Kieran Beal evaluated his production process for a short film project. He researched existing short films for inspiration, analyzing their use of color, mise-en-scene, camera work, and audio. Two films he drew inspiration from were 'Emergence' and 'Conflict'. He also researched his target audience and production techniques. For planning, he created a storyboard, scouted locations, and prepared props, a shot list, health and safety documents, and contingency plans. For filming, he used the Lamb and Lion inn in York as his location. He reflected on areas for improvement like additional audio research, scheduling actors better, and including more details in paperwork.

1. Evaluation
Kieran Beal

2. Production Process Evaluation

3. Research I believe that I did extensive research for my project,
The first thing that I researched however was existing products, most notably other short films on YouTube. I would find a
short film that I thought I could draw inspiration from, watched it, analysed it and would draw a conclusion of whether or
not the film had given me any ideas that I would consider to be helpful in my production, the three main subjects that I
analysed the films for were their use of colour, mise en scene, camera work and audio. One of the main films that I drew
inspiration from was 'Emergence', this film used a lot of dull/dark colours and quick shots of the camera to tell an intense,
quick but effective story about a young man trying to escape a physical embodiment of large business and consumerism
that has taken over our lives in the modern world, but with an ultimate message that no matter how hard we try, we always
get dragged back into that net. I found the use of camera angles and continuous quick shots, partnered with it's dull colour
scheme incredibly effective at helping to set the mood for the story.
The next main short film that I drew inspiration from was 'Conflict' which relied heavily upon mise en scene to not only tell a
story but also to draw a comparison between 4 characters split into pairs, with two of them engaging each other in a
physical fight and the other two engaged in a game of chess, which can be seen as a method of passive warfare. The use of
mise en scene in the film was done incredibly well, and because my film lacked a script like this one did, I too wanted to be
able to use this mise en scene in order to tell a story.

4. Research
This however doesn't mean to say that I only studied these two films in greater detail, these ones were simply the ones
that I took the most inspiration from, the other two films I also researched for similar Inspiration were Alfred Hitchcock's
'Rear Window' and 'PAPA' (the 60 second short film, not to be mistaken by the Indian officially licensed production of the
same name) I did however research another product for the themes behind my film and that was the hit T.V show
'Sherlock' starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, this show always had a well built narrative and plot,
partnered with the constant psychological themes that take place nearly every episode, made it a product that I wanted to
research, and it's how I came to the conclusion that I wanted to include psychological themes in my film.

5. Research
The next area that I researched was my target audience, in order to identify that audience I conducted a survey inquiring
about my film concept, the feedback I then received would tell me whether or not my chosen concept was going to appeal
to my target audience. Fortunately the response was overwhelmingly positive in that regard, despite me then having the
average age of my target audience (18+) from the survey I still had to figure out whether or not my film was suitable to
younger people of the age group 12+, I had believed that it would be but to be sure I checked the website of the BBFC
(British Board of Film Classification) to make sure that this was the case, after reviewing the data I drew the conclusion
that my film would likely qualify as a PG. The final step was to research different production techniques that I could use
for my film, this would include editing techniques/effects that I learned from someone else (I used YouTube tutorials in
that area) that includes audio as well as visual aspects of the film.
Overall I think that the research for my film went well and included an extensive amount of detail, and I believe that the
production techniques research gave me inspiration that I used in my film later on, such as the split screen effect that I use
later towards the end of the film. That being said I believe an area that I could've improved upon in the research is audio
research. Audio is a crucial aspect of a film and despite this it is often neglected as the visual editing techniques are
favoured. This has also happened in my research as I only have about 2 or 3 slides researching aspects of audio production
for my film, and even they have only been lightly touched upon, as a result I believe I definitely could've included more
research into the audio aspects of film, and I think that it would've benefited from the additional knowledge.

