Luke Ross evaluated the effectiveness of his research and production process for his film project. Some aspects went well, such as researching existing films for inspiration and planning locations in advance. However, other areas did not go as planned. For the chase scene filming, he ran out of time and lighting was not ideal. Actors also backed out, affecting his ability to film all planned scenes. In post-production, color grading and titles turned out well but noise from zooming issues in filming hindered the crime scenes. Overall the evaluation identified both successful and problematic areas to improve upon for future projects.

1. EVALUATION
BY LUKE ROSS

2. Effectiveness of research.
As a whole I found my research to be very effective, it served as the building locks to my entire project, from the style to the colour scheme my idea
of how the project would look started with the research.
Existing products – I found the existing products to be very affective in research, it showed me the different styles, colour schemes, fonts, shots and
soundtrack that other products have used and after looking into how these products used these and how they work with one another I was able to
build a structure for my film, the watchmen existing product inperticular I took heavy inspiration from, I looked at the colour scheme it used, how it
was colour graded, what style of music it had and how the music impacted the opening of the film, I also looked at the fonts and colour of the fonts
on this existing project, I also looked at two short films, one was called ‘2 AM’ and one was ‘the smiling man’ the reason that I looked at these two
was suspense, I wanted to see how they used suspenseful build ups in a short film, I found this helpful and effective as it brought attention to sound
affects and soundtrack to build suspense effectively. I overall found existing products useful and I feel that the four existing products that I researched
benefited my product in different ways.
Props, costumes and locations – I found researching the props ad costumes to be effective as it meant that I knew where the best price was I could
get the costumes and props and where had the best delivery time, I found this useful in planning when it came to buying the props and costumes as it
meant I knew which ones I needed, in research I kept a link to the purchasing website and it meant that I could use my bibliography to access the
props and costumes quickly for purchase.The locations research meant that I could start looking into what locations best fit and where I could
enquire about filming at, I found this useful as it meant I found great locations for filming and could arrange dates for filming at these locations early
on.
Surveys and interviews – I found the surveys to be mostly affective as it meant that I could get answers from an audience at the age range I was
aiming my film at.Asking questions about things in my project that I would need to know in order to appeal to them.The fault with the surveys is that
people don’t always take the answers seriously and this can affect how the survey percentages work overall but as I came up with a solution to this
on problem solving it barley affected my surveys.The interviews I found to be more effective than the surveys as it meant that I could have a sat
down discussion about my projects and bounce ideas of the interviewee to see what they think, I took a lot from this and felt that it benifited my
product for the better.

3. Methods used
I used different methods when filming my project but also when doing my other aspects in preparation to film and edit my project, there where a few
missed opportunity's with my project that had I used a different method.
Contextual research – the method that I went with on this project was genre theory and director research, the method that I used to find
information on the directors was observation research through google and books. I chose three different directors that I felt had done amazing jobs
in making movies with style, soundtrack and fonts etc… similar to what I wanted to make. Researching these directors meant that I could see how
the directors have been able to create these affects but the main focus was their life and how they came to make it. I see this as a missed opportunity,
I feel that a better method would have been putting more focus on how the directors create the work it would give more room for inspiration on
this part.
Problem solving – in problem solving my method was thought process and observational reflection, looking back on work in the past few years and
seeing what has gone wrong in the past and coming up with solutions to these problems so they wouldn’t happen again, I also used logical thinking to
what potential issue there could be and then come up with solutions to these problems. I feel that I missed opportunity in problem soling was the
time between this and filming, my biggest problem was cast and crew and I don’t feel like I had enough time to arrange enough people to be there as
contingency to these problems.
Main research – in my main research my method was observational research, I looked at existing products that where related to my project and
looked at how they use there different aspects of film with one another so I could use the same techniques and take inspiration from them, I felt that
I missed opportunity was only looking at things solely related to my project, if I went for things slightly related I could find other techniques and
designs that these products have used and it would give me more range of what I could do and what I shouldn’t do. I also did surveys and interviews
as a method of market research, I could of also doneVox pop, this would have provided more of a shape of ideas form the public, I feel this was a
missed opportunity.

