audience
interpreted the film in different viewings.

11. My final question asked my respondents on what their overall opinion on my film and fortunately
for me, most of these answers were constructive feedback which gave both positive and negative
feedback and also stated what I could improve upon such as the different forms of
cinematography, another also stated that my film felt “Sloppy” but was an overall nice effort which
I took kindly as it was motivational for me since it was not all negative.
Overall, I do agree that the film could be improved upon and with help from this survey, I am able
to distinguish what could be improved if I was to recreate this project again, even though the
majority of the answers were negative or natural, they stated their reasoning behind this and how
I could improve this to change my audiences opinion. From this, I am also able to use this
knowledge which I gained to benefit future projects and learn from my mistakes.
In conclusion, I believe the assignment could have been approached different from different angles
like for example I think that the use of a non-linear narrative may have been an interesting
concept however this would be difficult to interpret as I would have to create a narrative which
audiences can understand but yet still engages the audience, another aspect of the film I would
have change is definitely the conclusion because in my opinion this is the weak element of the film
which may confuse viewers, as well as this I would definitely improve the video quality to make
sure that the digital noise is not apparent in any shots as this ruins the visual aspect of the film
and makes some scenes difficult to view. If I was to recreate this film, I would take these into
account which hopefully would improve the quality of the film, in both aspects from visual to the
plot.