6. Planning
The planning was arguably the most important aspect of the pre-production phase to the project and as a result was crucial
that I completed correctly and this is something that I believe I did. The planning consisted of many different aspects, one
of the first aspects was the storyboard, the backbone of the entire film was to first plan ahead and get everything in
chronological order so that upon the day of production I knew roughly what I was going to film and not trying to improvise
on the spot. The next step was to figure out the location, I already had a rough idea of where I wanted to shoot my film (in
York) but to start off the film I needed a specific building of social activity to film (I.e a café or pub) this is because the first
shots of my film required my protagonist be inside a building, and a building of social activity is in all likelihoods the easiest
location to get permission to film in.
Despite this being the case I still had to list multiple locations as there was a high chance that my original desired location
wasn't going to be available (it wasn't due to renovations) and indeed the backup locations I selected also weren't
available so I had to lookup multiple pubs and cafés near exhibition square, the Lamb and Lion inn was available, I believe
that I didn't take enough steps to make sure that this set back didn't occur and if I were to do it again I would instead make
a list of about 10 different locations that I should contact about filming in their establishment.
I did initially have actors and backup actors to use in my film, however non of them could make it on the day of filming so I
had to find actors at the last second, fortunately I was able to do this however it did mean that my costume had suffered in
quality. One of my original actors for instance had all the costume that I needed for the antagonist of my film, however as
they couldn't show up I didn't have the costume available to me so I was left to improvise with what I had at the time of
filming, this is why in the film the antagonist can be seen wearing a bright over jacket because this is simply what my actor
was wearing at the time, and I didn't have the time or money to acquire different costume for them. The root cause of this
issue was that I was filming on a day when non of my actors could make it due to fluctuations in their schedules, therefore
it would've been a wiser option to schedule my shooting on a day when multiple people could have been able to help me
so that on the day of production I'm not hastily trying to find an actor for my film at the last second, and as a consequence
my film wouldn't have suffered in the costume aspect either.

7. Planning
Props were a fairly simplistic part of the planning phase for my project, it only required 2 props in particular both of which I
already had, the only thing I had left to do was buy something that looked like pills that I could put into the white container.
(in this case I used Smints) The final steps to the pre-production plan is paperwork, specifically the shot list, (writing down
shot by shot the type of shot that it is, how long it goes on for and what will be in the shot) the health and safety list (a list
that proposes potential hazards, the risk of harm that hazard can cause to people on set and nearby and the pre-emptive
steps that can be taken to prevent these hazards occurring) and finally the contingency plan, a plan that states the potential
problems that can arise from production on the day and there after, the consequences that can arise and the steps that can
be taken to make sure that these problems don't occur.
I believe that I had mixed results with the paperwork aspect of my project, the shot list went well and I included a good
level of detail in the description for each shot, however for my health and safety sheet and my contingency plan I believe
could've included much more detail in these if I had spent more time on it, I say this because for both of these sheets I did
the minimum risks that can occur for each sheet, this was because I couldn't think of anymore hazards or problems that
could realistically occur, however I'm certain that if I spent more time on them I could most definitely think of some more
potential risks and problems that could have arisen. (The documents were however accurate and nothing outside the risks
identified occurred)

8. Location
The Lamb and Lion inn in York; considering that it was initially a location I had to find very quickly, served as an
incredibly useful location to shoot my film. This was because it was centrally located (exhibition square) and in
addition to that was very close to my original starting location, the layout of the pub itself was also quite small which
made it significantly easier to film in as it made the shots quicker. On the other hand due to the layout of the pub
being small some the areas were quite tight and this made it difficult to film some of the angles I needed, overall
however it served as a very useful and efficient location for my film.

9. contingency plan

10. Health and safety

11. Time Management
I don't believe that I did very well in the area of time management prior to production of my film, due to actors being
unable to show up close to the day of production, costume becoming unavailable and late bookings for kit, I became very
pressured for time to be able to get everything sorted on the day of filming, and I believe with more preparation and taking
additional pre-emptive measures I could've avoided the time pressure that I was forced to deal with before production.
After the initial filming stage however I was able to manage my time much better, this is because I didn't have to make my
schedule work around a multitude of other schedules and as a result I was able to work in my own time and when I needed
to and therefore I was able to complete all of my work over a longer period of time instead of having to complete most of it
over a few days.
I think the main issue with a production schedule for me is that I don't look back on my work enough for it to be of much
use to me, so therefore I think the best way to stick to any schedules and plans that I made ahead of time would either to
be to screenshot it and transfer it to my phone or take a photo of it so that I then have with me at all times to remind of
the pace I should be working at and at what times I should have certain things done, in addition I could have also set
reminders during the day on my phone reminding me to check my plans and schedules as I tend to forget to do so.