4. Final concept
Overall I feel that my final concept was exactly what I wanted it to be, it had different elements that worked really effectively together, when
comparing it to what I had planned to do with the idea it matches the scenes on my in depth scene script. It includes the crime scenes, the chase
scene and the discovering the body scene. I feel that I did a good job of taking my ideas and turning them into a project. I do however feel that if cast
and crew hadn’t let me down I could have perfected the film opening to exactly what I wanted it to be.
The connotational meanings of the film that I had initially planned to include, some made it into the final concept and others did not, the inspector
getting closer to the body as an example did get closer to the body each scene but because of the distance I could actually physically move with the
camera in certain locations it means that there wasn’t that much distance between the inspector and the body, so the connotational meaning of it
being each meaning is him getting closer to the case on a personal level is still there just not as present as I would have liked it to be.With more time
I would go back and reshoot these scenes to try and make it more present in the story as an improvement.
When filming one of the chase scenes I had to write on the outside wall of the house in fake blood ‘greed’ this so the final crime scene in the
sequence.There was a big issue with this scene afterwards, the fake blood said on the back of it that it is easy to remove but it ended up getting stuck
on the wall, for two days I kept going back outside to try and wash it off but it was to no end, to get rid of it we ended up having the pressure wash
the back wall.The word ‘Greed’ stayed on the wall for a full week because of false labelling.

5. Planning, what went well…what did not?
In planning I split it into parts allowing me to plan different areas of the production at a time, I found this to be effective but it meant that there could
more attention on the smaller details to make sure I was prepared to the best that I could be.
Location, Finance, time and personnel – I felt that the location planning went well as I used my research on the locations, this meant I only had to
book them down and make sure that they where available for when I needed them in filming. I found that the finance didn’t go well as I didn’t have
enough funds for all the equipment I intended but thanks to my problem solving I had found ways to get the costumes and props as cheaper versions
of the items I needed to make it more affordable. I feel that the time management plan went well for the most part but I didn’t give myself enough
time on the editing for my production which I should of done. My personnel casting did not go as I intended it to, the reason for this is because some
people that said they could come didn’t, in my personnel planning I didn’t plan for people backing out on the day of filming which wouldn’t give me
time to find replacements.
Meetings – The meeting that I conducted I felt went well, I was able to pass on the information that my cast and crew would need for example where
we would be meeting, the estimated duration of the time filming, what food would be supplied and their job role as well as how to complete their job
role they where given if unsure. I felt this was affective for the people that were actually able to make it.
Storyboards – I felt that my story boards where a big advantage in this, they went well because I used them effectively, I decided to sketch out a
storyboard that included each shot I had planned and how it would visually look, this meant I had a visual piece to follow when filming a set layout of
exactly what I wanted, I then created crime scene concept art which laid out each crime scene exact and I found this to be most useful when filming
as I always had a paper reference of what needed to be shot and where the blood needed to be painted.
Shot list and in-depth scene script – When planning for filming I felt it important to create a shot list that not only listed all of the shots that I needed
but next to the shot had a description of how the shot would be used.This worked well because it meant I knew what shot I needed for each scene
so when it came to filming I could simply film following the list. In addition to this my in depth scene script provided indepth detail about where
characters should be stood what should be around them and what the shot should include, this worked well because it meant when filming I could
just check to make sure that I had everything.

6. Production, what went well…what did not?
Filming chase scene – there was different parts to this filming process that did and didn’t go well, to start I needed this to filmed at night as part of
the setting plan, but I only had the location until 11pm and the sun didn’t go down until half 8. this meant that I only had 4 hours to get a lot of shots
done, not only did I have to shoot the chase scene but I needed to get multiple of each shot to make sure that every shot I did was right. It was as
strong start, I was able to film the first half of the chase scene within the first 2 and half hours but the last half in the other hour and a half did not.
Towards the end after moving through the alley way I was running out of time and the most important part of the scene is when the victim gets
caught and killed, it I only had 10 minutes to complete this scene and I wanted the blood to splash across the window, I tried it multiple times but I
just couldn’t get the slash to go how I wanted it to, on the final attempt it ended up spelling out an ‘m’ as it hit the window in slasher fashion and I
decided to keep it, I thought it could get better than ‘m’ for murder without showing the murder.The issue was that because of the close timing the
alley scene which is a big part of the chase had quite a bit of visual noise creep its way into the film, since I didn’t have tie to fix it with reshoots I had
to leave it and attempt to fix it in editing.
Another issue with the chase scene was that I had intended to show the murder by creating a neck slit affect, I watched a tutorial of how to create it
and the equipment and materials I would need to put it together however my attempt at making to went horribly wrong, the hole in the pipe got
wider and before i could apply the coil to the back end of the pipe the blood for some reason started sucking through and decided to spray myself
and my garage work table and floor.
There was another part of the chase scene that didn’t go my way, I ordered a sandbag which I had intend to make into the killers signature mask,
however the sand bag didn’t come on time even though the company claimed it would be with me a week before the filming.This meant that I had to
use a black carrier bag with holes, didn’t quite have the same affect I was looking for.
There was also the issue of cars coming up and down the street, the street needed to be empty for the scene and as it’s a quite place usually and it
was night I assumed that there wouldn’t be many cars coming in and out, my contingency for when they did come was to stop shooting to wait for
them to go by. It seemed typical that the night of filming someone on the street would be having a party, this meant that for the first hour of filming
there was a hold up with a car coming through every five minutes, it meant I had to keep stopping and then starting.
Overall I feel that the chase scene worked well, it was what I intended it to be at the end, some of the shots filmed could have been improved with
more time or reshoots but due to location times and cast and crew schedule I wasn’t able to. However with editing on premier and after affects I was
able to make these scenes work how I wanted them.

