Hope Smith created a psychological horror short film called FMP Evaluation. The film uses a point-of-view perspective to build tension as the main character is stalked and followed around her home. Smith undertook research on fears of being watched and developed her initial mirror-based idea into a film incorporating windows as a major plot point. She created additional promotional materials including a trailer, teaser, and merchandise to complement the film. While happy with the overall outcome, Smith acknowledges areas for improvement such as developing the story more and addressing lighting inconsistencies in her mirror scene. Feedback from peers praised creative shots and unease created but suggested exploring the concept more and improving consistency.

1. FMP Evaluation
Hope Smith

2. Project Overview
In this section you will outline the aim of the project/task and give an
overview of the activates you undertook to complete it.

3. What was the theme of your project and
what attracted you to it?
• The theme of my project was horror specifically psychological point of
view horror. I was attracted initially to this style of horror after I
watched midsommar (directed by Ari Aster) after watching this I knew
I wanted to make a psychological horror. My inspiration for the point
of view aspect was the 2021 remake of Candyman (directed by Nia
Dacosta) I really loved how they used mirrors in that film and wanted
that to be a major plot point to my project .

4. What research did you undertake and how
did it help develop your project?
• I researched the fear of being watched and the fear of the dark this
helped me in the development of my film because I used what made
people with these kind of fears comfortable but flipped it so that was
the danger.
• I watched the movie hush which helped to give me a good
understanding of how to use sound effectively in a film with minimal
to no dialogue.

5. How did you develop and improve your ideas
throughout the project?
• My initial idea for my film was for the whole film to be an alternate
reality in the mirror so as someone walked round their house
something different was happening in the mirrors to what was
actually going on. After talking through this idea I realised this would
be very tricky to film, there would be limited places I could film due to
needing a mirror in all scenes and I feel like it would’ve been limited
in terms of the storyline/plot. Once I realised this I decided to use
windows as a major plot point making the film a pov stalker horror. I
still wanted to incorporate the mirror idea into the film somehow so
that is what inspired the final scene where the girl gets stuck in the
mirror.

6. What was the outcome of the project/task?
• I am really happy with the overall outcome of my project, I made a
psychological point of view horror short film, trailer, teaser and
accompanying merchandise to promote my film. The film is about a girl
who is home alone unaware that she is being stalked and followed round
her home, when the evil gets inside. The film starts by switching between
the pov of the person watching the girl and the girls pov. I did this to create
an emotional connection between the audience and the character of the
girl so that at the end of the film when the evil gets in the audience feels
scared for her because of the emotional connection the built with her. For
the trailer I cut together the best most suspenseful parts of the film,
changed some scenes and added a couple new ones to make it enticing to
the audience. I was really happy with the outcome of the merch I made
because I thought it fit with the aesthetic of the film really well and I think
the T-shirts would look good enough to actually wear.

7. Personal Response
This section will explore your thoughts and feelings about the
experience. This will help gain a understand of how your personal
feelings may have impacted the final outcome.

8. How did you feel about the project before
you started?
• I was really excited to make a horror movie even though I only had a
few ideas bouncing around my brain and not a whole plot till I started
my planning I was really excited for what I was going to make and
because I was going to be able to work in my favourite genera.

9. Did you collaborate on your project or engage
contributors, etc?
• I worked with an actress for my film. I asked Evan what she thought of
the experience working on the film and working with me, this is what
she said. “I acted in hopes film and felt the experience was really
thorough and professional. She answered any questions I had and
was extremely supportive when I was feeling anxious as well as
explaining clearly what she wanted me to do within the film. I found
her management style very easy going and non-complicated and an
overall amazing experience.”

10. How did you feel when the project was
completed and why?
• I was really happy when I finished the production of my final major
project especially when I finished editing the film. I loved how both
versions of my film turned out, I originally thought I would like the
quieter edit of the film more but after adding more sound effects to it
I feel the edit with more sounds is much better as it’s more effective
in conveying emotions in the audience. I was also very happy with the
final versions of all the merchandise I made for the film, I liked the
black poster and T-shirt the most out of all the merch I made for the
film because I thought they looked the most professional and
coherent.

11. Evaluating the project
In the previous sections, you have been commenting upon the project development. The
evaluation may include some similar information but it will also include critical comment.
An evaluation must include information about the good and bad points of the project and it
is important to be honest. Finally, you should make a judgment about the effectiveness of
the success of the project