12. Technical Qualities
I believe the best existing product to compare my film to for technical qualities would be one of the films that I originally
used for inspiration, case in point the short film 'Emergence', I have mentioned this film several times throughout my
project and analysed it extensively in my research, and I use it for comparison here because my film bears several
similarities to it, most notably the film style and the colour scheme. For instance during my action scenes much like
Emergence I make use of the shaky handheld cam effect in certain parts of my film(but they do use this technique a lot
more and I expand on this later), I also use varying degrees of high and low angle camera shots, as well as using different
perspectives and I have done this to create a sense of variation in my scenes and I get the impression this is why they did
the same thing in Emergence so that no shot looks the same.
A major difference in my film compared to Emergence however is that I make much greater use of transition effects
between my two shots, whereas Emergence relies on quick cutting between their shots, but because most of it is
comprised of the action scene it works, and while I have also used these jump cut shots, I have also made use of digital
effects to make the transitions smoother, both in my shots during the action sequence and outside of it. This sometimes
had mixed results as some of the transitions didn't turn out as well as I had initially hoped they would, with obvious gaps
appearing in the transitions or just not acting as fast as I would've liked, some of the transitions that I also had to put in out
of necessity also sometimes appear jarring and random, on the other hand however some of the transitions between the
shots do make edits a lot more seamless and smoother, overall while I do believe that my film has benefited from the use
of transitions I do wish that I didn't have to use them as often.

13. Technical qualities(screenshots)
All of these screenshots are meant to compare my film to Emergence, in this case specifically to compare their use of close
up and shaky cam to my own, but also to display the kind of inspiration I gained from this film.

14. Technical qualities
Another difference between my film and Emergence is the audio, because while both films do use fast paced music during
our action sequences, my film uses a lot more variation. From start to finish Emergence uses action orientated music and
this is because the majority of that film does take place within it's action sequences with the only two exceptions being
right at the beginning and end. My film spends more time on the build up to my action sequence and as a result requires
the use of more suspenseful music, this however can likely be explained because my film could be longer than 60 seconds,
whereas Emergence was entered into a 60 second film contest and it is possible if the creators of the film could've made it
longer and spent more time on the build up they would've done, so given how little time they had it was important the
build up in their film was quicker which leads me onto my next point that my film does spend a lot more time on the
suspense throughout the duration of it, Emergence preferred to spend more of it's time on the action orientated part of the
film but overall that is simply down to the stylistic choice.
However that stylistic choice does change some of the technical qualities of the film, for instance the camera techniques,
because Emergence heavily relies on it's action sequence they have used far more shaky handheld cam shots and quick and
grouped together shots in order to build their scene however because my film relies on it's suspense as much as it does it's
action, I have also been able to use a collection of more prolonged medium and wide angle shots tripod mounted and I
believe that being able to use these different kinds of shots is what sets my suspenseful scene apart from my action
sequence.

15. Technical qualities (screenshots)
Being able to film this shot outside and edit in a second character was an incredibly difficult task due to the shaky camera
placement and the alteration in the scene, by this I mean looking in the background of this scene a bird can be seen
appearing in frame then just disappearing, this is because it appeared in one of the shots I filmed but not the other so
when I lapped one clip over the other it caused the bird to disappear, if I were to go back and shoot this scene again it
would have been an easy fix of just shooting the scene again, thankfully this mistake isn't too noticeable in this scene
because the cloning effect tends to take away attention from the background, I Had to use the lasso tool to gradually
move the background around the cloned figure as the scene went on to avoid the entire background from falling out of
line with the characters.