7. Production, what went well…what did not?
Filming killer dresses up the body scene – this did not work well, especially as it never ended up happening, the idea of this scene was to add more
shots, more story and to increase the time of the film as a whole, sadly on the day I intended to film it the victim and the killer backed out, I could
recast either of them as they where in the prior chase scene, not only this but I was told that due to ‘home issues’,‘holidays’ and ‘being busy’ I was
not able to get either of them to help with any other scenes in my film opening.This would go on to affect my crime scenes and the discovering the
body scenes.
Discovering the ‘body’ scene – for this scene I casted someone who actually turned up when I needed them too, they came both days that I need
them on this scene.The first problem I encountered was that on the first day I only had the location for a couple of hours, this meant I could soot the
first couple of scenes however the following day I had it a lot longer. I feel that this worked well as a whole, I had enough time to film it in and a
reliable actor to help me with the filming. this
scene was shot in the daytime which meant I could make the scene look really nice on the 600d camera.With right ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed
settings I could make it look clear with practically no visual noise and I feel I did this for the most part. The only real problem that I faced with this
scene is that there wasn’t a body to properly discover as the actor for the body couldn’t make it to anymore shoots it meant that I had to cut off as
he enters the gate to find the body.After editing it this didn’t become a problem and seemed more natural but I do feel that it would be more along
the lines of what I wanted had I had the actor to include the body.
Crime scenes – there was parts that went well in the crime scenes and things that didn’t, the part that didn’t go well to start with the cast and crew.
The cast and crew that I had originally intended to help with the crime scenes on the first day announced the day before that they wouldn't be able
to make it and this meant that I at least had time to find replacements for the cast. In the end the cast that I found did a great job, they came to the
other days of filming the crime scenes that I needed as well so that went well. Another issue I had with the crime scenes is that the victim from the
chase scene wasn’t able to make it to anymore shooting days so I had to recast him for someone else, luckily the body was dressed up by the killer so
this meant that it was difficult to tell that it was a different person from the chase scene.

8. Post-production, what went well…what did not?
In my post production there where parts that worked well and there where things that didn’t, I found that in editing it was best to try different things
and see what worked best.
Titles – when creating the titles I stuck to my planning, the planning I had made it so that the aim for font size was bold and the colour scheme being
a yellow. I used this on my titles that I would add into the film ad they worked better than I could of imagined, the style was exactly what I was after, it
showed that the planning was affective to this point and research. I then played around with the animation in titles for this and decided to spend time
creating a ticking clock affect, this is where some titles would tick around like the hand of a clock. I thought this animation went well, it was smoothed
and it had a unique affect when a ticking clock sound affect is added in.
Colour grading – I tried different filters, styles and colours when colour grading my project. I started on the crim scenes so that I could figure out
what worked best for them, I then moved onto the discovering body scene, in this scene I made the shots look more lighter toned and vibrant adding
a distinctive look to the shots, in the crime scenes I used the same colour grade settings as the discovering body scene and I feel that after trying all
the different uses I could have gone with and playing around with the different temperatures and colour schemes, the settings I used in the
discovering body scene worked best.
Crime scenes – The crime scenes where a mixture of shots going well in editing and shots not going well in editing. I found that because of issues
with the camera zoom in on filming as mention in my reflection diary I had to use the post production scaling to create the affect I needed for this
scene, but taking an image and scaling in means more noise on the visuals which was a big issue that I faced, this was the part that didn’t go well. I was
able to decrease the noise in after affects but to my best efforts I wasn’t able to remove it completely. I found that colour grading these shots helped
improve the visual look though which makes colour grading something that went well with the post production as well as titles, when I added the
title slides over my crime scenes the colour grade contrasted with them really well, creating a unique affect that I was after from my planning.
I believe that overall the post production went well but I feel that it was mainly affected in the production stage and if I hadn’t have had problems in
production stage or if I had less problems then the post production would have worked a lot better, I feel however that the post production was my
favoured part of this project.