12. What were the good points about the project/task and what did you
learn from them? [try and think of at least 3, more if possible]
• The mirror scene - I am really proud of the mirror scene, I think it looks very cool and has a big
visual impact. When I started this project I had never done an effect like this so I had to learn how
to the cut out clips once I learned this I was able to use the same skill for other effects and
transitions in the film.
• Colour grading – before this project I had done colour grading but not to the extent I had to do for
this as some scenes needed serious adjustments to the lighting. I watched YouTube videos to
learn how to colour grade properly and learn different ways to do it, once I found a technique I
liked I got the majority of the film colour graded pretty quickly.
• Foley – before this project I had only used a little bit of foley once last year. The vast majority of
sound/sound effects where made by foley I had to learn what things made what kind of sounds
and what would work best for the sound I was looking for. This also meant I had to work with
more sound which I don’t really do so I learnt a bit about getting rid of background noise and the
levels of the audio.
• Posters, T-shirts - I was really happy with how the posters came out as I hadn’t originally planned
to make posters so I had to take frames from the film and turn them into something good for
promotional material and merchandise. I loved how the T-shirts turned out because I have never
designed any clothing designs so I think the look really good for a first time and the design on the
back has meaning linking to the film so it’s not just plain text.

13. What challenges did you face and how did you
respond to them? Try and think of at least 3...
• Colour grading – the colour grading in my film was a nightmare to do in the final scene
because I filmed during sunset so the lighting in every shot is different. So I had to go
through the whole scene frame by frame and colour grade each shot which added a lot
of time onto my editing time.
• Weather – there was bad weather on the day of filming it was raining pretty heavily and
was very windy, we waited for the rain to die down a bit before we went outside to film
and tried to get all the outdoor shots done as fast as we could before the rain picked up
again.
• Reshoot – I didn’t film the last scene correctly on the original shoot day so I had to
reshoot that scene on another night which was kind of annoying but worth it because I
am really happy with how the scene turned out. This also meant I was able to reshoot a
couple other shots that I thought I could do better.
• Deleted work – in the last couple days of editing I accidentally deleted 12 hours of work
because I forgot to save my work. Luckily I was able to redo the work in only a couple
hours because I knew what I want to to and how to do it the second time round.

14. What were the negative points about the
experience, and what could you have done to
improve them?
• The worst part of this project has been all the theory work we had to
do to go with it. This is the most theory work I’ve had to do for any
project and I struggle to put the words I wanna say onto my screen so
I found this part of the project really hard. In the end I made some
blogs so I could just talk about the things I was thinking which helped
a lot.
• The other negative thing about this project was that my film wasn’t at
a higher enough grade on its own so I had to make extra material to
go with it. I ended up making a line of merch and a trailer I was really
happy with how they came out so I’m glad Scott pushed me to make
them as well.

15. How would you rate the final piece? [think along the lines of
poor, satisfactory, good or excellent...justify your rating]
• I would rate my final piece as very good. I have given it this rating
because I love how the film and the merch that I made turned out, I
feel like it all works really well together. I was able to make what I had
originally set out to make and more (the merch) so I am very happy
with my final pieces. Although I do wish I had developed the story line
of my film a bit more so the film was a bit longer if I had done this I
feel like I would rate my work as excellent.

16. What is your opinion of your final piece? What
elements do you think are successful and why?
• I really like how the final cut of my film, merch, and teasers turned
out. I think the final scene was successful because the visual impact it
had was really cool and it took a long time to get the colour grading to
look good so I’m quite proud of the colour grading in that scene. I
think the teaser I made was successful because it worked really well
to make people intrigued to see the rest of the film. Another success
was the foley sound that I made and used in the film, I feel like this
was a success because I haven’t really done much foley so I was
learning as I went and I was very proud of the results.

17. How well did your project apply the characteristics
and conventions of the medium you worked in?
• I think I did a really good job of applying the characteristics of horror
films to my own short film. It is rare to find a horror film that isn’t
primarily set in the dark, because of this I filmed at night so all the
outside scenes are really dark making the atmosphere more
threatening. I filmed my film at my house because in horror they like
to use settings that the character and audience would generally find
quite safe this high-tens the anxiety in the audience as a place of
comfort is no longer safe. I made the decision for my character to be
home alone this makes the character a lot more vulnerable and less
likely to be able to get help.

18. How did you design appeal to your target
audience?
• When I did audience research the results showed that my film has a
similar target audience as the movie American psycho and what
attracts fans to American psycho is the great plot of the film, so when
I was making my film I wanted to make sure it had a good narrative
like American psycho does. I wanted to make sure the audience
would be scared and feel a personal connection to the film so I found
out what scares my target audience the most when they’re home
alone so I could use that in the film to make them feel scared.

19. Analysis
In this section, you will focus on the details of the project and make
sense of what happened in the project. You should demonstrate how
your decisions informed the project development and the success of the
outcome.

20. In what ways was the overall project a
success?
• I was really happy with how my film and merch turned out overall but
there were parts of them that I thought were more successful than
others. In my film I thought there were 3 shots that were more
successful than the others, the moving shot at the beginning, the
upstairs window scene and the mirror scene. All three of these scenes
have the biggest visual impact on the film and I think they were the
most well shot scenes in the film especially the upstairs window shot
that is the shot that everyone who has watched the film says they
really like. Out of all the merch I think the black poster and black T-
shirt are the most successful because I like how they look the best
and they fit the aesthetic of the film best as they are both dark and
use the same colour scheme of the film.