16. Aesthetic QualitiesMy film makes use of the colour gradient to assist in the storytelling, going from very bright and vibrant to colours to
having a much duller and darker atmosphere almost instantaneously at the start of my film, in this case I couldn't find
another product in my research that also uses this effect the same way that I have used it, however I did find couple of
films that used the same colour grading technique that I have used in order to set the mood for the entire film as whole.
The most notable short film that found that does this is 'PAPA', (the 60 second short film), and both my film and that film
have used this colour grading technique to make the atmosphere far duller and more suspenseful than it originally would
be. I believe that this technique was a very useful one for changing the mood of my film quite quickly but it was also a
useful tool to represent the character not being on the effect of the drugs anymore and I believe that it was a creative
choice that greatly assisted in the final aesthetics of my film as a whole.
This doesn't mean to say that I believe the effect was perfect, for instance I think that the way the colour of the scene
changed was too quick (at the start of the film) and I think realistically the effect of any drug would never wear off that
quickly and if I was to improve upon this I would want my scene to reflect that, the way I would go about doing this is to
shoot the same scene a few times over but keep the footage, this way I could use the mask and keyframe system to make
certain objects in the scene change colour gradually instead of the entire scene as a whole, with that effect in place I
believe it would be more reminiscent of a drug slowly wearing off a character. I would also have likely changed the
brightness of the film, I say this because while the scenes themselves do appear to be bland in colour, they're still not dark,
this is a problem that can somewhat be solved through editing but not to the end that I wanted, in all likelihoods the only
way to do this would be to film at a different time of day instead of mid-afternoon, either on a cloudy day or closer to night
time would have created the darker feel that I wanted to get from the film, whereas right now I believe the brightness
given off by the sun somewhat ruins the mood that my film is supposed to set.

17. Aesthetic qualities
Watching through my film I noticed on a couple of occasions that there were people walking by in my shot and they
react to my actors in the scene, (they were not initially part of the film) however I have decided to change a break in
the continuity of the film to be a part of it. In the world that my film is set in the majority of the population uses 'Bliss'
and as a result to them seeing anyone on the street freaking out over something they themselves can't see, it is
natural they would react to that and try to avoid them.

18. Aesthetic qualities(screenshots)
Putting these two screenshots
make it very easy to compare the
use of the colour gradient tool, the
overall result of is what I wanted
with the world appearing far
darker than it is at the beginning of
the film, figuratively speaking that
is, as is clear from the bottom
screenshot while the colours have
been drained it's not very dark,
and regrettably there isn't an easy
way to fix this in editing.
On the affect of the drugs
When the drugs wear off

19. Audience Appeal
The conclusion that I drew from my survey is that my audience is aged 18-22 and prefers action/thrillers with psychological
themes behind them and as a result I believe that I have appealed to them in certain ways. The first and most notable way
that I have appealed to my target audience is by including psychological themes in my film, the use of psychoactive drugs
altering the mind and affecting the distressed mind of a protagonist suffering with depression, and having all their anxieties
manifest themselves into a physical form is a dark psychological thriller which in turn appeals to my target audience further,
as the large majority of them have stated that they prefer films with darker themes as well. The ending to my film can be
argued that it did appeal to my target audience however it can also be argued that it didn't do this well enough.
This is down to the fact that my film has an ambiguous ending so that the audience can take what they will from it however
it also heavily implies a dark ending, the problem with this is that the ending is still ambiguous, and when I questioned my
audience on my survey whether or not endings with ambiguity appealed them, the majority of them did agree that there
should be a certain level of ambiguity, however there was also a significant sum of people that disagreed and said that they
prefer a film with closure, in the end though given the statistics I believe that my film will appeal to the majority of my
audience in that regard.
While my film does rely significantly on the suspense at the start of it, I believe my film does appeal to most of my audience
as far the main genre topic is concerned, due to them preferring films with action sequences in them, but not constant
action all the way through, I think my film does display that concept in a balance, with the build up at the beginning, the
action sequence half way through the film and then a further scene of suspense closer to the end.
However if was requested at any point in time to make an ending where there is less ambiguity required, I had also created
two alternate endings that confirms how the film ends. The first ending I had created was the ending where it actually
shows the character taking the pills and colour returning to the scene, implying that this is the dark ending to my film
where my character succumbs to the drugs. The second ending I had that provided more closure was the ending where
they were able to resist taking the drugs, and instead of being attacked by the figures walking down the alley, when he
opens his eyes they have disappeared, confirming to the audience that these figures were indeed figures of the
protagonists imagination, amplified by their anxieties and being fueled by the withdrawal symptoms of the drug.