9. How you dealt with TECHNICAL problems?
There were some technical problems that occurred when filming my project, I found that from the range of equipment I used my problem solving
came in handy with most of the problems when coming up with solutions.
Camera – the camera I booked out from college had issues with lighting sensitivity when filming in the dark, it meant that no matter what I changed
the Aperture. ISO or Shutter speed to it made no difference because there wasn’t enough light intake, my solution to this problem was that I also
booked out a UV attachment light, this provided light so everything in the scene was visible but the 600D camera still filled up the scene with visual
noise, there should have been more than enough light but the camera couldn’t balance it, my solution to this problem that I found in experiments was
that I could order some studio lights and with an extension lead to bring them outside this should remove the majority of visual noise, not all but it
would definitely make the shot look a lot more visually pleasing.
Crime scene camera shots – When shooting the crime scenes I faced multiple problems with the camera, some where the same problems on
different cameras over the different days.To start with on the last day of shooting crime scenes, instead of using a college booked camera I used a
friends 700D camera, however when I began to use it I found that the ISO was faulty and wouldn’t change, this affected the look of the last two crime
scenes I filmed compared to the others, in the night shot it was hard to see what was in the shot and on the day shot the ISO setting made it
extremely bright, although you could see what was happening the brightness was a problem.There wasn’t much I could do while filming the scene
that could stop it so to deal with this problem I waited until I could take the scenes in premier or after affects to solve the problems the best that I
could.
Zoom in and zoom out on camera – a big problem that I had with the camera that I borrowed and the one that I booked out, was that the zoom in
affect on the camera was extremely jaggedy and unsteady, no matter what I did the camera would smooth it out, I did the shots over and over again
until I had something smooth but even when I believed it was after viewing it on the camera screen, when moved into premier pro the camera
movement was just as jaggedy. My of dealing with this problem was taking a part of the shot that was smooth cutting it to that, then changing the
duration and speed to 30%. Once I had done this I then used editing to scale it, giving it the same affect as it was supposed to have on the camera
filming, but a lot smoother.

10. How you dealt with MANAGEMENT problems?
Time Management – a problem that I faced with the time management was underestimating how long it would take to get things right, I found myself
spending lots of time of certain parts of the project I originally didn’t believe would take so long but it was mistake as I found that the small parts
meant a lot more when I reached them than I intended. I dealt with this problem by going back to my initial schedule and balancing the time out more
than I had initially. The time management problems that I faced however did mean that I created myself a stressful situation but luckily me dealing
with the situation the way I did for the next parts of the project really helped me with stress in the long run.
Cast crew – The big problem that I had with management of cast and crew was when they told me a day before the filming or on the actual day that
they wouldn’t be able to make it to my filming, even though I was relying on them on days for my project, to them it didn’t seem to matter because
they had other things to do, which would be fine but as part of my management I had these days arranged for weeks, telling me on the day seemed
ridiculous, it meant that I didn’t have time to stand a good chance of getting replacements. Luckily I was able to deal with this problem by getting
replacements last minutes but the issue with this was that the replacements didn’t have the look I initially wanted for the characters and by a recast it
could of caused continuity errors with the film. Luckily I dealt with this use by costume covering the body, for the story is the killer dresses up the
victim it meant that I had some room for changing looks with the characters dealing with the continuity errors caused by people letting me down, it
didn’t mean I felt any better about it though.
Technical – I suffered technical issues when filming, part of my management was to book out equipment, but I had to book out equipment 24 hours in
advance, and for some of the equipment like the camera that had a un smooth zoom in and out, I wouldn’t of been able to replace it in time for the
next shoot and I had to use the best shots I took on the day in my final project. I was able to deal with this issue however by giving myself more time
on the editing which meant that I would be able to fix it the shot issues the best that I could in editing.
Overall I would say my management was good, apart form a few issues that didn’t help with stress, I kept to the schedule the best that I felt I could,
the issues that occurred where outside my control, although I had come up with contingency plans in problem solving they didn’t seem to help when
even the contingency failed, this is through people letting me down with no warning for the most part everything I planned that was down to me I
was able to do.