21. What elements did not go well and why?
• Filming did not run smoothly at all, the first issue was the camera
died so I had to film on my phone the camera dying was my fault
because I left the battery in the camera after testing that it works so
when I needed it it was dead. The next thing that didn’t go to well
was filming the last scene with the mirror, this didn’t go well because
we had to reshoot the scene as we didn’t film it correctly the first
time round. The editing didn’t go as well as I had expected it to
because it took a lot longer than I had planned and It took a lot of
trial and error to get the effects/transitions I wanted.

22. How did your skills develop during the portfolio? [remember,
skills aren't just technical, remember things like organisation,
time management, communication, etc as well]
• I developed on a lot of my editing skills throughout this project, I
worked on my audio skills which I think can still get a lot better but
they have definitely improved after using foley to make a lot of the
sound. My colour grading skills improved a lot as I hadn’t done too
much colour grading before this so I learned a few different
techniques to colour grade and different ones work better for
different things.
• My communication skills improved during this project because when
we started filming on shoot day I hadn’t actually told my actress what
she was supposed to be doing but once I did tell her she had a really
good understanding of what she was supposed to do.

23. What meaning and messages did you want to
convey and were you successful?
• I wanted the audience to feel scared for the girl and to induce anxiety
and fear into the audience. I feel like I was really successful in making
the audience feel these emotions, I did this by creating a connection
between the character and audience using both the girls and the
stalkers pov so by the end scene the audiences is scared for the girl. I
also wanted the audience to feel like something similar to this could
be a threat to them so I set the film at home so they get stressed out
thinking what if.

24. What feedback did you get from your peers
and viewings?
Ellie Olivella-Bell
Good points – the shots were creative, the main poster is good I like
how you can only see the window.
Bad points – I feel like it didn’t have a plot, with the poster set it’s kinda
lazy.

25. What feedback did you get from your peers
and viewings?
Millie Smith
Feedback - really liked the different shots! Especially the ones from the
outside peering in, it really gives that eerie feeling of being watched, the first
person view point was nice as well as it helps to immerse you. The audio was
creepy and matched the atmosphere really well. For the film poster I liked
the reflection of the window and how it's completely obscured in darkness.
To improve I feel like it ended quite abruptly, the concept was really
intriguing I just think it could've been explored a bit more or clarified. To
improve the film poster maybe adding a different font for the tagline for
some variety.

26. What feedback did you get from your peers
and viewings?
Lizzy Banks
Feedback – Straight away the music and colour grading combined create an
uneasy feeling which is perfect for a horror film. The transition with the door
to the outside was executed really well along with the mirror work however I
did notice a slight change in the lighting inside the mirror itself although this
isn’t a major it’s just something to keep in mind. The black poster is my
favourite as you can tell it is a horror straight away just by looking at it. The
reflection used in the typography and imagery hint to what the film involves
which is always a nice touch, The t-shirt design matches the poster which I
love as you are keeping a consistent design, and again the black is my
favourite because the design stands out the best. Overall I enjoyed watching
your production just keep in mind the lighting problems for the future! Well
done : )

27. What knowledge have you gained that would help you in the
future to improve your project?
• I learnt how to correctly do the mirror effect where the reflection is
different to what is happening I real life so I will be able to use this in
future projects and the way you do it can be used for a lot of other
effects and transitions, so this is a very useful piece of knowledge to
have.
• I got a better understanding of how to do and use foley sound so if I
chose to use foley again I will be able to expand my knowledge of the
audio form.

28. Action Plan
This section will identify what you would do differently in the future and
identify ways you could develop.

29. What would you do differently in the future
and why?
• I would spend more time developing the plot of the film because
although I am happy with what I made I feel like I could have added
more to the story, helping the narrative make a bit more sense and
this would mean my film would be longer making it a bigger project. If
I could do things differently I would make sure that I film the mirror
scene at night time instead of sunset so the lighting stays the same in
all shots

30. How could you develop your skills for future projects? Please
identify the appropriate resources and courses. For example,
webpages, tutorials, books, short courses and qualifications.
• To improve and develop my skills for future projects I am planning on
doing the filmmaking course at Manchester metropolitan university in
September. In the course we will focus on all aspects of making a film
and then I get to focus on the aspect that I chose to specialise in.

31. What personal attributes could you develop to
ensure you are working at a professional level?
• I would definitely work on my time management skills during filming
days as me and my actresses would get distracted which meant we
didn’t finish filming till very late at night. I feel like I can be a lot more
organised so to work on this I will be sure to plan what I will do in the
day so I can utilise my time and get the most done that In the day. I
think I could work on my communication skills because the actress
didn’t know what she was supposed to be doing till the day of filming
so I feel like if I improve my communication skills the actors will know
what they’re doing before hand.