20. Peer
Feedback

21. Feedback 1
• What did you like about the product?
– I like the smooth transitions and how the sound effects blend with one another to make
a beautiful cacophony of noise
• What improvements could have been made
to the product?
– I cannot think of any improvements

22. Feedback 2
• What did you like about the product?
– The story on the film is clear and works well, it's shown well and described well with the
introduction, and is cleared up well with the ending.
– The ending was good as it left you on some sort of cliff-hanger, as you aren't sure what
happens after the pill is taken.
• What improvements could have been made
to the product?
– Wasn't clear what other people or people who were on the drug felt like about it and
what the big deal was around it.

23. Feedback 3
• What did you like about the product?
• I liked the use of the effects and transitions. The way that two shots were put on the same frames
were used well and the blur transitions were effective. I also liked how the saturation changes
when the effects of the drug wear off. It really helped me understand what was going on in the
short film. I liked the introductory text as that asset also helped me to understand the plot of the
film.
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
• Although I liked the transitions, some of the transitions were overused. Some of the blur transitions
were used during the dramatic running scene which I feel was not needed. I feel like there could
have been more attention to the audio, some of the transitions out of the audio sounded
unfinished and more sounds could have been used such as different dramatic music.

24. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer feedback?
• I do agree that some of the blur transitions in my action sequences were not needed and could've been
taken out if it was possible, I also agree that some of my audio was repetitive and my film would've
benefited from more variation in my soundtracks.
• What do you disagree with from your peer feedback?
• I don't agree with the lack of conveyance of the plot to the audience as I believe I did a good job of
explaining the situation at the start of my film, I also think I clearly expressed what the effects of the drug
was and the withdrawal effects of it. However with more time and a longer film I could give more context
and give greater strength to my narrative.

25. Peer Feedback Summary
Thanks to my peer feedback there are a few things that I would change about my film, the first thing being the transition
effects, I would remove any transitional effects in my film that overall don't serve any real purpose, a knock on effect to
this would be to make sure that all my footage next time is correct and there won't be any gaps in it that I need to fill in
with effects, I would do this because it creates a better sense of continuity and keeps the suspense in my film,
particularly during scenes where the suspense is being built up.
I would also pay more attention to the audio aspect of my film, especially during my action sequence where the same
soundtrack carries on for a while, a variation in my audio would increase the overall feel and suspense of my film
because using the same soundtracks gets repetitive.

26. Final conclusion
Overall I think that this project has gone quite well, despite the fact that there were a number of problems and delays
throughout I believe that I still finished everything and to a standard that I am confident with. I believe that I struggled
most with the aspects of the project before the production phase, I think this was the case because I was anxious to get
the production phase right, I was unsure as to whether or not the planning and research I had done to that point would
translate well into my own film, as well as not being sure whether or not I was going to able to film it on time. The result
of this was multiple mistakes appearing in my pre-production work, which I have now gone over and fixed to the best of
my abilities, however during the post-production phase of my work I believe I did much better with the written aspect,
this doesn't mean to say it was flawless however I am confident that my work post-production improved substantially
compared to my pre-production work.
The production itself I believe had gone very well, getting all of the footage I needed in one day and using a variety of
camera angles and editing techniques, however I do think I should've done second takes of some of the shots because a
few of the ones that I have used in my film either weren't up to a standard that I would've liked to have seem them in, or
were just missing parts of them altogether. During the editing phase of the production there were only a few problems
that I experienced and that was when putting together some of the more advanced editing techniques, such as the zoom
transition at the start of the film and the cloning towards the end of the film, I was also unsure as to how I should create a
varying and intense soundtrack with the such a limited choice of audio, these are problems however that I believe I have
mostly solved, it is still evident though where in my production these problems cropped up.
For the project as a whole though I believe I have done well and while I still think there are areas I could've improved
upon further, all aspects of the project have finally been completed to a standard that I find acceptable to submit as my
FMP and to show publicly.