11. How you dealt with EMOTIONAL problems?
The big emotional problem that I found myself in the most was stress, it seemed that this was the main emotion that I felt throughout this project as
whole with others creeping their way in.
Stress – I felt a lot of stress on this project, it seemed that once I dealt with stress for one part of the project I then had stress for the next, even
knowing that I was on my schedule to get the work done didn’t help me with my stress.The biggest stress came from filming, the filming part of the
project stressed me out because no matter how organised I was I had to rely on others to show up for filming, and as iv learnt in other projects
relying on others for this doesn’t always go the way I would think.This production was no exception for as iv stated previously in the previous slides
people let me down here again and it put my stress levels through the roof, I couldn’t edit without the shots, and I couldn’t do the shots without the
people and the people I asked to help at first didn’t seem to understand this, luckily my stress was lowered when I found replacement actors that
made it to all shoots of the crime scenes when I needed them.
Anger – my anger on this project is focused on the cast and crew that gave me less than a day to find replacements for them, my anger comes form
the fact that if they knew they was away why did they wait until the day to tell me logically they would have known before this, I'm willing to believe
that one person may not have known but three at the same time to me seems to coincidental, it made me feel let down, confused but mainly angry at
not at the fact they couldn’t come but that they didn’t give me enough time to figure out away around it.
Frustration in timing – I had frustration at the location timing, the fact that I only had the location for a certain time gap due to a mix of having to
finish at a certain time, and only being able to start at a certain time (after sun set) meant that I was even more stressed but my stress turned to
frustration when thinking back on it. I dealt with this problem by calming down and arranging another day I could work on it at the location, this was
helpful and meant I was able to get it down even if it did take longer than I believed it would.
Overall I feel like my emotional problems were well dealt with in this project.The main area of emotion in the entire project was with cast crew and
filming all around the same time. but I was able to push through it finding solutions the problems I faced giving me a means to deal with them.

12. Does your product meet your intentions?
I felt that overall the product meets the intentions, it has all the parts that I intended it to have and I feel that I did a good job in sticking to m vision
of what I wanted, some parts didn’t go as it was supposed to be, but the overall product has the major scenes I intended and it includes the main
parts I intended.
Chase scene – For the chase scene it is the one scene that met my intentions for the most part, the scene follows the plan exact until I get to the
slasher style murder of the victim, I hand intended to show the victims neck get slit, but the issue I had was the device to do this broke before
shooting, so I altered the ending slightly to have the blood slash across the door., I felt this worked best because it also played reference to psycho a
slasher film that this takes inspiration from. Other than this aspect I collected all of the shots I intended to capture from the shot list and the scene
played out exactly how I intended from start to finish.
Discovering the Body scene – this scene went as I intended, the part that didn’t was that I couldn’t show the actual body as the original victim could
make it to shooting my solution to this was to show him discovering the body without us seeing the body, and then the camera would cut off at his
reaction and move into the introduction slides.This scene did go as intended as the end result.
Crime scenes – the end result of the crime scenes is that they met the intention, I had the seven murder victims, the detective and photographer, the
flash that goes off on the zoom out. This is what I intended the shots to be, the issue I had was with visual noise and the zoom out not working how
I wanted but this was fixed with editing, so the it ended up meeting my intention.
Titles – the title cards where exactly as I wanted them to be, from the colour scheme to the font, they matched my vision exactly and they are the
part that I am most happy with.
Editing and end result – the editing put the film opening together, made the film into what it should be, this includes editing, something that I hadn’t
intended to have in the film opening was the idea of a clicking clock but I felt that this was the a good inclusion as it added something unique to the
opening and gave it more of its own style.The soundtrack and audio finished off the film how I intended it would with the footsteps and running
sound affects etc… I felt that the end result matched my intentions as best it could.

13. Cast and crew feedback 1

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15. Cast and crew feedback 3

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17. Cast and crew feedback 5

18. Cast and crew feedback 6